Restate ships as a single binary that can be self-hosted as a single node for like $2 / month If you want reliability and fully managed hosting, just subscribe to Restate cloud... But they have great docs on how to do multi-node self-hosting. Restate is freedom, (almost) free as in speech. When you pay for BAML platform or LangChain platform, you also pay for skipping getting educated about foundational distributed computing SWE patterns... because there is nothing new here.. Well and obviously, you pay for the convenience of setup. Can't be understated. After going down the rabbit hole, I'm left feeling "Well, this was just a skill issue all along, I never needed these new shiny things because they are selling shit that has already been solved by more battle-tested and mature platforms." Slap on top the observability value add from these new tools. Again I'm left wondering: if I was not such a noob, I'd probably know a perfect and way more mature observability tool that can be self-hosted alongside Restate, then combine those and basically get all the same benefits... but also maintain your freedom. Conclusion: those new products only truly add value if you are a noob, and there has never been more noobs around than now. And so be it! If you can ship faster and make money by using these products and skipping becoming an expert sys-admin and SWE? More power to you! But: How do you think John Carmack would react to all this craziness? "Senior" React Developers not actually knowing anything about distributed computing etc... I'm left feeling that I'm a disgrace to the OG kings of SWE.