Gumroad cut $100k/year from AWS by moving one Rails webhook endpoint to Go on 3 servers
DanielLockyer · x · 2026-10-15
Inspired by DHH, Gumroad engineer ershus detailed how the company cut $8.4k/month ($100k/year) from its AWS bill in two weeks, with several changes also improving performance.
The flagship example: an endpoint that only verifies an email webhook's signature and queues a job previously required the full Rails app across 12 servers.
- Rewritten in Go, it runs on 3 smaller servers using just 11 MB of memory each
- Memory per server down 99% (1.6 GB → 11 MB), CPU down 91% at the same traffic
- Webhook fleet cost dropped from $1,380 to $186/month — 86% cheaper, saving $14k a year
The takeaway: running lightweight high-traffic endpoints on a full framework wastes enormous resources, and a targeted rewrite pays off dramatically.
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