Opportunities › Network gateway for self-hosted infrastructure › Proposed app
Hatchway
One console for hostnames, certificates and DDNS on your own hardware
- Score
- 58
- confidence 61
- Evidence
- 7
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 3
- named in sources
- First version
- 35 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop and mobile
- PWA: on computers and phones alike
- Market since
- 2011
- Mature market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop and mobile: Infrastructure admins set up and review services on a computer, but need quick checks and alerts on mobile when away from their desk. Sample screens on a computer and a phone, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Services
1 needs attention9 live
About this appAI proposal
Hatchway is a phone-friendly console for people who expose services from a homelab, NAS or small on-premises server. It replaces the spreadsheet of DDNS entries, proxy configs, certificate dates and firewall rules with one list of hostnames, each showing its route, certificate and protection.
A small open-source agent runs on your own hardware (Docker, Linux or NAS) and does the actual proxying and certificate renewal. The console only sends settings and reads status, so traffic does not have to pass through a third-party tunnel. You can read the agent's code before you run it.
It differs from a cloud tunnel because you keep the data path. It differs from a pile of separate tools because changes, expiry warnings and rollbacks live in one place.
- Tagline
- Open your home server to the world, on your terms.
- Voice
- PlainCalmPrecise
- Why this name
- A hatchway is a controlled opening you can shut. It suits exposing selected services while keeping the rest of your network closed.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
One list of every exposed service
See each hostname with its target, certificate, DDNS state and protection level. Add a service in one form instead of editing four configs.
No member yet
Certificates that warn you first
Tracks expiry and renewal results per hostname and alerts your phone before a failed renewal becomes a browser warning.
No member yet
DDNS and IP change watch
Detects when your public address changes, updates records, and shows what changed and when.
No member yet
Web protection presets
Turn on rate limits, country blocks and path rules per service from presets, and review recent blocked requests.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F5D4AFern · primary#F5F1E8Paper · surface#1B2A24Ink · text#E08A2ELantern · accent#3B7EA1Harbor · data
Typography
Aa
Hatchway
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Open your home server to the world, on your terms.
PricingAI proposal
Based on the material's verified pricing pages: frp lists paid plans from $4 to $21 by usage plus a free plan; Tailscale lists $1 to $18 a month plus a free plan. These tiers are a starting point to test.
Free
Free
- 1 node
- 5 services
- Certificate expiry alerts
Home
$4 a month
- 3 nodes
- Unlimited services
- DDNS watch
- Protection presets
- 30-day change history
Team
$15 a month
- Unlimited nodes
- Shared access for 5 people
- Audit log
- Rollback
- Priority email support
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$190,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- No loop in the product. Reaches customers through open-source repository visibility, homelab communities and guides. The agent's own use does not show the product's name to other people.
- Do they become customers?
- Readers of the repo and guides can become paying users directly. Test whether people who run the free agent will pay for the hosted console.
- First customers
- Homelab owners running 5 or more public services on a NAS or mini PC with Docker, who already juggle DDNS, a proxy and certificates by hand.
- Where to reach them
- Self-hosting forums: Share a write-up and a free agent for replacing separate DDNS, proxy and certificate setups.
- GitHub repository: Publish the open-source agent with a one-command Docker install and link the console.
- NAS user communities: Offer a tested install guide for popular NAS Docker setups.
- First milestone
- Twenty homelab users connect a node and ten pay for the Home tier within 60 days.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedGitHub repository gained 404 stars in 12 days
- Public claimUsers need consolidated gateway functionality for self-hosted infrastructure including DDNS, routing, proxying, certificates, and WAF
- Public claimThe solution supports broad deployment across multiple platforms and container systems
- Public claimOpen-source auditability is a stated requirement for this market
- Public claim
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Gateway agentOpen-source single binary in Go or RustDoes the proxying, certificate renewal and DDNS on the user's hardware; must be auditable and run on Docker, Linux and NAS.
- This app · Agent channelOutbound WebSocket or long-poll to the consoleLets the console reach agents behind NAT without opening inbound ports.
RisksAI inference
- TechnicalRunning on NAS firmware and routers means many architectures and packaging formats. A first version should support Docker and Linux only.
- CommercialHomelab users favour free tools and distrust hosted consoles. They may refuse to pay for a console even if the agent is free.
- PlatformThe agent only works if the console can reach it. A console outage must never break traffic, so the agent has to keep running on its last config.
- DataThe console holds routing config and hostnames. A breach would reveal a user's internal layout, so secrets must stay on the node.
- Intellectual propertyThe agent may build on open-source proxy code such as frp. Licence terms and attribution must be checked before launch.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.