Hi all,

question to you: How many of your selfhosted Apps are improving your life? Which apps are you really using on a daily/weekly basis?

Many of my running containers are just for … running containers.

Portainer, Nginx Proxy Manager, Authentik, Uptime-Kuma, Wireguard … they are not improving my life, they are only improving Selfhosting. But we are not doing selfhosting just for the sake of it? Do we? …

Many of my running containers … are getting replaced by Open Source client software eventually

  • I’ve installed Trilium Notes - but I’m using Obsidian (more plugins, mobile apps, easy backup)
  • I’ve installed Vikunja - but I’m using Obisdian (connecting tasks with notes is more powerful)
  • I’ve installed Snapdrop - but I’m using LocalSend (more reliable)
  • I’ve installed Bitwarden - but I’m using KeePass (easy backups, better for SSH credentials)
  • I’ve installed AdGuard - but I’m using uBlock (more easy to disable for Shopping etc.)

So the few Selfhosted Apps, that improve my life

File Management

  • Paperless NGX - all my documents are scanned and archived here
  • Nextcloud - all my files accessible via WebUI (& replaced Immich/Photoprism with Photos plugin)
  • Syncthing - all my files synchroniced between devices and Nextcloud
  • Kopia - Backup of all my files encrypted into the cloud

And that’s a little bit sad, right? The only “Job to be done” self-hosting is a solution for me is … file management. Nothing else.

What are your experiences? How makes self-hosting your life better?

( I’m not using selfhosting for musc / movies / series nowadays, as streaming is more convenient for me and I’m doing selfhosting mainly because of privacy and not piracy reasons - so that usecase is not included in my list ;)My only SmartHome usecase is Philips Hue - and I’m controlling it with Android Tasker )

  • louislamlam@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Uptime Kuma maintainer here. The reason why I made this because I have some services like databases and websites cannot be down for a long time. I need someone send a notification to me if they are down.

    If you think it is not improving your life, it is probably because you don’t have such similar scenario and you probably don’t need this indeed.

    My point is that it may be not improving your life, but it improves my life at least, or others’. That’s just a choice.

  • j0hnp0s@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I’d say I am 95% homelaber and 5% selfhoster. Most of my stuff is for experimentation and learning. And most of my services are vanilla ones, like samba. So in essence I am self-hosting not much more than a few linux environments.

    The things that are indispensable to me are samba, my docker development stack, uptime kuma, and a simple wordpress installation that I use for notes and documentation. Oh and lately Stirling-PDF. That thing is just awesome.

    I have tried various tools, but I keep coming back to vanilla samba for most stuff. Like paperless-ngx. For my needs, it’s just a fancy way to tag documents. I don’t need full text search or OCR, and I can find most of my files quickly using a simple directory hierarchy. I do not really need the extra overhead of maintaining paperless-ngx. The same for things like Immich, plex or Owncloud. Samba and file explorer preview works perfectly for me.

  • gramoun-kal@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Paperless has improved my life by at least 12%. There’s a “before paperless” era in my life when there was a 20-40% chance I would be able to find a sheet of printed paper that the bureaucracy of my country thought was more important than Life itself.

    Now, it’s a solid 100%.

    Nextcloud has improved my life by 3% I’d say. It basically does the same as Google. But I fell 3% better overall to not be so incredibly dependent on Google. If google imploded today, I’d still feel it because of Google Play Services on Android. But that’s pretty much the only thing.

  • dollhousemassacre@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    It’s all shits and giggles for me. Whatever service I fancy gets spun up, poked at and then left running until I need to free up resources for the next thing. It’s a wonderful mess.

  • z0r1337@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Mainly for privacy reason:

    • TeamSpeak
    • Seafile

    And something I find really useful: ChangeDetection, to monitor changes on webpages, like prices, stocks, news…

  • edthesmokebeard@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I don’t run any containers.

    I own my own data.

    I back up my own computers.

    My email is mine.

    You don’t need to overcomplicate it, it’s not a competition, and you don’t have to do what everyone else does.

  • WiseCookie69@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I host it to have my own data under my own roof.

    • Nextcloud (everything from pictures, over tax stuff to my keepass database)
    • Matrix server (even more important with every government on this planet pushing against encrypted messengers)
    • PiHole, that i can also use via DoH from my phone
    • Traccar instance to keep an eye on my car, when it’s in for service / maintenance / when i’m abroad

    I’ve worked in the hosting industry. I’ve witnessed an internal breach, where an employee abused access over a few corners and fetched files matching a certain pattern from all customer VPSes (Virtuozzo container based VPSes have their root filesystem accessible from the host)

  • Cybasura@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Started out with a simple samba file server for remote editing

    Then expanded into ipsec+ l2tp vpn server, then into ipsec + ikev2, then into wireguard vpm server and its been expanding ever since

    Never stopped since then

  • CrustyBatchOfNature@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I started just for funsies, and in the end narrowed it down to just those items that make life better for us. Primarily, I run 2 Technitium DNS (network wide ad blocking), Jellyfin (for media), Home Assistant (to control lights and other devices without internet access), Mealie (recipes), and Ubooquity (books and comics). I have run NextCloud, among other services, but none of them got enough use to make it worth it to continue.

  • Tibuski@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Selfhosted services I couldn’t do without anymore are :

    At Home

    • Homer
    • Home Assistant
    • Vaultwarden
    • Paperless-ngx

    At work

    • Promotheus/Blackbox/Grafana
    • Netbox
    • Gitea
    • Vaultwarden
    • Mkdocs Material
  • AnApexBread@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    Both. I have things that I host simply for fun, but most of my homelab is for experimentation.

    I practice with different technologies so I can try to learn how they work.

  • YankeeLimaVictor@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    My vaultwarden and addi.io (former anonaddy) and immich are a KEY part of my homelab. Me (and my family) heavily rely on these 2 services in specific. All the rest can be considered superfluous.

  • IWishIHavent@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    For me, it’s a mix of utility, hobby and learning.

    I’m a software developer putting my toes into DevOps. I’m using Raspberry Pi for this and other projects. And I have some songs saved through the years not on Spotify, and videos I would like to make accessible easily.

    • root_switch@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      I’m also in your shoes but backwards, devops/sysops to software/web dev (as a hobby). I have 3 raspberry pi’s in a docker swarm. I use the shit out of gitea, hastypaste, transfer.sh, localstack, bookstack, and I’ve just started building my own containerized apps!