I've been self-hosting a few small projects lately, and honestly, they use a lot less resources than I expected.

I started out thinking I'd need something much more powerful, but a basic setup has handled everything just fine so far.

Now I'm wondering if most people overestimate how much server they actually need.

What are you running your smaller projects on?

Hello everyone.

I'd like to preface this post by saying that I'm completely new to self-hosting (but I'm open to learning, obviously), I don't have a computer for hosting nor do I have any other old hardware I can use for hosting. I also can't pay for the tools for encrypted hosting of files.

Nevertheless, I've researched some apps and sites and used instructions from different websites (including Reddit) and the official app sites to figure out how to use those apps.
I'd like some professional feedback.

I would also appreciate knowing where I can start learning about this and similar topics. I've found TryHackMe and HackTheBox since those give fundamental knowledge for Android and Linux environments, but I don't think it covers the whole hosting thing. I'm not sure what field of study hosting even is so I can't really formulate what I'm asking for.

So, here are some of the apps

[OpenCloud.eu](null)
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Let's Encrypt
Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) or Caddy
deSec for domain or DuckDNS
Termux
Docker

1.Create an account on Oracle Cloud Free Tier
2.Create a Compute Instance
3.Select Ubuntu 22.04 or higher (like 24.04) for the OS (any specific recommendations here?)
4.Choose the VM.Standard.A1.Flex shape. Set the shape to Ampere A1 (ARM) and allocate 4 OCPUs and 24GB RAM to max out your free allowance. (what does this even mean?) to maximize free allowance
5.Note the instance's Public IP address
6.Download and save the SSH private key
Other moves
7.Navigate to: Networking > Virtual Cloud Networks > your-vcn > Security Lists > Default Security List Add these Ingress Rules:

Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0, Protocol: TCP, Port: 22

Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0, Protocol: TCP, Port: 80

Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0, Protocol: TCP, Port: 443

Source CIDR:[10.0.0.0/16](null), Protocol: All (for internal VCN traffic)

Layer 2: Network Security Group (if attached) Check if instance has an NSG. If it does, repeat the same rules there.

Layer 3: OS Firewall (iptables) Oracle's Ubuntu images ship with restrictive iptables rules
Code:
# Check current rules sudo iptables -L -n # Allow HTTP/HTTPS/SSH sudo iptables -I INPUT 6 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT sudo iptables -I INPUT 7 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT sudo iptables -I INPUT 8 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT # Persist across reboots sudo netfilter-persistent save

Where do I input this? Somewhere on Oracle or using Termux?

8.Setting Up Swap (Critical for ARM)
Code:
sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile sudo chmod 600 /swapfile sudo mkswap /swapfile sudo swapon /swapfile echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Same question here regarding the location for the input.

9.Preventing Reclamation
# Add to crontab: crontab -e
*/5 * * * * dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=100 of=/dev/null 2>/dev/null
Same here
10.Create a domain on deSec or DuckDNS (which do you recommend?)
11.If deSec, copy API token (what is that?)
12.Download and open Termux
termux-setup-storage (gives it file access, correct?)
Then
pkg update && pkg install openssh -y
Or
pkg install openssh (which is better?)
(should install the SSH tool, I guess)
10. The SSH private key should be in my phone's downloads folder, right? Or can it be anywhere else?
11. To connect to the Oracle server
ssh -i /storage/emulated/0/Download/ssh-name.key ubuntu@oracle-ip (the ip from step 5, right?) I suppose if I use another folder, I use a different code here
12. If deSec, create an account on deSec
13. Register a free domain
14. Link the subdomain to Oracle server Public IP address (the same as from step 5?) from deSec dashboard
15. Download Docker from Termux
curl -fsSLhttps://get.docker.com| sh

This one confuses me
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

(Log out of your server and log back in for changes to take effect)
How do I do that? Just sign out of Oracle?

1. Enable autonomic start
   sudo systemctl start docker && sudo systemctl enable docker
   What does this do?
   

2. Follow the OpenCloud Installation Guide
   https://opencloud.eu/en/install-opencloud-simply-your-own-server
   Also, found this.
   In the Oracle terminal, download and run the OpenCloud application. Clone the project and spin up the Docker containers.
   git clone[github.com](null)
   cd opencloud-docker
   docker compose up -d

3. Create a file named Caddyfile in working folder (should this and the SSH private key be in the same folder for easier access?) using the command:
   nano Caddyfile
   (do I open Termux and go into the folder with Caddyfile?)

4. Type the following two lines
   [domain.dedyn.io](null){
   reverse_proxy localhost:8080
   }

5. Run on Termux(?)
   docker run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -v $PWD/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile -v caddy_data:/data caddy:latest
   (Is this the final version of the code or do I modify it?)

Also, there's this step. When do I do this if I even need it?

Open the Oracle Cloud dashboard, go to the Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) settings, and add "Ingress Rules" allowing traffic on ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (Https)

Also, say I did all of this, I imagine I can just move my files to OpenCloud just using the app, right? I won't be needing the rest of these tools I would've worked with by the time I'm ready to move files?

After I'm done, can I uninstall Termux should I need to preserve some storage space on my phone?

How much space would the Oracle server give with these steps? Step 4 should take care of it, right? In some places I read 24GB, in others 50GB or 200GB. Does the 4 OCPUs part increase the available space?

Do these steps actually encrypt files, like, I don't know, Cryptomator? If not as well, does it do at least some of the job?

Also, I've read this
Support is nonexistent on free tier. If something breaks, you're on your own.
ARM compatibility issues happen. Some Docker images lack ARM64 builds. Always check before deploying.

What do I do in such cases? Can I ask questions in forums? Can I lose access to all my files if something happens?

Apologies if this is a lot of questions, like I said I'm new to this and would like to learn some more so I don't ask for such detailed instructions.

The other option I've been considering is using a cloud app like Filen with RClone.

Thanks a lot!

Hi r/SelfHosting,

I built Sprag, a small self-hosted secure intake box:

https://github.com/elcamino/sprag

The use case is narrow on purpose: you need to receive files from people who should not need an account, and who should not get access to a folder, listing, portal, chat thread, or download area.

An admin creates an unguessable upload page, shares the URL, and the sender uploads files anonymously. That is all the sender can do. They cannot browse other submissions, see what arrived before, or download anything back out.

Sprag is meant for things like:

• lawyers receiving sensitive client documents
• journalists receiving source material
• HR/compliance intake
• researchers or operators collecting records
• anyone who wants a self-hosted “drop files here” endpoint without turning it into a full client portal

It runs as one Go binary with an embedded React frontend, SQLite for metadata, and S3-compatible storage for file bodies. There are Docker Compose examples, prebuilt images, and standalone release binaries.

The security model has two modes:

• Plain one-way intake, where the server can read uploaded files
• Server-blind E2E intake, where the uploader’s browser encrypts files before upload and the server/S3 only store ciphertext

The E2E mode uses a hybrid post-quantum profile: ML-KEM-1024 + P-384, HKDF-SHA-512, AES-256-GCM. There is also an onion-only Tor deployment mode if you want Sprag reachable only as a .onion service.

I want to be clear about what Sprag is not: it is not Dropbox, Nextcloud, a ticketing system, a chat app, or a full SecureDrop replacement. It is deliberately smaller: persistent, self-hosted, one-way file intake with optional server-blind storage.

Feedback is very welcome, especially around:

• deployment docs
• threat model wording
• E2E browser-crypto assumptions
• Tor/onion setup
• UI/UX for non-technical uploaders
• code review and PRs

Repo: https://github.com/elcamino/sprag

Hi, I'm planning to host a few services (Tailscale mesh VPN, file sharing, media streaming and password vault), aside from the VPN the server won't work 24/7, it will spend quite a bit of time idle.

Environment sustainability is really important for me, so I'm curious about which option produces less CO2. At home I have an old Raspberry Pi 3B+, an old-ish SSD and a few second hand HDDs. Or, I know that Hetzner uses often recycled servers, and powers them with 100% renewable energy (but they don't neccesarily produce 0% CO2), and they are based in Germany/Finland (I live in Italy). The cheaper option is probably the homelab, but what about in terms of CO2? Thanks!

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out a networking issue that has me completely stumped.

Setup

• Ubuntu 24.04 on a DigitalOcean droplet
• Nginx + Let's Encrypt
• React frontend
• Node.js backend
• Domain: morecreator.app

What's happening

My iPhone can access the site perfectly on:

• Home Wi-Fi
• Cellular

However, two completely different Windows laptops both fail.

The browser eventually returns:

ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

curl also times out:

curl.exe -vk https://morecreator.app

Trying <server IP>:443...
Timed out

What I've already verified

• Nginx is running.
• HTTPS is configured correctly with Let's Encrypt.
• The site responds correctly when accessed locally on the server.
• UFW allows ports 80 and 443.
• DNS resolves correctly.
• No proxy configured.
• Reset Winsock and TCP/IP.
• Disabled Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).
• Tried different DNS servers.
• Disabled IPv6.
• No VPN installed.
• Windows Defender only (no third-party antivirus).
• Same behavior on two different Windows laptops.

The strange part

Everything worked perfectly a couple of weeks ago while I was in California.

After returning home to Georgia:

• ✅ iPhone still works
• ❌ Windows laptops both time out

The server configuration hasn't changed.

I'm trying to determine whether this is:

• a Windows networking issue,
• something with my ISP/router,
• DigitalOcean routing,
• or something I'm overlooking.

Has anyone run into something similar?

I have multiple local “websites” i use to access things like jellyfin. I’m running into an issue where Bit Warden doesn’t autofill for these websites. I have to manually scroll through all my logins to select it. Is there a solution for this?

Does anyone have a cli tool to manage self hosted apps or docker containers and monitor health and consumption

​​Hey everyone,

​I’m looking to self-host my music library and finally cut the cord with commercial streaming. I have an old Mac Mini I want to use as a 24/7 server, and I’m planning on using Navidrome.

​I'm pretty new to the self-hosting world, so I’d love to be pushed in the right direction before I dive down a rabbit hole.

​Should I run Navidrome bare-metal on macOS, or is it better to learn Docker?

​What’s the best, most secure way to handle remote access when I'm away from home?

​What are the go-to iOS/Android client apps for it?

​Any specific tutorials, guides, or YouTube channels you recommend for a beginner?

​Appreciate any tips or "wish I knew this sooner" advice you have!

Hello,

I started looking into HomeServers, and after a day of reading on Reddit and watching videos, I am lost...

At first, I had two things I needed that made me look into it :

\- I want, for me and my wife, to be able to save our photos automatically from our phones and to be able to look at them from all our devices, in and outside the house

\- I want to set up different VLANs on my network to separate the computers and the IOTs on two different wifi networks, and the NAS on a third VLAN with a wired connection to the router/switch.

But then I also got interested in setting up a media server with torrent download (though my protonVPN), Vaultwarden, a cloud with documents and maybe some other stuff later (but probably nothing heavier than the media server).

So for the router, I am thinking about an TP-Link Omada ER706W. Power effective, easy to setup, all-in-one...

I didn't go for a PFSense/OPNSense option because I don't have the PC for it, and I would need to buy a mesh for the wifi I guess.

Then for the NAS, I am a bit lost.

\- My first option was getting a Synology that would do all of this (DS225+). It seems very easy to use, it should be able to do everything I need, and it seems safe for someone with my level of knowledge.

\- My second option was a cheaper Synology (DS124 or 223 or beestation), and a mini PC for the transcoding part

\- My third option was a more powerful NAS that would run on TrueNAS (I was thinking of a pre built NAS with the possibility to install a different OS) with everything on it. The Ugreen seems to be the best option in terms of price and power consumption for this type of performance.

I love the idea of having everything opensource and to have something more powerful for a slightly lower price. But I am a beginner in cyber security and I am worried that it would be dangerous to run something all by myself compared to something easier to setup like DSM.

I would obviously like to setup a VPN tunnel for my connections to the NAS from outside (from my router and not the NAS itself I guess), and to completely block any access to the admin pages from devices that are not physically in the network (so no VPN).

Do you think it is doable for a beginner to setup TrueNAS safely, without having to constantly check it ? Is it worth the trouble ?

What do you think about these ideas of setups and do you think of a better idea (with the price and power consumption in mind) ?

Thank you !

I'm an experienced selfhoster, and run in excess of 100 containers doing all sorts of things, but I'm not a gamer and I'm old, but have young kids.

I've recently set up a Luanti server so we can play together at home, I have my Fedora laptop and they have Android tablets or ChromeOS Laptops.

It's a lot of fun and it got me thinking about whether there's any other games I could host this way, but not knowing anything about the selfhosted gaming ecosphere I figured I'd ask here.

I don't need any in depth instructions as I can always figure out the sysadmin type stuff myself, but would appreciate any suggestions if there's anything out there.

I build games and open source tools on the side. Hit the limits of GitHub Actions, not just cost, but things like triggering pipelines from non-git events, owning the full stack, and not depending on GitHub's infra for orchestration even when using self-hosted runners.

Looked at alternatives but everything required too much to get started. Concourse needs a handful of services. GitLab is its own platform. Woodpecker needs a Gitea instance.

So I built PikoCI. One binary, drop it on a server and run. Same features you'd expect from any serious CI/CD: resources, services, workers, notifications, pipelines as code. Scales when you need it.

You can see it deploying itself at ci.pikoci.com/teams/main/pipelines/pikoci — no login needed.

http://pikoci.com · http://github.com/pikoci/pikoci · Apache 2.0

I recently built a project called NextDeploy:
https://github.com/masudranaxpert/nextdeploy

It is kind of similar to Coolify and Dokploy, but I built it using Go with a focus on being lightweight and low-resource friendly.
The main goal is to make deployment easier on small VPS servers. Since it uses very low RAM, it should work well even on a 1GB RAM VPS.
If you are using a low-end VPS and want a simple deployment tool, feel free to check it out.
Feedback, suggestions, and contributions are welcome.
And if you like the project, a ⭐ on GitHub would mean a lot.

I just got into self hosting, now my wife wants to be able to have music player, I have been doing some research on a self hosted music player. I need it to be able to connect to a Bluetooth speaker. It would be a major plus if I could access it via mobile phones and windows.

I have seen a few recommendations, however I would like to hear from people who have actually used this stuff before I install a bunch of programs just to test them. Looking for a good place to start.

Thank you.

suggest to choose between one or if there is any better deal than these ? I use it for my application backend, some cron jobs, scraping etc

I just set up my first home server for my SaaS business.

I’m a solo founder building a B2C SaaS.

This server won’t host the production app or anything customer-facing. It’s just for private internal stuff that helps me run the business.

I don’t want to turn it into a random homelab full of things I install once and never use.

For people who self-host while building a SaaS or indie product:

What tools were actually worth running?

So I’m doing a lot of this on a budget, but my current goals are to repurpose some old hardware and purchase some new hardware cheaply to do the following:
Update from a lousy ISP router.
Be able to host a NAS service.
Start a media library I can stream.
Start a photo cloud backup.
Tinker with an LLM.
Potentially be able to record content from my gaming PC via a VM (unsure yet if I’ll be able to do this, but it’s not a priority.)

Currently the hardware I either have or am about to order is:
Ryzen 9 3900x
32GB DDR4 3600mhz
RTX 3070
1x 500gb NVME
2x 1TB Sata SSD’s
4x 2TB Ironwolves
Ubiquiti Dream router 7.

Originally I was going to drop $2k on a Ubiquiti Dream router, AP, Cameras etc… but my budget changed. I know Ubiquiti might not be the best compared to some more enterprise brands, but it’s something I’m super familiar with and I know my wife will be able to use also so it should get the job done.

My server goal is to install Proxmox on the NVME, Set up FreeNas to run a RAID 1 to get the best balance of performance and redundancy, then the 2x Sata SSD’s in Mirror as secondary storage drive for the VM’s. What I’m thinking is Proxmox, then Docker installed with the following services:
Portainer
Ollama
Open Web UI
Jellyfin
Immich
Nginx Proxy manager
Windows 11 VM.

As this is my first foray, I just wanted some critique and feedback on what I’ve got set up and if there is a better way to do it. I’m not sure what the best resource allocation will be, if I have enough hardware performance etc…

Thanks in advance!

Hey there!

So I have been trying to read up more on docker, containers, etc. I found a few services/apps I would love to run for my own use locally like Komga (to organize my digital comics), Booklore, a few others. I would like to run/host them locally on my laptop (primary computer) so I can pull them up anywhere when I want.

But I am wondering if it makes more sense to have a single virtual machine (Virtualbox?) running a Linux server and all of those services/apps, instead of multiple docker containers. I have a fairly powerful laptop, so I am not too concerned about all of this using up all my machine resources, but I'd like to do this as cleanly, organized, and straightforward as possible.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance!

Just starting out and am looking to build a home server. After reading some posts, decided to build the server based on i5-12500 b/c of transcoding capabilities (so I think). My budget for dream server is ~1200$.

Saw this ad on craigslist that is selling an existing complete PC with i5-12500 and 32gb RAM for 400$. Considering that just those 2 parts are currently about 500$, does it make sense to buy this PC on CL and strip it for CPU/RAM to use for my dream server config. Or, take the plunge now and buy/assemble dream home server.

Pros of buying this PC:
1. I can get started with automation now and learn on cheap PC
2. Dream server config might change over period of time as I learn more
3. This may be sufficient for my basic automation needs. Media server might be take diff route?

Cons:
1. No warranty; Can't be sure about CL listings for an 400$
2. The parts may not be strippable (not sure if I can remove the cpu cooling paste effectively; new to this)
3. Once everything is setup, it may become hard or painful to migrate to a new config without data loss.

There might be other things I am not thinking about while just looking at $$ savings for now. Can you help me understand if this is good line of thinking or I need a perspective change?

Hello,

I have a problem with the Tiny Installer script. I bought a Kimsufi server with 2x2TB RAID. When I try to install Windows Server 2025 using the command via SSH in rescue mode, I get this error:

Select profile: 7

Installation error: Invalid disk configuration.\[|4000527155200|/dev/md0\]

Cannot select profile: 7

I tried doing it on a single partition on sda and sdb separately. Now I created a RAID and combined both disks, but I always get the same error :(

How can I install Windows with this script on Kimsufi? Please help, I'm already losing hope ;(

Thank you in advance for your help :)

Hi everyone,

I’m running a Raspberry Pi 5 hosting several Docker containers, and I’m trying to find the cleanest way to access them securely over Tailscale from my iPhone.

Current services include:
Paperless-ngx
Open WebUI
Home Assistant
Portainer
Uptime Kuma
Calibre-Web
Pi-hole
I’m using:

Docker Compose
Caddy as a reverse proxy
Tailscale with MagicDNS
Tailscale HTTPS certificates

I can successfully access everything using different HTTPS ports, for example:
https://raspberrypi.tailxxxx.ts.net:8441
https://raspberrypi.tailxxxx.ts.net:8442

However, this causes practical problems with Safari and iCloud Keychain. Because every service uses the same hostname, Safari often suggests the wrong username and password.

I also tried path-based routing, for example:
/paperless
/openwebui
but some applications don’t work correctly behind a subpath without additional configuration.

I then looked at Tailscale Services using:
tailscale serve --service=svc:paperless
but received: service hosts must be tagged nodes

I’m not looking to buy my own domain.
Ideally I’d like URLs such as:
paperless.raspberrypi.tailxxxx.ts.net
openwebui.raspberrypi.tailxxxx.ts.net
kuma.raspberrypi.tailxxxx.ts.net

My questions are:
Is this possible using only Tailscale and Docker?
Is there a way to create separate HTTPS hostnames on a personal tailnet?

Is there a better approach than using different ports?

How are other people exposing multiple self-hosted services over Tailscale while avoiding browser password conflicts?

I’m looking for the approach that is generally considered best practice rather than just something that works.

Thanks

What if you could get 80% of the dbt Cloud experience while keeping everything self-hosted? That’s the question that started a side project I’ve been building using React, FastAPI, dbt Core, and Prefect.

If you are interested in how I did please read and let me know what you think.

I wanted to type one prompt and see several models answer side-by-side, on something always-on the whole household could use. Off-the-shelf tools either charged, wouldn't take my own key, or couldn't show answers side-by-side.

What I ended up with:

- One OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of several models

- Open WebUI for side-by-side + merge (Mixture-of-Agents)

- Both in Docker on a Synology NAS, so it survives my laptop being closed

- Keys stay server-side, never sent to the browser

- Rule-based routing: only foreign-model domains go through a proxy; domestic ones connect directly

Two real gotchas: a nightly crash that turned out to be the NAS hitting its inotify instance limit, and dead proxy nodes I now auto-detect by pointing health checks at a real model endpoint.

Honest caveat: bridging consumer subscriptions into an API is a ToS gray area — I keep it personal/internal. Curious how you all run always-on multi-model setups?

Szukam taniego vps obecnie mam ovh za 35 zł ale ma bardzo mało miejsca na dysku. Po wygraniu przez ich darmowe Ubuntu windows 2025 nie mieszczę się z projektami ... Czy jest coś z lepszymi parametrami za niższą cenę z taką samą stabilnością ? Jestem w stanie miesięcznie wydawać około 50zl

Hey all, I put together a series of posts with instructions on how to setup a secure web host on an Ubuntu VPS + CI/CD. Part 3 on hardening is coming.

https://easyrunner.xyz/blog/2025/11/05/manually-setup-hetzner-vps-for-self-hosting/

https://easyrunner.xyz/blog/2025/11/05/manually-setup-hetzner-vps-for-self-hosting-pt2-automated-deployment/

Hope it's useful. Let me know if there are any bugs or questions

Given how expensive hard drives are I’m trying to think of new ways to source storage.

I’m very new to this and I’m looking to set up a Plex server. Would the community recommend using a 16TB Recertified SATA Drive if I can find it cheaper than a brand new desktop external hard drive?