A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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I host:
Probably forgot some..
Chad.
Do you host on at your house, a VPS or something else?
All on Hetzner.
My long and mostly complete list:
These services are the result of years of development and administrating my lab and while there is still some cruft, it's mostly services that I think have real utility.
As far as hardware:
Running pfsense on a toughbook laptop as a router-firewall.
A SuperMicro 24 bay disk-shelf with Proxmox and ZFS for NAS duties and a couple services.
Lenovo Tiny boxes with a Proxmox cluster for the majority of my local services.
Dell managed switch
A few Raspberry-pi's with Raspbian for various things.
Linksys AP for wifi
Edit: Spelling is hard.
Oh my jesus, does this thread really have 400+ comments
Edit: respectfully as an atheist
Yep, people are enthusiastic about self hosting and like talking about what they host :)
And talk about it on a self-hostable platform, no less.
I use TrueNAS Scale for my NAS and Ubuntu server for my VM's/home server. I probably am forgetting something, but, that's what's listed in my Portainer :).
trillium sounds awesome, I love obsidian but was wanting something open source. plus this has some features I felt it was missing, thanks!!
This assortment is run under a combination of Proxmox LXC containers, docker containers, and Yunohost. Mostly I use it to play around, but most are heavily used by my wife and I. I'm planning to rebuild everything and making things more "official". Looking to convert from a "lab" to actually making it "production" with solid failure routes and backups. I am looking to move anything currently under Yunohost to docker/lxc and to start making use of podman. Recently saw CosmOS and think it might be a good alternative to portainer.
Hardware:
You're doing that as a full-time job, right?
LOL
No, just a hobby. Been playing around for about a year. It started small with an old mac mini and Yunohost. Then I decided to play with Proxmox and bought a used m93p. Then I read about Proxmox clusters, so I got another m93p. I was going to use the mac mini in the cluster, but it was getting too slow, so I bought the Brix. Then I decided to migrate the Yunohost setup over to a VM in Proxmox. Then I figured I should learn a bit about docker. And it spiraled.
I spend maybe 10-12 hours a month on installation and configuration. I spend way more time using it. A couple of weeks ago I spent about 15 hours over the weekend importing/uploading my audiobooks into AudioBookShelf. Last year I spent several weekends getting my Calibre library in shape and moving it to the web.
I figure this is a much cheaper and safer hobby than drinking.
Oh jeez... there's quite the list. I have a Ceph cluster of 3 nodes with 15x HDD's and 3 SSD's... on that cluster I run some VM's that in turn run a Docker swarm. All Ubuntu 22.04, all commodity hardware. Currently I'm running;
Then there's a whole host of ancillary services; BackupPC, Unifi controller container, piHole on a couple of Raspberry Pi's, ts-dnsserver for internal DNS management... probably a dozen other containers and tools I'm forgetting.
Oh yeah, and a Synology NAS as a backup target :)
Ubuntu server(Xeon CPU E5-2650 v4 with 86 GB Ram) running k3s(My home server):
2 Ubuntu servers running k3s(VPS used for my infrastructure services)
Infrastructure services runing on all servers
Lastly I'm hosting Lemmy on a leftover VPS, that I hadn't used in a while. Might move to a bigger server though.
As an offensive security worker.... I can't help but read people listing out their attack surface 😂
My RISV-V server (I have removed all binary blobs and have no closed source code ofc) is airgapped inside a Faraday cage.
For security reasons I never turn it on.
I'm not sure the list is really that big of a deal for a home gamer. They're probably more in danger from their choice of home audio appliances and that microwave that has been sitting on their network for 10 years which no longer gets updates. Or that 2019 Plex server they have put forwarded straight outside.
It's actually one of my beefs with containers, You can't keep track of The versions for everything and you're at the mercy of the maintainers to keep individual packages updated.
Stuff I used to use or have at least tried out:
I run everything in docker on Ubuntu 22.04 with the exception of Plex, which runs on bare metal on the same server. The server is a 16 core threadripper 1950, with 2 quadro gpu's, m2000 and a p400, 128gb ram, mirrored ssd for system, platter HDD for media, CoralTPU pcie.
I also run Home Assistant on a separate Lenovo MiniPC(forget which model), I did this so I can take down the server for various reasons without losing smart home stuff. Helps with the Partner Acceptance Factor.
In no particular order the server runs:
Calibre-web - Library management
Sonarr - TV series downloads
Radarr - Movie Downloads
Lidarr - Music Downloads
QbittorentVPN - Torrents over vpn, guarantees no leaks
Jackett - tracker management and proxying
Podgrab - downloads podcasts
Frigate - NVR, camera recording with object detection
DoubleTake - Facial recognition middleware, works between frigate/homeassistant and Compreface/Deepstack
Octoprint - 3d printer spooler
Tautulli - Plex statistics
Portainer - Docker Management
Ombi - Media request app, users can request shows/movies and they can be automatically added to sonarr/radarr
MeTube - Webui for youtube-dl/dlp, useful for downloading Youtube videos for offline and ad free use
Spot-dl - parses spotify playlists and downloads them from youtube
Most of this stuff runs on my server at home (ASRock J4105-ITX, 8 GB RAM , 250 GB SSD, 18 TB HDD). The mail server and the blog run on a cheap VPS (1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD). Both servers run NixOS.
AMD EPYC 7B12 / 256GB RAM / Supermicro H12SSL-i / 4x2TB Samsung 980 Pro in ZFS RAIDZ-10
Total overkill for what is currently running on it. But who knows what the future brings.
Current:
Docker-based
As a VM in Proxmox VE
As an LXC in Proxmox VE
Currently all LAN only, still in the experimental stage finding out what's useful/preferable to me and what I want to keep:
KEEPING
Pi-Hole - ad/malware/tracker blocking
Portainer - Easy Docker
Syncthing - Sync folders between devices
Planka - Kanban board
I.T. Tools - Handy I.T. Tools
Bookstack - Personal documentation
Mealie - Recipe manager/meal planner
Jellyfin + usual accompaniments - Media Management
Navidrome - Music library
Changedetection - Stock monitoring
Gotify - For push notifications from other apps
Filebrowser
That Word Game ;)
UNDECIDED (may swap for alternatives or just remove)
Organizr - Homepage
Jump - Homepage
Homepage - Yup, another homepage!
Linkding - Bookmarks
Shiori - Pocket replacement
Etebase - CalDAV & CardDAV
Whoogle - Google without the crap
Photoprism - Photo management
Libreddit (not being used now!)
QBittorrent - for Linux ISOs
Uptime-Kuma (for when I do open a few services to family)
Ryot (beta) "Roll Your Own Tracker" - Media Tracker
PLANNING TO ADD
Reverse-proxying (likely NPM) + Security (Fail2Ban, Autheilia?)
Audiobooks
Comic book management
Translation service
Document manager
Home Assistant on its own Pi4 when I can get hold of one
My lemmy instance :)
I used to self-host email with email and postfix, but I gave up with the amount of spam coming my way and moved to Proton
Part of my Reddit exodus plan was to get serious about my RSS setup.
I've settled on:
I may experiment with some replacements for rss-proxy, as I've run into a couple sites it doesn't scrape well, but FreshRSS and FiveFilters have been smashing successes.
On 3 Rpis and a NAS around my home:
Nextcloud - Google replacement
Actual Budget - YNAB type server that's super simple and meets my needs
Apache web server - portal to my projects
PiHole - DNS pass/allow list
PiVPN - Allows me to connect to my home VPN when abroad
2009Scape - A little RuneScape Private Server I turn on and off on my desktop when I'd like to afk at work
Docker - A couple docker instances - one on my test pi I use to roll out onto my "prod" servers
Backup server - 14TB backup with an offsite copy :D
Joplin - Note-taking app - barely a server connected through Nextcloud
Plex - Everyone knows about Plex - I'm thinking of switching to JellyFin
rtorrent - kinda old-school compared to the *arr programs but I enjoy manually downloading all my media :)
Hope I'm not forgetting any!
Lots. I have 2 proxmox hypervisors and 3 Raspberry Pi's; my OS of choice for servers is Ubuntu Server or Raspbian.
Experimental:
Failed to get working:
I feel like I'm late, but
I'm running a single node microk8s cluster on a dual xeon (20 cores each for a total of 40 cores) server with (only) 64 gb ram. Wish I could do more but this is on a microatx dual slot motherboard that maxes at 64gb.
I have this attached to a 72tb das.
I currently live in an RV so I had to downsize my bare metal cluster to 1. It's sufficient for now 😊
The usual:
I'm also experimenting with some other little things, like Grocy (self hosted home inventory); I want to try to host my own Lemmy instance, and someone here mentioned Viewtube as well.
Raspberry Pi 4B
Got 2 24/7 runners in my home:
In addition, I'm hosting a couple of Wireguard VPS in the US and a Nordic country to give me access to regional content (I pay for a few regional services through friends living there - i.e. they pay monthly and I pay them yearly for an account on a region-locked service) - not sure if that counts as "self-hosting" :)
A few LAN Minecraft instances for my wife and I, a personal Git server, Plex, SMB file share, and a few Docker containers on a MINISFORUM UM690 Mini PC. Been very happy with that little machine!
I run an I2P instance and I'm starting to look at Plex. I wonder if those can be combined.
Basic stuff
I haven't actually started self-hosting anything yet, though at least I've bought a domain and I'm paying for an email service using that domain. It's nice and easy while still giving me some control my e-mail address and not being beholden to the likes of Google. I did so after my long time e-mail I had had all my life through my parents' internet provider was deleted with no warning.
I've also been looking into buying a NAS for use as a media server and backup target. I'll probably go with a Synology one for now, just to keep maintenance to a minimum. Maybe in the future I'll do something more advanced.
Oh boy here I go:
Hardware: Ryzen 7900X, 128GB Ram, 2x12TB HDD, 2x2TB SSD
What I'm running:
All the things! I've got a hybrid VMware cluster (two nodes at home and one in a DC) with a bunch of VMs for stuff like Plex, Plesk, Gitlab, Lemmy, Stable Diffusion, etc. also running a 5-node Rancher k8s cluster.
Some of my public services do actually run from home but are routed through ZeroTier to my Nginx Proxy Manager appliance.
Pretty much everything is running RHEL8 or CoreOS after a recent migration. Veeam for backups (two community instances since I'm too cheap to pay for licensing for personal stuff).
Edit:
Not sure this one counts but...
I have proxmox running on PC in my closet. So far not a ton of things hosted on it:
Current:
Planned:
If you're open to things similar to Plex, I'd recommend Jellyfin! Plex has been making some decisions lately that aren't necessarily selfhoster friendly. A selfhosted instance of Plex still authenticates using Plex's central servers (if you're internet is out or Plex is down and you want to stream your own movies or shows, that won't work due to failed authentication). That's compared to your Jellyfin instance handling authentication locally. If you can contact your server, you can watch your media. Plex has also announced a credit skipping feature, uploading credit timing to their central servers that can be restored on complete rebuild. While they say it's anonymous, they need some way to associate you and the proper credit timings, to send that back to you.
Jellyfin is earlier days in development, and you should check to see what clients are available to see if that would work with your hardware. But Jellyfin is definitely catching up, I've been very happy with their server and applications.