I suppose I don't know what self-hosting means. Does that mean NOT GCE, so DigitalOcean or Linode? Or, running my own server? Aren't those just all VMs in the end?
If I look at Cloudtron, I see Gogs (git), Wordpress, GitLab. etc. If I go to GCE marketplace, I see those same things. Both of these sites have a button where I can install those apps easily.
What does the addition of "self-hosting" mean for me?
I run Sandstorm on a desktop tower in my office. If the network goes down I can still access it, which is surprisingly handy. If I wanted to, I could run it on my local workstation and not use a server at all.
For most people, paying for a VPS is the easier and cheaper route maybe, but for some of us, that flexibility and total ownership is a much better option. I suppose it mostly boils down to who you trust more: Google Cloud, or your own skills. (and time/patience)
Adding to my own comment: self hosting also means that you can install the software on your own premises if you wish to. Or on some VM you rent at any VM provider.
That's always a fair point, but you can at very least pick your poison (hosting provider), and it's very portable to switch between them. Or if you want to, set it up on your own physical machine. I don't know enough about network security to run a publicly facing server from home, and I don't think I'll take the time to learn it any time soon. However, I may well end up running it at home at some point soon in a way that's only accessible from home, for truly private things like contacts. A nice in-between could be a community center intranet. (Though setting up auth within an intranet isn't easy yet)
To your point, I'd be curious if the data selling/using policies of Linode vs Google Cloud are different.
