I think the most important part of self-hosting is YOU hosting the software you use. The tool/medium you are using is less important.
If it's your own laptop, or a mini PC, or someone elses PC is less important. They are different.
If I use my old laptop to host stuff is fine.
What if I live in an apartment building and a good neighbor has a big server and let's other poeple use it and host stuff on it. I have my own vm, etc. Does that count as self-hosting?
I would say yes.
What if I rent bare metal from a provider?
In my view self-hosting doesn't end at the boundary of my apartment.
As I said previously, everything comes down to trust. If I don't want to run my stack on someone else's computer because I don't know if they will be a good s steward of my data that's valid, and I should own my own hardware.
If I use my old laptop to host stuff is fine. What if I live in an apartment building and a good neighbor has a big server and let's other poeple use it and host stuff on it. I have my own vm, etc. Does that count as self-hosting? I would say yes. What if I rent bare metal from a provider?
In my view self-hosting doesn't end at the boundary of my apartment.
As I said previously, everything comes down to trust. If I don't want to run my stack on someone else's computer because I don't know if they will be a good s steward of my data that's valid, and I should own my own hardware.