Ask HN: AWS vs. self-hosted for collection of small apps

Hi All,

Curious about your thoughts on paying the $10-15/month for a small AWS instance (t1, t2) vs. a self-hosted server.

I have a small collection of apps I run, maybe 3 right now, that need to be available to the outside world, but that do not (and probably won't) see much traffic ever. The apps revolve around a small amount of users intentionally. The apps themselves are small, but a couple do require a database.

Should I just throw these on a machine, open a port, and self-host them, or should I grab a small EC2 instance and pay the small monthly fee?

Any benefits or cons to doing either?