[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":176},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-47617217":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":5,"maker":10,"posted_at":11,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rank_in_year":15,"shown_in_year":16,"top":17,"tier":18,"category":19,"subcategory":20,"format":21,"keywords":22,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":31,"aspects":32,"strip":37,"post_text":39,"what":40,"said":65,"maker_in_thread":118,"shape":120,"grid":124,"attempts":139,"same_week":140,"maker_shows":134,"maker_hidden":169,"reader_version":170,"card":171},"47617217","georgelarson.me","I tested 15 free AI models at building real software on a $25\u002Fyear VPS","title","Show HN: I tested 15 free AI models at building real software on a $25\u002Fyear VPS","https:\u002F\u002Fgeorgelarson.me\u002Fwriting\u002F2026-04-03-25-dollar-ai-lab\u002F","j0rg3",1775150039,2026,37,7,1453,4366,34,"shown","ai","model evaluation","other",[23,24,25,26,27],"free ai models","ai coding benchmark","vps agent testing","opencode","openrouter","curious",0,{"positive":29,"neutral":31,"mixed":29,"critical":29},5,{"design":33,"docs":34,"performance":35,"pricing":36},{"positive":29,"critical":29},{"positive":29,"critical":29},{"positive":29,"critical":29},{"positive":29,"critical":29},[38,38,38,29,38,29,38],3,null,{"problem":41,"audience":39,"pricing":47,"motivation":39,"time_to_build":39,"stack":51,"openness":64,"stage":64,"team_size":64},{"value":42,"source":43,"evidence":44},"Comparing how free AI models perform at building real software","maker",[45],{"id":46},"post",{"value":48,"source":43,"evidence":49},"Test ran on a $25\u002Fyear VPS; models accessed via hosted services",[50],{"id":46},[52,60],{"value":53,"source":54,"evidence":55},"OpenRouter","commenter",[56],{"id":57,"by":58,"text":59},"47622353","scorpioxy","I don't believe the models were running on the VPS itself. According to my understanding of the article, they used OpenRouter and OpenCode's service as service providers. The…",{"value":61,"source":54,"evidence":62},"OpenCode",[63],{"id":57,"by":58,"text":59},"unknown",{"praise":66,"objections":67,"requests":92,"questions":104,"alternatives":117},[],[68,75,86],{"value":69,"source":54,"evidence":70},"Cost of the VPS is questioned as cheaper than typical providers",[71],{"id":72,"by":73,"text":74},"47639577","BobbyTables2","What VPS is $25\u002Fyear? DigitalOcean seems to be about 3x that price for the low end droplets…",{"value":76,"source":54,"evidence":77},"Missing quantization and model size details",[78,82],{"id":79,"by":80,"text":81},"47639010","a96","Also no mention of quants and not even sizes in many cases. I wish someone did this kind of comparison well.",{"id":83,"by":84,"text":85},"47649014","polski-g","Opencode doesn't publish what quantization they offer.",{"value":87,"source":54,"evidence":88},"Unclear why a VPS was used instead of a local VM",[89],{"id":90,"by":58,"text":91},"47622375","> Instead of fixing the rate limiter that was blocking its own tests, it patched the environment detection. That's enterprise development in a nutshell. That part made me laugh…",[93,100],{"value":94,"source":54,"evidence":95},"Comparison against paid state-of-the-art models",[96],{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},"47622007","walkersutton","Curious how the top performers compare to SOTA paid models. Also interested in understanding performance differences between running model on VPS hardware compared to a laptop.…",{"value":101,"source":54,"evidence":102},"Performance comparison between VPS and laptop",[103],{"id":97,"by":98,"text":99},[105,113],{"value":106,"source":54,"evidence":107},"Where were the models running",[108,112],{"id":109,"by":110,"text":111},"47625807","bentt","I’m a little confused. So you got a VPS… was that just to host the result? Surely you weren’t running the models on it? What were the models running on? It doesn’t matter a ton…",{"id":57,"by":58,"text":59},{"value":114,"source":54,"evidence":115},"Why use a VPS rather than a local VM",[116],{"id":90,"by":58,"text":91},[],{"comments":29,"answered":29,"key":119},[],{"commenters":121,"max_depth":38,"maker_replies":29,"first_comment_mins":122,"lifespan_hours":123},6,439,68,[125,127,130,131,133,136,137],[90,29,38,126,58,29],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[109,128,38,129,110,29],1,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[79,128,38,129,80,29],[83,128,29,132,84,29],"commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[97,134,38,135,98,29],2,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[57,134,29,132,58,29],[72,38,38,138,73,29],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[],[141,146,150,155,160,164],{"id":142,"name":143,"points":144,"category":145},"47640728","mvidia",964,"learning_science",{"id":147,"name":148,"points":149,"category":145},"47655408","GuppyLM",915,{"id":151,"name":152,"points":153,"category":154},"47673360","Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand",786,"hardware",{"id":156,"name":157,"points":158,"category":159},"47625952","Blogosphere",783,"consumer_social",{"id":161,"name":162,"points":163,"category":19},"47624645","Apfel",743,{"id":165,"name":166,"points":167,"category":168},"47696562","Is Hormuz open yet?",484,"web_saas",false,"v2",{"id":172,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":169,"cat":19,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rec":28,"s":29,"top":17,"kw":173,"maker":10,"domain":5,"tier":18,"attempts":29,"strip":174,"url":9,"mix":175,"praise":-1,"objection":69,"sub":20},47617217,[23,24,25,26,27],"3330303",[29,31,29,29],1794036697612]