ImgNet

Overview

ImgNet is an image hosting and delivery platform built for developers who need reliable, fast image hosting without the complexity of cloud services. The entire stack runs on a self-managed VPS with Docker.

Features

• API token-based access control for secure uploads
• Automatic image compression and optimization on upload
• CDN-backed delivery for fast global access
• Dockerized backend with Nginx reverse proxy

Tech Stack

The backend is written in Go for performance and low memory usage. PostgreSQL handles metadata storage, and Nginx serves as the reverse proxy with SSL termination and caching.

Challenges

The main challenge was setting up a reliable self-managed deployment with proper security and caching while keeping costs minimal. Solved this with aggressive Nginx caching and selective CDN usage for frequently accessed assets.

Results

• Sub-100ms response times for cached images
• 60% average reduction in file sizes
• Running on a $10/month VPS