A complete 4-part series showing how we built and hosted a modern, containerized personal web platform that runs on Raspberry Pi and can move to the cloud without a full rewrite.

In plain language, this platform is the full system behind the site: the public website and blog, private authenticated features, media and content storage, and the routing layer that safely exposes everything to users. The goal was to build something practical for real publishing and experimentation, not just a demo app.

The architecture is organized into clear layers so the platform stays portable and easier to evolve over time:

• Experience layer: Next.js App Router serves the public website, blog pages, navigation, and authenticated UI flows.
• Application and data layer: PocketBase handles authentication, records, and media/file storage for platform features.
• Routing and edge layer: Caddy works as the reverse proxy that routes traffic to the correct service boundaries.
• Runtime and deployment layer: Docker Compose packages the services into containers so the same platform can run locally, on Raspberry Pi, or on a cloud host.
• Security and exposure layer: Cloudflare domain and tunnel patterns provide controlled public access, TLS, and a safer production entry point.

Across the first three parts, the series explains what platform we built, why this stack fits a self-hosted Raspberry Pi setup, how the layers interact, and how to harden the deployment for a more production-ready path from home lab to cloud. The new fourth part validates the architecture with Cloudflare production analytics, real-user performance, and speed-test evidence from the first live run.