Self-hosted. Zero SaaS fees.

Everything runs on your hardware. The only cost is the hardware itself.

Single Node
~$80one-time
One Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB) with SD card. Entry point for experimentation.
  • 1 edge node (Pi 5)
  • Ollama local inference
  • Cloudflare tunnel (free tier)
  • WireGuard VPN
  • Self-healing watchdogs
  • AI acceleration (Hailo-8)
View Setup Guide
Full Cluster
~$650one-time
5 Pi 5 nodes + 2 Hailo-8 accelerators. Our actual production setup.
  • 5 edge nodes (Pi 5 cluster)
  • 52 TOPS AI compute (2x Hailo-8)
  • 1TB NVMe + SD storage
  • WireGuard mesh + RoadNet WiFi
  • 48+ custom domains via tunnels
  • Docker Swarm orchestration
See Hardware Fleet
Monthly Costs
$136/month
Electricity, 2 DigitalOcean droplets, domains. No SaaS subscriptions.
  • 5 Pis @ ~$3/mo power = $15
  • 2 droplets = $18/mo
  • Domains (48+) = ~$80/mo amortized
  • Cloudflare = $0 (free tier)
  • SaaS equivalent: $607+/mo
  • You save: $471+/mo
See Cost Breakdown

Frequently asked questions

Why is this free? −
BlackRoad OS is fully self-hosted on hardware you own. There's no SaaS fee because there's no SaaS. You run everything — the code, the infrastructure, the AI models. The only ongoing costs are electricity and optional cloud VPS.
What hardware do I need? +
Minimum: one Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB+) with a 32GB microSD card. Recommended: Pi 5 (8GB) with a Hailo-8 accelerator for AI inference. Our full fleet uses 5 Pi 5 boards with 2 Hailo-8 units (52 TOPS total).
What does $607/mo in SaaS replace? +
n8n ($50), Temporal ($200), Airbyte ($300), Datadog ($20), Vercel Pro ($20), GitHub Team ($17). All replaced by self-hosted alternatives: Gitea, Docker Swarm, cron automation, and Cloudflare free tier.
Can I start with one node and scale up? +
Yes. Start with a single Pi, install BlackRoad OS, and add nodes to the WireGuard mesh as you grow. Each new node auto-joins the cluster and gets a RoadNet subnet.
Home Portal Search Chat Auth Pay Images Brand Status GitHub