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A few days ago, I posted an image on Mastodon showing the architecture of Vernissage. After creating it, I thought it would be useful to write a longer article explaining what each service is responsible for. The diagram itself was also slightly simplified and did not include every element of the platform. Maybe this description will help other developers understand how Vernissage is built.

Vernissage is not a platform made of a single application. It is composed of multiple applications and services, each with a different responsibility.

Below is a description of each service and its purpose.

Vernissage API (Swift) is the heart of the whole application. It communicates with the PostgreSQL database, AWS object storage (S3), and Redis, where it sends information about queues that will be processed asynchronously. Relational data is stored in PostgreSQL, while files, mostly photos uploaded by users, are stored in S3. Photos from AWS are then delivered through CloudFront, which acts as a CDN and makes image loading fast for users around the world.

Vernissage Jobs (Swift) is another important backend service. It reads tasks from queues stored in Redis and runs periodic background jobs. In general, this service performs asynchronous work so that users and other Fediverse services do not have to wait for the API response while heavier tasks are being processed.

Vernissage Push (JS/Node) is also a backend service. It receives notifications from the API and Jobs services, and then forwards them either to browser push services using WebPush or to Vernissage Relay. WebPush notifications are delivered to users who have installed Vernissage Web as a PWA and enabled notifications.

Vernissage Relay (JS/Node) is another backend service. It receives notification requests from Vernissage Push and forwards them to APNs, Apple’s push notification service, which then delivers the notification to the user’s phone if they have the Vernissage Mobile app installed. This service can also be used by other Vernissage Fediverse instances to send push notifications to their users’ phones. In that sense, it works similarly to WebPush services provided by browser vendors.

Vernissage Proxy (Nginx) is a very important service. It allows Vernissage to expose two different services, API and Web, under a single domain. Depending on the requested path or accepted response type, based on the Accept header, it forwards the request either to the API service or to the Web service.

Vernissage Web (Typescript/Angular) is a frontend service. It is an Angular application that uses Vernissage API and displays images served from AWS CloudFront, which means they are indirectly loaded from S3. Importantly, this service does not only serve static JS, HTML, and CSS files. It also works as a server-side rendering service. SSR is important because it makes features like OpenGraph possible, so links to user profiles or photo posts can be displayed as rich preview cards in many places.

Vernissage Mobile (SwiftUI) is also a frontend service. More specifically, it is a native iOS application written in SwiftUI. Like the web application, it uses Vernissage Server API and displays images from AWS CloudFront, indirectly backed by S3.

The platform is quite complex, but this architecture also makes it flexible. Each service can be scaled independently, and multiple machines can run the same service when more performance is needed.

This separation of responsibilities makes Vernissage easier to maintain, extend, and optimize over time. It also allows the platform to grow gradually without having to redesign the whole system every time one part needs more resources.

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $437.77, of which $189.80 was contributed by patrons. Thank you very much for every contribution!

Below is a detailed financial report for operating https://vernissage.photos during June 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to keeping the platform running.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 957 GB
• Total number of files: 3,722,519
• Total cost: $48.07

As you can see, in June the storage increased by another 50 GB, which is significantly less than in May. The total cost was practically the same as in May, which I’m very pleased about.

Fly.io

In June, the cost of services hosted on Fly.io was $10 lower than in May, which I’m also very pleased about. The services and their sizes did not change in June.

• Total cost: $388.56

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

OpenAI is used on Vernissage to generate photo descriptions and suggest relevant tags.

• Total tokens used: 428,680
• Total requests: 524
• Total cost: $1.14

The cost remains relatively low, while still helping improve the accessibility of photos shared across the platform.

Donations

Thank you very much for all your contributions. It is only thanks to this support that the platform can continue operating in its current form, and it gives me a little more peace of mind when it comes to maintaining it.

• Patreon contributions: $164.88
• Stripe contributions: $25.00

In June, the total cost of maintaining the service was $437.77. This is a significant amount, and this time almost half of it was covered by donations. At the moment, we have 648 registered users, which means almost 40 new accounts, and 99 of them were active last month.

I would like to ask every new user (and not only new users) to consider supporting the platform if they are not doing so already. This is the only way to give this place a greater chance of continuing to exist.

Thank you again to everyone who supports the project. Thanks to your contributions, the service can continue to operate exactly as it does today.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $448.20, of which $326.60 was contributed by patrons. Thank you very much for every contribution!

Below is a detailed financial report for operating https://vernissage.photos during May 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to keeping the platform running.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 905 GB
• Total number of files: 3,225,118
• Total cost: $48.01

In May, the amount of stored data increased much more than it did in April. In April, storage grew by 60 GB of photos. In May, it grew by as much as 120 GB. This is a significant difference, most likely caused by several new accounts that follow a large number of other users, which means we need to fetch photos from a larger number of servers. At least this month I was not surprised by an additional CloudFront charge, as I now pay $15 for that service.

Fly.io

In May, the cost of services hosted on Fly.io increased by around $20 compared with April. The resource sizes did not change. The increase was mainly caused by significantly higher inbound and outbound traffic, which we are also charged for.

• Total cost: $398.80

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

OpenAI is used on Vernissage to generate photo descriptions and suggest relevant tags.

• Total tokens used: 541,157
• Total requests: 575
• Total cost: $1.39

The cost remains relatively low, while still helping improve the accessibility of photos shared across the platform.

Donations

Thank you very much to everyone who contributes to supporting the platform. This help is something I simply could not manage without. I am especially grateful to the person who sent a $160 “Gift” contribution - for the second time already. Thank you very, very much. 💚

• Patreon contributions: $326.60
• Stripe contributions: $0.00

In May, the total cost of maintaining the service was $448.20. That is a significant amount, and it looks like this may become the new monthly baseline. It is unfortunate that every server needs to download all resources locally. Overall, this is very inefficient - not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of the resources we consume as the Fediverse. It is hard to call this particularly environmentally friendly.

At the moment, vernissage.photos has 612 registered accounts, and 135 users were active during the last month. The number of registered users increased in May, while the number of active accounts remained at a similar level. To everyone who has recently joined the Vernissage community: please remember that this place can continue to exist only thanks to your support.

Thank you again to everyone who supports the project. Thanks to your contributions, the service can continue to operate exactly as it does today.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $458.44, of which $181.78 was contributed by patrons. Thank you very much for every contribution!

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of April 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to keeping the platform running.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 781.3 GB
• Total number of files: 2,674,893
• Total cost: $80.14

As you can see, the amount of data stored in S3 continues to grow steadily. In April, 60GB of new data was added. Since some older data was deleted, the actual amount of newly uploaded data was certainly even higher.

I was very surprised, however, when I saw the Amazon bill. Until now, I had been paying around $20 per month, but this time the bill was $80. When I opened the AWS Console, I saw something that genuinely shocked me.

For the first time, Amazon charged me for CloudFront. I have been using this service for well over a year, and it had never appeared in the cost breakdown before. I am not sure why this happened, especially since Amazon itself shows that Vernissage had already been exceeding the free usage tier for some time:

It is possible that we exceeded some other limit. I simply do not know why the increase was so large all at once, as AWS does not provide a detailed usage report for March. To avoid being surprised by this situation again, I changed the CloudFront plan from Pay-as-you-Go to the Pro plan. We now have a fairly large usage buffer, and the cost is $15 per month. This is a better option than paying an additional $60 every month. The usage allowance we now have is shown below.

Below, I am also including the detailed CloudFront usage statistics for April.

The amount of data transfer and the number of requests generated by Vernissage are clearly impressive. I also expect them to continue growing steadily as the number of users increases.

Fly.io

For April, the cost of Fly.io services was similar to March. The size of the services there was not changed. I assume, however, that this will eventually have to change, and sooner or later we will need to move from shared services to performance services. That, unfortunately, will significantly increase costs, which are already quite substantial.

• Total cost: $377.29

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

OpenAI is used on Vernissage for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags.

• Total tokens used: 368,382
• Total requests: 444
• Total cost: $1.01

The cost remains relatively low, while still helping improve accessibility of shared photos across the platform.

Donations

Thank you very much for all contributions. Your financial support is what makes it possible for the service to operate at all. Below is information about the contributions you made in April.

• Patreon contributions: $141.78
• Stripe contributions: $40.00

In April, the total cost of maintaining the service was $458.44. That is a significant amount. I hope that next month we will be closer to $400 again. It would also be wonderful if contributions could cover around $200 of the total cost. That would reduce the financial pressure on me personally.

My financial report is especially important for new people who are only just joining vernissage.photos. The website does not run for free, because nothing in the world is truly free. When you upload photos to Instagram, you pay with your privacy, your data, or the time you spend looking at ads shown to you. Vernissage has no ads and no algorithms designed to artificially keep you on the platform. There are only photos created by other artists. So, if you are a user, upload photos, but are not yet among the Patrons, I warmly encourage you to consider joining them. Even the smallest amount helps the platform continue to exist.

At the moment, vernissage.photos has 563 registered accounts, and 138 users were active during the last month. The number of users grew significantly in April, which makes me extremely happy.

Thank you again to everyone who supports the project. Thanks to your contributions, the service can continue to operate exactly as it does today.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $403.52, of which $307.43 was contributed by patrons. I’m incredibly grateful for this support - especially for one very generous one-time donation that helped a lot in covering this month’s expenses.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of March 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to keeping the platform running.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 718.3 GB
• Total number of files: 2,473,206
• Total cost: $23.80

The amount of stored data continues to grow steadily, which is a good sign - it means the community is active and constantly sharing new photos. At the same time, it also means that storage costs gradually increase along with the platform.

Fly.io

In March, the cost of services on Fly.io increased noticeably. This was caused by infrastructure changes required to keep the platform stable under heavier traffic.

The api and jobs services had to be upgraded to shared-cpu-4x@2048MB. With the previous setup, lower resources were often causing database connectivity issues, especially during periods of increased activity. This change was necessary to improve reliability and keep the service responsive.

It’s also possible that these resources will need to be increased even further in the future if usage continues to grow.

• Total cost: $378.52

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

OpenAI is used on Vernissage for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags.

• Total tokens used: 431,888
• Total requests: 518
• Total cost: $1.20

The cost remains relatively low, while still helping improve accessibility of shared photos across the platform.

Donations

Huge thanks to all the patrons and supporters who help keep Vernissage running. Your support truly makes a difference.

• Patreon contributions: $307.43
• Stripe contributions: $0.00

I would also like to say a very special thank you for a large one-time donation this month. It helped tremendously with covering the operating costs, and I truly appreciate that generosity.

In March, the total cost of maintaining the service was $403.52. Even though community support covered a significant part of that amount this month, running the platform is still a real and ongoing expense. Every contribution helps keep Vernissage online and allows it to continue operating in its current form.

Vernissage remains a fully independent platform. There are no ads, no engagement algorithms, and no artificial pressure to chase visibility. It is built around something much more valuable: a real community of people who simply want to share photography in a calm, meaningful space.

At the moment, vernissage.photos has 498 registered accounts, and 98 users were active during the last month. We are now very close to 100 monthly active users, which is honestly amazing to see.

Thank you again to everyone who supports the project. Thanks to your contributions, the service can continue to operate exactly as it does today.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $363.90, of which $125.76 was contributed by patrons. I’m deeply thankful for this support - it plays an important role in keeping the platform running and helps make its current form possible.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of February 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 677.5 GB
• Total number of files: 2,300,665
• Total cost: $22.61

The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).

Fly.io

In February, the cost of services on fly.io is very similar to the cost in January. The resources allocated to individual services have not been changed in any way. The cost is still very high. I’m still waiting for a decision regarding the NLnet grant, which could ease my financial burden a bit. If that doesn’t work out and support from patrons doesn’t increase, I’ll have to change something - definitely not for the better.

• Total cost: $340.45

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.

• Total tokens used: 290,465
• Total requests: 378
• Total cost: $0.84

Donations

Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.

• Patreon contributions: $125.76
• Stripe contributions: $0.00

In January, the cost of maintaining the service was $363.90. This is similar to the cost in January 2026. It’s a large expense. Community support is crucial for me. For now, I’m covering most of the costs out of my own pocket.

At the moment, vernissage.photos has 475 registered users, of whom 86 were active in the last month. The project is supported by 24 people. I hope this number will grow in the future so that I can focus more on developing the project.

Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $397.06, of which $120.36 was contributed by patrons. I’m deeply thankful for this support - it plays an important role in keeping the platform running and helps make its current form possible.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of January 2026. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 645.6 GB
• Total number of files: 2,157,256
• Total cost: $21.81

The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).

Fly.io

In January, the cost of services on fly.io is very similar to the cost in December. The resources allocated to individual services have not been changed in any way. The cost is still very high. I’m still waiting for a decision regarding the NLnet grant, which could ease my financial burden a bit. If that doesn’t work out and support from patrons doesn’t increase, I’ll have to change something - definitely not for the better.

• Total cost: $375.07

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.

• Total tokens used: 414,708
• Total requests: 514
• Total cost: $0.18

Donations

Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.

• Patreon contributions: $120.36
• Stripe contributions: $0.00

In January, the cost of maintaining the service was $394.57. This is similar to the cost in December 2025. It’s a large expense. Community support is crucial for me. For now, I’m covering most of the costs out of my own pocket.

At the moment, vernissage.photos has 458 registered users, of whom 109 were active in the last month. The project is supported by 22 people. I hope this number will grow in the future so that I can focus more on developing the project.

Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $394.57, of which $135.60 was contributed by patrons. I’m deeply thankful for this support - it plays an important role in keeping the platform running and helps make its current form possible.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of December. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 609.1 GB
• Total number of files: 1,986,742
• Total cost: $20.37

The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).

Fly.io

In December, the cost of services on fly.io increased significantly. This was, of course, caused by the migration to a managed Postgres setup and the much higher fees for resources (which are also larger).

On the positive side, I haven’t observed any performance issues since then, nor any problems with integration with other instances. However, the cost is substantial, and without external support it will be difficult for me to sustain this in the long term.

I hope to receive a grant from NLnet, as that would help me a great deal.

• Total cost: $373.76

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.

• Total tokens used: 151,357
• Total requests: 192
• Total cost: $0.44

Donations

Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.

• Patreon contributions: $110.60
• Stripe contributions: $25.00

In December, service maintenance costs totaled $394.57, which is a noticeable increase compared to November due to expanded database resources. This makes the support of the community especially important. Aside from Patreon/Stripe contributions, I personally handle all ongoing expenses, without the backing of a company or corporate sponsor.

This independence ensures that photos shared by users remain fully respected and are used only for their intended purpose - being displayed on the platform, and nothing more.

Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total cost of running the https://vernissage.photos platform amounted to $260.78. A significant portion of these costs was covered by patrons: $144.90. I am very grateful for this support - without it, it would not be possible to run the platform in its current form.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of November. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 592.2 GB
• Total number of files: 1,862,018
• Total cost: $19.27

The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).

Fly.io

In mid-November, the amount of resources allocated to the database was increased. The Managed Database on fly.io is currently set to performance-2x. The speed and stability of Vernissage have improved significantly - unfortunately, so have the maintenance costs. I hope that support from patrons will cover part of these expenses, or that it might be possible to obtain some funding/support from other sources. We’ll see what the future brings.

• Total cost: $240.92

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.

• Total tokens used: 195,610
• Total requests: 230
• Total cost: $0.59

Patreon

Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.

• Total contributions: $144.90

In November, the service maintenance costs amounted to $260.78. These costs are significantly higher than in October due to increased resources for the database. For this reason, community support is very important. Apart from the funds from Patreon, I cover all maintenance expenses out of my own pocket. There is no corporation or sponsor behind me. Thanks to this, the photos uploaded by users are not used in any way other than being displayed on the platform.

Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.

— Marcin Czachurski

TL;DR: This month, the total cost of running the https://vernissage.photos platform amounted to $184.59. A significant portion of these costs was covered by patrons: $100.84. I am very grateful for this support - without it, it would not be possible to run the platform in its current form.

Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of October. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.

Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)

Let's start with storage. Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.

• Total storage used: 552.8 GB
• Total number of files: 1,703,725
• Total cost: $18.04

The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).

Fly.io

In October, unfortunately, all servers had to be migrated from the WAW (Warsaw) region to the AMS (Amsterdam) region on fly.io. The provider initially migrated the services automatically (to the Stockholm region), but after that, they didn’t function correctly, so everything had to be redone manually.

The worst situation occurred with the database server, which stopped working entirely after the fly.io migration - even though one instance was the main and the other was a replica, both were stuck in read-only mode.

The databases were immediately moved to Managed Postgres, a new service offered by fly.io, which, however, is significantly more expensive than the standard one. As a result, I was forced to reduce the resources allocated to the database, which in turn caused a noticeable decrease in the overall performance of the system.

• Total cost: $165.40

Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:

OpenAI

The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.

• Total tokens used: 376,445
• Total requests: 445
• Total cost: $1.15

Patreon

Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.

• Total contributions: $100.84

In October, the total cost of operating the service amounted to $184.59. This is very similar to the cost in September; however, the resources allocated to the database have been significantly reduced. Unfortunately, I am not able to contribute more funds out of my own pocket to increase these resources. I hope that in the future, with greater financial support, this will become possible.

Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.

— Marcin Czachurski