If a drive fails at AWS, you never know; they just swap it.
At first glance, buying seems expensive. A solid home server might cost $500–$1,000 upfront. However, compare that to a mid-tier Cloud VPS or a 2TB Dropbox/Google One plan over three years. buy own server
If a drive fails at 3 AM on a Saturday, your services are down until you fix it. You are the IT department. You handle the security patches, the backups, and the hardware upgrades. The Verdict If a drive fails at AWS, you never know; they just swap it
You value long-term savings, data sovereignty, and you actually enjoy "tinkering." It’s a hobby that pays dividends in privacy. If a drive fails at AWS
Your data isn't sitting on a Google or Amazon drive where it can be scanned or indexed.