Guides

One of the hidden maintenance costs of self-hosting is keeping everything updated. When you’re running 10, 20, or 50 Docker containers, manually pulling new images and recreating containers gets old fast. Miss an update and you might be running a version with known security vulnerabilities. Watchtower solves this by automatically monitoring your running containers, pulling new images when they’re available, and gracefully restarting containers with the same configuration. Set it up once, and your homelab stays current without you lifting a finger. ...

The Complete Docker Compose Backup Strategy for Self-Hosters You’ve got a dozen Docker Compose stacks humming along — Nextcloud for files, Vaultwarden for passwords, Gitea for code, maybe Immich for photos. Everything works great. Until it doesn’t. A corrupted disk, a bad update, an accidental docker volume rm — and suddenly you’re staring at data loss. If you don’t have a backup strategy, it’s only a matter of time. This guide walks through everything you need to back up your Docker Compose infrastructure properly. ...

If you’ve ever used Pocket or Instapaper to save articles for later, you know the value of a good read-it-later service. But those services track your reading habits, inject ads, and can shut down features at any time. Wallabag gives you the same experience — save articles with one click, read them distraction-free, sync across devices — entirely on your own server. In this guide, we’ll set up Wallabag with Docker, configure it with PostgreSQL for reliable storage, and connect browser extensions and mobile apps for a seamless reading workflow. ...

Want to host your own code without relying on GitHub or GitLab? Forgejo is a community-driven fork of Gitea — lightweight, fast, and designed to stay free forever. It’s everything you need for private repos, CI/CD, and team collaboration on your own hardware. Why Forgejo Over Gitea? Forgejo forked from Gitea in 2022 after governance concerns. The key differences: Community-governed — no single company controls it Guaranteed free — committed to staying FOSS, no enterprise bait-and-switch Federation support — working toward ActivityPub integration (follow repos across instances) Same codebase — if you know Gitea, you know Forgejo Drop-in replacement — migrate from Gitea with zero data loss Prerequisites Docker and Docker Compose ~256MB RAM (runs great on a Pi) A domain (optional but recommended) Step 1: Setup mkdir -p ~/forgejo && cd ~/forgejo Step 2: Docker Compose Create docker-compose.yml: ...

If you have a collection of eBooks scattered across devices, Calibre-Web brings them together into a beautiful, self-hosted library you can access from anywhere. Think of it as your personal Kindle store — minus the DRM and data harvesting. Calibre-Web is a web-based frontend for the popular Calibre eBook manager. It gives you a clean, modern interface to browse, read, and download your books from any browser or eReader device. ...

You’re already using OpenAI’s API for chat, embeddings, or image generation. But every request costs money, sends your data to a third party, and depends on their uptime. What if you could run the same API — same endpoints, same format — on your own hardware? That’s exactly what LocalAI does. What Is LocalAI? LocalAI is a drop-in replacement for the OpenAI API. It runs entirely on your server and supports: ...

You’re running a home server with important data — photos, documents, databases, configurations. What happens when a drive dies? When you accidentally rm -rf the wrong directory? When ransomware hits? Restic + Rclone is the gold standard backup combo for self-hosters. Restic creates fast, encrypted, deduplicated snapshots. Rclone syncs them to any cloud provider. Together, they give you enterprise-grade backups for free. The 3-2-1 Backup Rule Before we start, understand the rule that prevents data loss: ...

Mint is dead. YNAB costs $99/year. Your bank’s budgeting tools are terrible. Actual Budget is the answer — a fast, privacy-first budgeting app you can self-host for free. Originally a paid product, Actual was open-sourced in 2022 and is now maintained by a thriving community. It’s one of the best self-hosted finance tools available, with envelope budgeting, bank sync, and a beautiful UI that works on desktop and mobile. Why Actual Budget? Envelope budgeting — assign every dollar a job (YNAB-style) Bank sync — automatic transaction imports via GoCardless (free for personal use) Fast — local-first architecture, syncs in the background Multi-device — access from any browser, sync across devices Import — migrate from YNAB, Mint, or any CSV/OFX/QFX export Reports — spending trends, net worth, cash flow charts Rules — auto-categorize transactions 100% private — your financial data never leaves your server Prerequisites A Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose ~128MB RAM (very lightweight) A domain or local IP for access Step 1: Create the Project Directory mkdir -p ~/actual-budget && cd ~/actual-budget Step 2: Docker Compose Setup Create docker-compose.yml: ...

If you’re running a home server, you need visibility into what’s happening. Grafana + Prometheus is the gold standard monitoring stack — and it’s completely free to self-host. In this guide, you’ll set up Prometheus to collect metrics and Grafana to visualize them with beautiful dashboards. By the end, you’ll have real-time monitoring of your server’s CPU, memory, disk, network, and any Docker containers you’re running. What You’ll Build Prometheus — time-series database that scrapes metrics from your services Grafana — dashboard and visualization platform Node Exporter — exposes hardware/OS metrics to Prometheus cAdvisor — exposes Docker container metrics Prerequisites A Linux server (Ubuntu, Debian, or similar) Docker and Docker Compose installed Basic terminal knowledge ~512MB RAM for the full stack Step 1: Create the Project Directory mkdir -p ~/monitoring && cd ~/monitoring Step 2: Docker Compose Configuration Create docker-compose.yml: ...

Running a bunch of Docker containers but hate switching between docker logs commands? Dozzle gives you a beautiful, real-time web UI to view logs from all your containers in one place. No database, no agents, no configuration — just deploy and go. Why Dozzle? Zero config — point it at Docker and it works Real-time streaming — logs appear instantly, no polling Multi-container view — watch several containers side by side Search and filter — find what you need fast No storage — doesn’t store logs (uses Docker’s own log driver) Tiny footprint — ~10MB RAM, single binary Multi-host — monitor remote Docker hosts from one dashboard Dark mode — easy on the eyes during late-night debugging Prerequisites Docker and Docker Compose That’s it. Seriously. Step 1: Deploy Dozzle Create docker-compose.yml: ...