alt Hacker News> I will never let software manage my business that I don’t have control over.
I can't imagine this is actually possible in 2026 unless your business is a something like a cash-only lemonade stand.
Replies
paulddraper • today at 6:20 PM
There are self-hosted options for almost everything (e.g. WooCommerce).
EXCEPT payments. (Unless you do crypto, which has been used for purchases by <2% of US adults.)
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And the restrictions are not theoretical.
Most payment providers either outright prohibit (PayPal, CoinBase) or restrict (Stripe) legal gun transactions.
Hateful content is virtually universally banned by processors (see: Gab).
Opensource is the only way to free sellers from propeitary SaaS and marketplace middlemen. I’m actually working on building an opensource Shopify for every vertical from restaurants to gyms to hotels.