Author here.

I was thinking about starting a blog, but WordPress hosting costs seemed expensive ($50-80/month for managed options). Decided to see if I could build a cheaper alternative using GCP Cloud Run + Terraform.

Result: Production-ready WordPress for $36/month with full infrastructure control.

What's included: - One-command deployment (~10 minutes) - Complete Terraform IaC (reproducible infrastructure) - Auto-scaling (0-5 instances, scales to zero when idle) - Interactive cost calculator: https://tohidsmart.github.io/serverless-wordpress-gcp/calcul...

Trade-offs vs managed hosting: - Cold starts (~2-5 seconds after idle) - You manage WordPress updates yourself - Requires basic GCP/Terraform knowledge

Benefits: - 60-75% cheaper than WP Engine/Kinsta - Pay only for actual traffic (not idle capacity) - Full infrastructure control (no vendor lock-in) - Free tier covers up to 75K visitors/month

New GCP accounts get $300 credits = first 3 months free.

Built this as a learning project that turned into something production-ready. Open to questions about the architecture or cost optimization.