📌 Last week, I wrote about Cloud Rent in Action – how layers of middlemen drive up the cost of running a simple SaaS stack. Netlify's new pricing update feels like the same story, playing out live.
What Changed at Netlify
Netlify just rolled out a credit-based pricing model.
- New accounts are now required to buy credits.
- Every deploy, function, or gigabyte of bandwidth consumes those credits.
- When the credits run out, your projects pause until you top up.
- Legacy users can stay on old plans for now, but the future is clear: credits are the new normal.
On paper, this looks like a simplification. In reality, it's the next stage of cloud rent.
Why Netlify Had to Change
For years, companies like Netlify grew fast thanks to venture capital money. Investors subsidized growth: cheap plans, generous free tiers, and aggressive marketing. The mission was simple – capture the market at any cost.
That was the market expansion phase.
VCs were happy to foot the bill as long as user numbers climbed.
Now we're in the market exploration (or sustainability) phase. Investors want returns. And that means:
- Free tiers shrink
- Simple flat plans get replaced with credit systems
- Costs shift from VC wallets to developer wallets
It's not that Netlify suddenly became greedy – it's that the VC playbook always ends this way. Rent has to be collected. And developers end up paying it.
The Problem With Credit Pricing
Credits sound neat – one bucket, one metric. But for most developers, they create more problems than they solve:
- Mental overhead – you're forced to budget not just money, but deploys and requests.
- Unpredictable bills – a sudden spike in traffic can drain credits overnight.
- Complexity creep – hosting a static site shouldn't require a calculator.
This is exactly the dynamic I wrote about in my Cloud Rent post: when platforms optimize for investor returns instead of developer trust, pricing drifts away from simplicity and fairness.
Why Hostim.dev Is Different
I'm building Hostim.dev with a completely different philosophy:
Bootstrapped, not VC-funded. No investors. No pressure to flip pricing later. No "growth at all costs" phase.
Lean team. Right now it's just me – the founder – building and running the platform. That means lower overhead and no bloated payroll to pass on to you.
Fair pricing from the beginning. Plans are simple, predictable, and surge-safe. No credits, no hidden meters, no surprise bills.
Built for developers, not investors. The focus is on usability and transparency. You don't need to rewire your workflow to fit a platform's billing quirks.
Cloud Rent vs. Developer Trust
So if last week's post was the theory, this week is the proof:
Cloud rent always comes due. Netlify's credits are just the latest example.
At Hostim.dev, I'm building the opposite:
- Flat, predictable plans
- No surprise charges
- Databases, volumes, and apps as first-class citizens
- A platform you can trust, built for developers, not for VCs
💬 Curious to hear your thoughts:
Do you prefer credit-based pricing models (like Netlify's) or flat, predictable plans?
👉 You can check out Hostim.dev if you're interested – your first project is free for 5 days, no credit card required.
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