As developers, we often build our workflows around tools that make our lives easier.
We use Git for version control, hosted platforms for repositories, and managed services to deploy our websites. When everything works, we rarely think about what would happen if one part of that setup suddenly became unavailable.
Recently, I had a reason to think about exactly that.
GitHub had been my home for repositories and my personal website. I used GitHub Pages because it made publishing a website simple, especially for someone building personal projects without a dedicated hosting budget.
Then I encountered a problem.
My account was still accessible, but I could no longer publish my website as expected. I did not know the exact cause, and I did not want to speculate about what had triggered it.
What I did know was that my existing workflow was no longer working for me.
The timing was unfortunate, too. I had recently connected a custom domain to my personal website. I was excited about that small milestone, and suddenly I had to spend time figuring out an alternative.
So, I decided to make a change.
My first step was migrating my repositories to Codeberg.
The goal was simple: keep my source code accessible and continue developing my projects in a different environment.
Repository migration is a useful reminder that Git and hosting platforms are not the same thing. Git provides the underlying version-control functionality, while platforms add collaboration tools, interfaces, and integrations around it.
When migrating, it is worth checking your commit history, branches, tags, remotes, and any platform-specific features your projects depend on.
I also believe that keeping independent backups is important. Moving to a new platform should not be the only recovery strategy for valuable code.
- A Home Server for Deployment
For my personal website, I decided to try self-hosting through my home server.
This is where things become more interesting.
Instead of treating hosting as something that simply happens after a Git push, I need to understand the environment running my website.
That includes DNS, network connectivity, HTTPS, deployment configuration, backups, and security updates.
There are also practical limitations. A home server may become unavailable when the internet connection drops, the electricity goes out, or the hardware fails.
Self-hosting is not a magical solution to every hosting problem. It exchanges some managed-service convenience for more control and more responsibility.
For me, that trade-off is part of the learning experience.
- What I Learned About Platform Dependency
I still appreciate GitHub. It helped me learn, store code, and publish projects with very little initial infrastructure work.
My migration is not an argument that everyone should leave GitHub.
Instead, it made me reconsider how much of my workflow depended on a single service.
Could I recover my repositories if I needed to move? Did I have backups? Did I understand how my website was deployed? Could I troubleshoot the infrastructure if something went wrong?
These questions are useful even when your current setup is working perfectly.
You do not have to self-host everything to become a better developer. Sometimes, understanding your dependencies and maintaining a recovery plan is enough.
The Story Behind the Migration
This post covers the technical lessons I am taking away from the experience. The full story is more personal: it explains my disappointment, why the timing mattered, and why I chose to move forward without turning that disappointment into hatred.
You can read it here:
Moving On, Not Out of Hate: My Journey from GitHub to Codeberg
For now, I am learning to manage a different setup, experiment with my home server, and understand more of the systems supporting my work.
I do not know whether this new arrangement will always be the right choice. But I know that the experience is teaching me something valuable: convenience is useful, and understanding how things work is useful, too.
Have you ever migrated away from a developer platform because your needs changed? I would love to hear what you learned from the experience.
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