Since 2017, we ended up spending almost $22m on cloud. Peaking at $3.7m in 2021. Now that we're all out, we'll spend a little over a million on everything we own ourselves. Same team size. Better performance. Saving $2m+ per year! 🎉

Oct 21, 2025 · 9:51 PM UTC

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Replying to @dhh
now, build your own DIY storage cluster and save even more! :D
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We did! That's basically all the cost in 2024/2025: Waiting for our S3 4-year commit to expire. This summer we left S3 for our own Pure Storage setup. world.hey.com/dhh/it-s-five-…

It's five grand a day to miss our S3 exit

We're spending just shy of $1.5 million/year on AWS S3 at the moment to host files for Basecamp, HEY, and everything else. The only way we were able to get the pricing that low was by signing a...

world.hey.com
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Replying to @dhh
I remember you announcing that you would be leaving the cloud, and I can’t believe it was 3 years ago. Time flies!
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We left with everything except the file storage back in 2023. That was stuck in the 4-year commit that just expired this summer. world.hey.com/dhh/we-have-le…

We have left the cloud

Since it took us years to get into the cloud in the first place, I originally imagined it would take us years to get out as well. But all that work to containerize our applications and prepare them...

world.hey.com
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Replying to @dhh
Can you share how you do it and what you use. I mean not the details, but are you using your own servers in redundant datacenters? How are they connected? Where do you store the backups? Would be interested in how you do it, if you can and are willing to share this.
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We've shared a ton on this move. A bunch of the articles are linked from here: basecamp.com/cloud-exit

Leaving the Cloud — Cloud Computing Isn’t For Everyone

We’ve run extensively in both Amazon’s cloud and Google’s cloud, but the savings never materialized. So we’ve left.

basecamp.com
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Replying to @dhh
What do you use to orchestrate VPS instances, on demand storage and allocating serverless compute? OpenStack looks doable but seems complicated to rollout and maintain
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We don't do any of that. We use KVM to slice up big servers, then Kamal to deploy to them. kamal-deploy.org

Deploy web apps anywhere

From bare metal to cloud VMs using Docker, deploy web apps anywhere with zero downtime.

kamal-deploy.org
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Replying to @dhh
Is it ok to ask, what app are you running with so much revenue to justify these hosting costs? Your apps have such a huge usage and so many paying customers? This is not AI infrastructure, just storage and some CPUs? I tried to Google what you sell but couldn’t figure out..
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We run Basecamp and HEY. And yes, we've been very profitable since day one. basecamp.com

Project management software, online collaboration

Trusted by millions, Basecamp puts everything you need to get work done in one place. It’s the calm, organized way to manage projects, work with clients, and communicate company-wide.

basecamp.com
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Replying to @dhh
What solution do you use to host the hardware? I remember listening to your great talk with Lex that you don’t host the hardware itself on your own premises, if I’m not mistaken?
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We have a few cabinets in three different data centers. All through Summit. summithq.com/

Summit | Cloud, Data Center, and IT Services

Get managed data center and application hosting services from Summit — your trusted partner for business-critical workloads.

summithq.com
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Replying to @dhh
How do I handle regional distribution your selfs
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We use DCs in the mid-west, US east, and Europe. Distributing between these regions is similar to what it was in the cloud. You need geo load balancing, database replication, etc.
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Replying to @dhh
What are you doing with the extra money saved?
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Keep it!
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Replying to @dhh
Intriguing - does your reduced new cost include any additional employee capital/costs for managing the servers yourselves?
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We didn't need any additional employees. Same team. world.hey.com/dhh/the-big-cl…

The Big Cloud Exit FAQ

Just over a year ago, we announced our intention to leave the cloud. We then shared our complete $3.2 million cloud budget for 2022, and the fact that we were going to build our own tooling rather...

world.hey.com
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Replying to @dhh
What did you replace S3 with? And how do you do CDN? I’m sure you mentioned it but that’s been a hold up for me making the switch to Kamal.
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We run our own Pure Storage that has S3 compatible API. Then we use Cloudflare for CDN.
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Replying to @dhh
What’s the main services that you still rely on AWS?
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Today? Zero. But up until this summer, we were still stuck with a 4-year commit to S3.
DHH
 @dhh
Oct 20
I swear we didn't plan this, but just today, we finally NUKED our entire AWS account at the 37signals company meetup! This followed moving out compute+dbs in 2023, then S3 this summer, and now finally the entire account is GONE 🎉
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Replying to @dhh
Excellent. I even bet your platform or infrastructure team is probably the same size or less. Also, how was your up time looking in comparison? I’m assuming better.
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Same team. Here's our uptime.
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Replying to @dhh
You rock man. Just rewatched your lex video yesterday and posted about it. Ironically AWS went down the day before. You called it!
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Replying to @dhh
If you didn't exit your S3 commitment, what would the price increase to?
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Replying to @dhh
These totals are wild 😳
Replying to @dhh
Does your hardware provide the same level of security as Nitro? Besides that I’ve been the one to personal go reboot the servers in the middle of the night. And you have to manage people maintaining secure systems in multiple regions. I’d rather focus on my application code. But if you want to manage all that might save some money. No SCPs. No global policy infrastructure. No secrets manager, KMS, GuardDuty. Undoubtably less secure. Having been there done that, no thanks. docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepap…
Replying to @dhh
better performance and better maintainability plus you don’t have to worry about cloud providers randomly deprecating services betting on your team is the way
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