Can I Host WooCommerce for free using my PC

[Fikri]

Hi, I'm new here and I'm a former full time WooCommerce developer. I develop for e-commerce retailers as well as handling marketplace operations

I'm considering to start my own, but I want to start small and don't allocate much budget for domain and hosting.

I have read that you don't actually have to invest in domain and hosting budget to run a WooCommerce website

So I started a discussion (to ask) how to host the website on my own PC since I have a laptop that is online almost all the time for working

Any solution or reference is welcome. Thank you in advance!

[edited by: not2easy at 2:25 pm (utc) on Sep 29, 2020]
[edit reason] please see ToS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[htmlbasictutor]

Are you talking about developing on your own computer? or enabling customers to access your developments on your own computer?

If the later, a domain name and hosting is not that expensive and would give you more credibility than trying to host yourself without a proper setup.

[Fikri]

I know a domain name and hosting can be affordable, been doing that for more than a decade. I just got it from a discussion in a Q&A social media website that nooo you can just host it for free in your own PC. Then I asked how then he referred me to this forum

I just want to try it out of curiousity and maybe I can use it for an MVP before I can get a stable sales to get to more serious level by investing in domain name and hosting

[lammert]

If you think that a domain name and hosting is an "investment", redo your math.

One month domain and hosting costs less than the electricity to keep your PC running 24/7 a month

In many countries one month of a fixed IP address on a home internet connection will cost you more than domain and hosting costs for a month

One month domain and hosting costs less than you earn working one hour in a restaurant

Opening up your PC from the outside for hosting increases the chances of hacking your PC tremendously. Just try to imagine what you store on your PC and what it will cost you directly and indirectly if others gain access to it.

[Fikri]

I get your points. Thank you! 😁

[lammert]

To add to this, about 15 years ago the story was different. When I first hosted my site on my own domain at a shared hosting company, I paid around $60 per month. At that time hosting at a home location was a serious alternative and worth the effort to investigate. That $60 per month didn't allow me for example to run PHP scripts because it took too much computer power. For that "privilege", I had to upgrade to their advanced hosting package. And hacking at the level we know it now, simply didn't exist yet.

You may therefore find old threads on the board here which discuss the technical challenges to get a home-based server to work. Some members here may still host from home because they had the infrastructure set up many years ago, are used to it, and it serves their purpose. But for new projects, I would definitely go the external hosting route.

[Fikri]

Hi, I just got a response from the discussion in the Q&A social media website: "Doesn’t matter with a Pi. All they can hack is what you allow them access to, and all they can destroy is a microSD card. (And if you have the card backed up regularly [which you should have], that’s a 2 minute annoyance.)."

I don't actually familiar with the said Pi + microSD card domain + hosting setup. If anybody has any insight about it would be appreciated!

[Terabytes]

I actually do this for my own nefarious purposes on a Raspberry Pi 4 (personal cloud, etc)
[raspberrypi.org...]
I personally wouldn't recommend this as a viable commercial solution...

There's a lot to this process... as lammert stated, its probably better to go with external hosting. But, It can still be done.
AND, it depends upon your Internet provider also. Some providers don't allow you to residentially host a webserver, and block that traffic.

There's a lot to learn if you decide to go this route... and if you're not familiar with any of it, the learning curve is straight up...