Cloudron Forum

Not familiar with Crystal, but one of the strengths of RabbitMQ is that is built with Erlang, a battle-tested, high-performance, fault-tolerant platform.

@humptydumpty This is a big problem. I was shocked to see that as of 2026, only 4 out of 50 states had passed the "right to repair". But if Chinese AI companies can used "distillation" to create new AI models, then perhaps the same approach could be used to create a digital twin of a tractor and then replace proprietary software with open source software.

@necrevistonnezr You raise some excellent points. I think it's also interesting how Apple has just released the Neo, a $599 ($499 for education market) laptop that many here in the U.S. are predicting will really challenge Microsoft's WIN 11. The fact that Apple has a tight control on its supply chain (something you already mentioned) and able to deliver product at scale might be the deciding factor (ignoring the OSX vs. WIN debate). Students can not wait for the computer industry to sort out this mess. They reach various stages and need a computer to continue their education. And if Apple has the product, they win by default.

And your comment about farm tractors is really interesting. Perhaps this is an untapped Cloudron server market. @girish Perhaps we should consider packaging farming-related applications:)

Thought I would share an update from U.S. based resellers. The supply environment is not good. Mfr prices on components and services are rising. It is unknown when backlogs will be satisfied. Bottom line: it will be chaotic.

@necrevistonnezr I have a friend who worked in the semiconductor industry in the U.S. This has been a several decade process of exiting chip manufacturing, especially "commodity" chips like memory. Memory chip manufacturers experienced boom/bust cycles tied to chasing demand, building factories, only to find them empty after demand stabilized. In my opinion, their assessment today to jack up prices and build nothing is the result of their past experiences.

Unfortunately through intense regulation (many would argue appropriate regulation), other countries have taken a more laissez faire attitude about making semiconductors and have reaped the economic benefit. But many of the chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing are endocrine disruptors, highly toxic in other ways and generally difficult to protect production workers.

But that (and enormous capital costs) may explain why America and Europe were less interested in producing chips. Again, "short-term, earnings this year above all else, share buyback" mentality that seems to prevail in Western economies justifies a "buy" instead of "make" strategy.

@necrevistonnezr But do you know someone in HR that can get us all a job when AI replaces us:) Janitor, cafeteria cook. There are many talents hidden here.

Seriously, I am shocked that a company of your size and stature is being treated so poorly by vendors. If this is what your company is experiencing, then we all are in big trouble. Usually, it's the little people that get screwed. But when this is happening to the big and powerful too, it is beyond concerning.

@p44 I agree with your logic. The equipment in house is bought and paid for and existing customers shouldn't have an increase, except...
@necrevistonnezr has explained that the cost of servers from his vantage point has increased 500%. That would mean that NEW customers would have to pay almost 5 times the amount for a new VPS. They just wouldn't, causing Hetzner's business to be capped at their current revenue base.

I suspect that the 30+% increase for everyone is a way to spread the huge cost increase for new capacity over a wider base. I don't like it, it's unfair to those of us who either bought ahead of growing needs or those who needs are unchanged.

It should be interesting to see if any other VPS providers (e.g. Netcup, SSDNodes) decide to keep pricing the same for existing customers and keep their promises even under unforeseen market conditions. It would definitely earn loyalty from their customer base.

@necrevistonnezr Incredible numbers you mentioned. How can businesses afford to pay 200-500% more on these hardware items? As a result, do you expect sales of new servers, PCs, laptops to fall dramatically? Resale margins are very small. So costs must be passed along to buyers.

@lanhild Thank you. I will explore the documentation.

@lanhild Got it. Is a dockerized app creating its own connected docker containers a typical pattern? Lastly, is Authentik without the ability to use outposts still useful, or is it crippled without them?

@lanhild Didn't see the comment you were referring to. Can you explain why outposts would not work if Authentik were packaged as a Cloudron app? Why would it be any different from any other Docker app or Authentik hosted on an independent server running Docker?

@3246 One idea is to separate the apps into high, medium, low resources (especially considering @luckow cooking channel). Launch your service with attractive prices using just the "low" apps, where you won't get burned and need to jack up the prices, something your target audience will likely hate.

Another thought is I personally find the list of Cloudron apps mind-boggling at times. I would also consider offering packages which might include bundles of apps that match business needs (e.g. CRM + Email + Bitwarden). You increase the transaction size, reduce the decision fatigue, and if you price it as Buy 3, Get 1 Free, the economies will surely drive some business. Solopreneur, freelancer, etc. Think about what they need and bundle a solution!

@3246 Very interesting concept. One caution: SoGo £5.99/mo. EAS consumes a ton of resources. Are prices per user/email account or an unlimited number of users. Also need to consider storage per user as a 25GB mailbox @ £.02/GB could begin to be meaningful to your profit margins.

@robi This looks Crazy Good... definitely something we should check out. Thanks for posting this.

@james What does the team think about making Authentik an official Cloudron-supported app? @stalecontext has started the process. I think Authentik would serve a niche between Cloudron OIDC (simple) and Keycloak (Enterprise/complex).

If someone wanted to run "auth-as-a-service", Authentik would be perfect for that use case. Having it official at Cloudron would make it less risky to implement.

So one approach I am using is to have 2 email servers on separate physical servers: current, archive. Archive becomes a mirror of current with respect to users. So user1@domain.com, user2@domain.com has user1@archivedomain.com, user2@archivedomain.com. If I am user1, I can have both accounts on all my devices (TBird, iOS, etc.). I then use this tool (https://imapsync.lamiral.info) to migrate current emails (but older) to archive. The tool is ugly, but works incredibly well. And since I only update the archive email server once or twice per year, I can backup less frequently since a backup from today has the same content as one generated 6 months ago. One of the other benefits is that I use SoGo EAS for current. The smaller the mailbox size the better it behaves.

Security is not much stronger other than having a smaller blast radius and the need to penetrate 2 accounts instead of 1. If IMAP and POP3 could be disabled on the archive mail server and 2FA TOTP, passwordless, etc. be enabled to access webmail, that would be a better archive option.

@timconsidine Personally want to thank you for pushing CCAI and moving the development to the point where the Cloudron Team is taking this the next part of journey. In my mind, this makes Cloudron THE platform for hosting custom apps.

@timconsidine Smart. Typical for you:)

@nebulon Thank you for setting me straight. I always think "go to the cloud" and just the reverse is needed in this case.

@timconsidine I think "containerizing" is a great and much safer approach. I would just not use real accounts: email, social, etc. The fact that you are doing this might encourage me to create some test accounts and try it:) @robi Excellent point! "Mirror, mirror on the wall... whose the smartest one of all:)"