Why I built a self-hosted booking platform instead of using SaaS tools

I’ve spent years building websites and small platforms where booking functionality was needed.

Over time, I realized I was either rebuilding the same foundations again and again or relying on hosted platforms and plugin-heavy CMS setups that I didn’t fully control.

So I decided to build a self-hosted booking and website system that I could actually own, extend, and reuse across projects.

Some deliberate choices I made:

• No SaaS dependencies


• No plugin-based architecture


• Full control over data and hosting


• Modular structure that can grow beyond a single use case

It started as an internal tool for accommodation websites and slowly evolved into a production-ready system.

I’m curious how other developers here approach similar problems:

Do you prefer building custom systems, extending existing CMSs, or using SaaS tools when booking or niche functionality is involved?

I’m also curious how other developers here approach sharing or distributing similar self-hosted tools — especially when they’re not SaaS products.

If anyone is curious, the system I built for this is called BellaVista.

It started as an internal project and is fully self-hosted.

You can find more details here:

https://bellavistaproject.eu

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.