Self-Hosted Main

Both!

I love Jelkyfin and Jellyseer, so does my family. It’s huge for us. Sonarr/Radarr/Bazarr enable the awesomeness.

Home Assistant is the fucking bomb. I can’t even describe how good. Married up with Shelly relays our house is ridiculous, it’s so much damn fun. And takes care of a lot for us.

Pi-Hole. Good lord. I will never live without it.

Unifi Controller. I have 5 APs ( a couple outdoor rated ones in enclosures outside even). Love the seamless roaming and multiple network controls. Guest, IoT, etc.

Vaultwarden. Outstanding password management tool. And no perpetual subscription? swoon

Project Send. Use it infrequently but it’s great.

IT Tools. Some fun little utils that are handy.

ESPHome. Custom IR Blasters, DIY Irrigation Controller. No cloud - perfection.

And yeah I’ve got the backend stuff. Nginx(SWAG), Whats Up Docker, SWAG Dashboard, Homepage, Authentik. But I’m into this stuff. Bachelors and Masters in comp sci. Worked with computers since I was 7 with my 300 baud - BAUD - modem. Worked in IT since I got a job doing warranty work on Packard Bells in high school for a local shop. This stuff is my jam.

I run my entire home automation, DVR, streaming system, voice command system, local file backups, etc; from my self hosted setups. I also built all the systems and since it is self-hosted it all works when the internet goes out except for a couple of things I one-time read from the cloud (like guide data lookup, media data, etc).

On top of that there is value in doing it just to learn if it is anywhere near your career field, which for me it is (software & electrical engineering).

I went the opposite direction: I did use local clients and migrated from those to self-hosted solutions with web interfaces.

Notes for example: I used to keep notes locally until I discovered first BookStack then Trilium. Trilium does everything I need, but simply having a link to its web interface on my dashboard and editing notes in there is so much more convenient than keeping a local client updated on all my devices and setting up sync.

For the same reason, I prefer using one self-hosted webmail client (currently simply NextCloud Mail) over installing Thunderbird on all my devices.

Same with Vikunja, I am perfectly happy with the functionality and web interface, I find it more convenient than installing many local clients.

Last but not least, FreshRSS has completely changed the way I consume information from the internet. And again, having an amazing web interface, being able to freely switch devices, without having to maintain/sync several local clients, is extremely convenient.

And that's just productivity apps, my whole entertainment setup depends on my media centre: Audiobookshelf, Jellyfin, Navidrome. There is no way I could run this (and freely switch devices) without these self-hosted solutions.

I'm running home assistant and have bunch of automations that improve my life.

I'm also running a WhatsApp/signal not that transcribes voice messages for me. But that's running on a vserver

It really has improved my daily life. I may be a bit of an outlier since I'm also a developer and selfhost apps I've made.

Multi-scrobbler

I love music and have been recording (scrobbling) what I listen to for over a decade. I created this app to make the scrobbling process set-and-forget across all the platforms and locations I listen to music.

Tautulli Digest

This little app I wrote consolidates "newely added to plex" discord notifications and posts them all at the same time. Makes my discord server much less noisy.

Context Mod

A homegrown reddit moderation bot platform I developed. I selfhost u/ContextModBot and a slew of other moderator bots. This is probably the biggest advantage I get for self hosting. The bot uses a lot of bandwidth and can be CPU-intensive when doing image hashing and pixel comparisons. If I was hosting this on AWS I'd probably be paying hundreds of $$$ a month.

Web Hosting

Between Context Mod and a few other image and text web services used between my friends I do a modest amount of website traffic. Not the end of the world if I hosted in the cloud but still saving me some money for sure.

Home Assistant and Frigate

More common around here. HA has been a QoL upgrade from managing a bunch of different rando "smart home" apps. I also moved away from a Ring doorbell to an Amcrest AD410 with Frigate + Coral for human detection that records events straight to my NAS. No more paying subscription for storage and worrying about amazon peeping on my video.

I gave up on everything but my backups and a few syncs. You need both hardware security and software security to selfhost. And that requires maintenance.

Everything I self host I use each and every day (every other day, if I'm busy). I don't keep stuff hanging around just because.

I'm only self hosting a few things but they are all actually getting used for things

• Shinobi (camera software)
• pihole
• valheim server
• truenas

Eventually I would like to replace other services for self hosted alternatives such as Google photos and onenote. But I am severely limited by my upload speed (only 20mbps). I also desperately need to add a bigger/better UPS and some sort of kvm over ip as my power has been going out at least a few times a year.

I went through a long phase of fiddling around. Trying out multiple hypervisors, operating systems, docker containers, etc.

I have settled on the following and only do software updates now. I found stuff I want, have it all set up, and now I want it all to just work. I have daily automated backups so if something gets borked, I just restore. Also use Debian and Debian based for everything. Least amount of headache (for me) and rock solid.

1. Proxmox host and Proxmox Backup Server
2. VM's - pfSense, Home Assistant and Debian 11 for docker containers
3. Pi-hole, Cloudflared, Vaultwarden and Stirling PDF in LXC's
4. Docker Containers - UniFi Controller, InvoiceNinja, PiGallery2, LinkAce and Jellyfin
5. NAS - OpenMediaVault with Syncthing
6. Cloudflare Tunnels and Tailscale to have access to everything when out

My life became less stressfull since I started to depend less on technology. I do need a playground to keep my skills sharp tho.

For me its like:

Im using a service and I like it. I exceed some limit. I have to pay. No *free* (hosted) alternative. Looking for a selfhosted alternative.

I currently only hosting Cal.com, Listmonk, Some Scrum Planning Poker, Authentik and self programmed software.

Well, I'm running my own CA/PKI just for the sake of it. Still very useful and more private and convenient for my homelab+.

As for apps themselves, some of them are really useful to me:

• bookmarks (own software)
• Samba/WebDAV
• knowledgebase (WordPress)
• IoT stuff (own software)

The others are useful, but I still haven't unleashed their true potential:

• NextCloud+Collabora
• (photos solution, deciding on it now)
• Gitea

The third group helps me to run my homelab:

• OIDplus
• speedtest
• monitoring
• NTP
• sandboxes/playgrounds
• (internal mail server, still choosing)

Tried these, but decided not to use, at least for now:

• PiHole (using uBlock/MikroTik DNS+firewall for now)
• Grist

I have Wireguard setup in a small instance in AWS. No longer need NordVPN. Other services I host in my homelab.

I have Trilium replaced Evernote. I use it daily. It's my source of everything. It's lack of a mobile client, but I'm fine with using the PWA

My Jellyfin is not meant to replace Netflix, but absolutely necessary. I used it daily

Tdarr is also needed, but not always

Transmission: Download movies to use with Jellyfin, obviously

Motioneye: Use it with a Webcam to monitor my room

Ntfy: Since I use a macbook and an android phone, this is a good way to send messages among devices. Also, motioneye will send motion detection messages using this service. I used to use Line/FB message bot to send notifications, but it's kinda messed up with normal messages

Webtop: need to move files around sometimes. Using a desktop is more reliable. I tried filebrowser, but with large file moving, it falls short

Code server: development on the cloud. Normally, I don't need it much, but when travelling, I can use it with a tablet, so there is no need to bring my laptop

Caprover: I use this to deploy most of my app. Also, this is my own CI/CD pipeline for my projects

Samba: SMB shares. Needed for Tdarr. Usually, I use SFTP instead.

I got other services running too but just to test if they satisfy my need. If not, I will scale them to 0. Maybe after some time when they grow, they will be useful for me

Home Assistant is the single greatest thing in my home. Everything is smart and connected now.

Was setting up paperless easy for a k8s cluster?

I selfhost because I'm a cheap SOB. I initially started self hosting circa 2001 when I taught myself Linux (desktop first, then server). As I moved around the world, I simply took my server with me, and once I found a cheap ISP, I was back at it. I've never had issues that weren't brought on by my incessant tinkering (well, I did have a fan fail, and caused my server to shut off once).

I'm a life long fan of learning by doing, so when I need something my server can't provide, I go shopping (opensource of course) until I find a work around, substitute, or different route to achieve my goal.

My drawback is that the majority of my backups aren't easily restorable. My data/images and files are safe, but restoring the web sites, databases, and other miscellaneous things are usually a do-over (I do have a new backup plan going, but haven't had to test it out fully yet - Jetpack and updraft for my Wordpress site.

Plex + all the arrs
Overseerr
Home Assistant

I know it's boring, but all of these get used every day and they make my life way better. Except that my plex install has a corrupt DB entry and I don't have the time/energy to blow up the database and re-setup my libraries. Restarting the cleaner fixes it for about 24 hours. Might just need to setup a cron job until I find some actual time.

There's many, but the most improvement is plex with the whole servarr stack automating nearly everything behind the curtain. Plus notifiarr with trash guides library improvements.

Besides that, home assistant also improves my life quite a lot.

I'm running quite many apps. Just some:

Linkding to collect bookmarks Mealie to collect recipes Nextcloud syncing to photoprism Syncthing to backup the phone on the fly (downloads, app backups, GPS logs to replace Google time-line)

I buy DVDs at the thrift store for $1 and put them on my Emby server. I could (but don't) just torrent all the things, like most people, but that isn’t fun. Finding a movie I like reminds me of going to Blockbuster as a kid. At the same time, I like the modern conveniences and features of the "Netflix" type software. It's just a better all-around experience than what I get with DVD alone.

Self-hosting is great for people who don’t want to pay for software, services, music, movies, etc… but are willing to pay with time.

I do it because renting the equivalent capacity from a cloud provider would cost me a hell of a lot more per month than the electrical bill I pay to keep it running.

Plus, having a server rack in my basement is cool :P

As T1 diabetic, hosting my own CGM (Nightscout) and using its companion apps has led to me lowering and maintaining my HbA1c to prediabetic values.

I use my Nextcloud at my employment all the time. It's a great way to get scripts I have written deployed on client machines.

I use my Exchange server for all my alerting and subscribed mail lists. Plus I have the Proxmox mail filter in front of that which is really good at keeping the spam away.

I have self deployed Bitwarden and have come to depend on that very quickly. Pihole and Zabbix are other tools I use as well as having tftp and anon ftp servers up. So yes, my homelab is part of what allows me to work effectively.

Can you tell me a bit more about how you use syncthing with nextcloud ?

Paperless, immich. seafile, nextcloud, minecraft, home-assistant, pihole, jellyfin - they all improve my or my family's life.

I often have the issue it worth it debate with myself…

I use a turnkey version of Tracks for todo purposes- but is not life changing.

Also use plex for my music and movies (but also subscribe to 3 services but as these services removed content Plex has a place). Trying to buy my music on the smaller digital platforms or on second hand market - but fewer CDs available for newer content! 🤔.

On the plus side- your post has made me interested in paperless and obsidian.

Although being heavily on Apple not sure if there is a huge benefit over simple notes

Mostly for the sake of it as a hobby. I love learning more about selfhosting services as well as networking. I’ve spent countless nights setting up some networking stuff that doesn’t benefit my use case whatsoever, but could be useful to know if I ever were to work in that sphere.

yeap, agreed ...for me nextcloud, wordpress,qbittorrent for a little bit of yoho yoho and a backup container to nfs...few zabbix monitoring containers is all i have got on my pi cluster.

I do plex and sonar It has saved me some bucks

The only reason for me to selfhost is that I dont like to use some services which are proposed by market. Like I use firefly-iii as there's just no alternatives convenient for me. I use wireguard because there's no vpn to get things done in way I want. The same with ghostfolio, paperless-ngx and drone. There's just no alternatives to match my requirements so I'm forced to selfhost

I think it depends on the person. My self hosting is lean and mean - I don't bother setting up any of the complex meta-self-hosting stuff, my services just run on docker with port forwarding.

Additionally all my services are things I absolutely use daily. Very rarely does a day go by that I don't listen to audio books on my AudiobookShelf server, and my wife uses our Plex daily to watch her favorite shows, which also allowed us to ditch a few streaming subscriptions

If there's a cloud app that offers good value for the money - I use that instead, afterall self hosting isnt free, you pay with your time (and electricity bill, but that's negligible)

If you find that the only worthwhile thing you host is your file management stuff, why not just ditch the rest? There's no gold medal for "most things self hosted", the point is to make your life easier, not harder

I actually host nightscout, that's the one that is mainly useful for me personally. Technically nightscout advocates against self-hosting but it actually seemed simpler for me to self host than figuring out and keeping track of which providers will give me enough for free to run it since it keeps changing.

The only reason I got a homeserver was jellyfin. I spend way too much on storage since then... make it stop.... I also got an Nvidia shield for that reason. Couldve watched netflix, amazon and disney for years for that money, but I dont regret a second here and use it daily since. So yeah it did improve my daily life.

I'm a big proponent of self-hosted apps, but I am not a fan of docker/containers so it's definitely not just for the sake of running containers for me.

Using free online services is convenient, but if ALL you use is online services then someone else or some company controls you. I like to self host as much as I possibly can. If we don't, cloud computing will take over, and home/consumer computer hardware will eventually die off.

plex is my main purpose for self hosting and always has been. Also i'm a sr systems engineer, so my selfhosting environment is also for experimenting with things for my career. I was trying make my media accessible to friends since 2009 or so, back when the Boxee came out. I've made use of the *arrs. overseerr, so my people can just request content from there instead of piling up a wish list to dump on me out of the blue.

outside of media, these prove useful for life and my career (that aren't just supporting the homelab)

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I use synology for my storage and i like their email server / webmail.

syncthing i use for keeping my emulator saves in sync across all my devices, as well as some documents.

vaultwarden

privatebin (vault warden has this feature... but i don't want my vaultwarden directly exposed)

usememos is my favorite quick note app. i like obsidian but i can't get behind it until it's web friendly. I know someone built a docker image of obsidian that runs from a webtop but egh it's ugly. The ipad app is nice though. There are some other options that are closer to obsidian, but I just really like usememos.

slash is nice link shortener which lets you view metrics for the links you create. I think it's made by one of the team members that made usememos.

resumeRX. I apply for different types of roles so i have several different resumes I need to tailor for different positions.

immich. just because i refuse to pay for apple/google photos storage and using enough space to be forced to keep using them.

phpipam/netbox. i like documenting my network but not in a spreadsheet.

duplicati. local and cloud backups

drawio. just a self hosted version of the web drawio. can't be making diagrams containing sensitive information on some random publicly hosted server.

actualbudget. it's helpful, but I still wish there was a better option for this. I know there is firefly III. actualbudget is cleaner and easier to navigate.

metube. i'm' always needing to download youtube videos for some reason or another.

gitlab

planka (my wife and I both use this... basically trello)

Home assistant. I've got a lot automated. Mostly for fun, but still makes my life easier. My window shades, lights, fans, bathroom fans, TVs, presence sensors, A/C, garage doors, fridge, cameras, doorbell are all in node-red. My windows all close and lights turn off if my wife and I are both away unless there is a guest. etc. the windows open if it's stormy (I love storms). bathroom fans come on when the humidity hits a threshold, my garage lights come on if a person or car is in my driveway, but not a squirrel or bird, etc.

I don't like selfhosting because of the maintenance and complexity. But I get to use Plex, Transmission with a VPN, wakeonlan out of home using Tailscale, etc. So really useful overall.

I'm using a lot less tools that I've installed, now I need to remove some of this tools. I use Synology drive/photos, Plex/Jellyfin/Arr environment, mealie, paperless-ngx, resilio to share big files to my friends, freshrss, linkwarden, vikunja and Joplin.

Maybe I will remove home assistant (I'm not using it, I control devices with voice Alexa), snapdrop/gokapi/pingvin (localsend+resilio+Synology fractures cover this better).

I'm considering replace Joplin+vikunja for obsidian, but im not sure if I want to have mobile with syncthing all the to Sync my mobile with pc, maybe it will drain more battery.