The Skylantix Philosophy
A privacy-first service built with community values—for users who believe digital life should be personal, private, and ethical.
Founding Principles
The goal is simple: to create a sustainable cloud hosting model that values fairness, transparency, and generosity.
The internet was meant to be decentralized, personal, and curious. Skylantix simply reclaims that spirit.
Skylantix is a long-term craft project built on a simple belief: technology should serve people, not the other way around.
When you join Skylantix, you're not just renting server space — you're becoming part of a self-sustaining community that values privacy, transparency, and care in engineering.
The Story Behind Skylantix
Skylantix was founded by a University of Chicago student who loves infrastructure and believes the internet should belong to people, not corporations. I'm learning production sysadmin work by actually doing it—managing real infrastructure for real users.
I'm building privacy-first cloud hosting with community values with a commitment to transparency and personal service. After graduation, I'm running this full-time from Orange County, California, where the servers actually live. You'll talk to me directly via email, not through ticket systems. Your data stays on California-based hardware I own, not scattered across Amazon's datacenters.
Skylantix is built on solid economics from day one. The infrastructure costs are covered with minimal members, allowing me to focus on reliability and support instead of chasing funding. This isn't a venture-backed startup burning cash—it's a sustainable craft project. The infrastructure runs on owner-managed servers with redundant internet and backup power systems. Everything is fronted through Cloudflare for security and DDoS protection, with automated offsite backups following the 3-2-1 rule.
This is a sustainable operation built on trust. We offer three Nextcloud hosting tiers (Standard, Dedicated, Managed) at $12/month or $120/year for Standard ($30/month for Dedicated, $60/month for Managed). All tiers include end-to-end encryption, Nextcloud Talk video conferencing, and California-based infrastructure. I'm building this transparently, with your feedback shaping priorities.
The Skylantix Promise
Cloud hosting that remembers the internet was meant to be human.
1. Fair Pricing, Real Costs
What you pay reflects the actual cost of running and improving the service — no hidden fees, no artificial scarcity. Prices adjust only if the real world demands it: hardware, electricity, or bandwidth, not corporate greed.
2. Supporting Open Source
Supporting open-source and privacy-aligned projects is a core goal once the service is sustainably profitable. The projects and tools that make Skylantix possible deserve support, and I'm committed to giving back when we can.
3. Sustainable Independence
We own our hardware, we pay our own bills, and we answer to no investors. That keeps us honest and focused on caring for members.
4. Privacy by Design
Your data lives here—encrypted at rest and in transit, on physical servers in California. It's never tracked, mined, or sold.
5. Stewardship and Care
We focus on doing right by members, improving reliability, and building trust over time.
6. Operational Transparency
I don't expect trust without proof. I'll share meaningful operational transparency appropriate to our operations—showing how systems perform and what I'm improving. Honesty isn't a feature here; it's infrastructure.
Most companies measure success in users and revenue. We measure ours in uptime, trust, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing a few thousand people have a corner of the internet that's truly theirs.
That's the deal.
No hype, no fine print — just good infrastructure and good intent.
The internet works best when it's personal.
We're here to keep it that way.
— Raphael Bitton, Founder & Principal Engineer
The $12 Price Philosophy
per month (or $120/year), Standard tier
Each Skylantix Standard membership costs $12 per month or $120 per year. That price is deliberate:
- • It's affordable but substantial—enough to sustain the service without exploiting users.
- • It's psychologically sincere: not rounded to $19.99 or $14.99, but chosen with intention.
- • It leaves room for student discounts (25% off for 3 years for university students) without collapsing margins.
- • It reflects fairness: the value of a cup of coffee per week for privacy, reliability, and transparency.
The Structure
Skylantix operates as a sole proprietorship, built with community values. Core principles that guide operation:
Support Open Source
Supporting open-source and privacy-aligned projects is a core goal once sustainably profitable. The ecosystem that makes this possible deserves support.
Sustainability
Hardware amortized every 3–5 years, fully owned. RAID Z3 redundancy from launch.
The Service Vision
Skylantix is focused on personal users and small businesses.
Choose from three Nextcloud hosting tiers:
- ✓ Standard (200 GB): Fully managed Nextcloud on federated instances, like Google Drive but privacy-first
- ✓ Dedicated (500 GB): Your own instance on our hardware, you manage it after initial setup
- ✓ Managed (500 GB): Your own dedicated instance, fully managed by us, perfect for families/small teams
- ✓ All tiers include end-to-end encryption, Nextcloud Talk video calls, and all Nextcloud features
- ✓ Personalized support via email (no ticket bureaucracy)
- ✓ A voice in the community's direction and development
This project's health is measured in trust, not market share.
Community and Feedback
All users are invited to email updates and feedback to help shape priorities. Skylantix aims to feel personal—a place where you always talk to a real person and your input matters.
We offer a 25% student discount for university students ($9/month or $90/year for 3 years). This ensures that students can access privacy-first hosting while building good digital habits.
Infrastructure Roadmap
Skylantix starts in Orange County, California with RAID Z3 redundancy. At 100 members, we add a second geographically distinct node for distribution. As needed, additional nodes in geographically separated California locations will be added, balancing load, redundancy, and data sovereignty.
With Cloudflare and VPS-based caching, Skylantix can reduce outbound bandwidth by 96–98%, keeping operational costs minimal. Hardware is amortized over 3-5 years, ensuring stable costs while user data remains on owner-managed, privacy-respecting systems. No hyperscaler lock-in.
Closing Vision
Skylantix's long-term goal is not domination—it's dignity.
A place where users always talk to a real person.
A cloud that doesn't pretend to own the sky.
Ready to Choose Your Tier?
If this philosophy resonates with you, I invite you to choose your Nextcloud hosting tier. Privacy-first cloud storage with California-based infrastructure.