Guides

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: ...

Tailscale is brilliant — it creates a zero-config mesh VPN using WireGuard that just works. But it routes all coordination through Tailscale’s servers. If you want that same magic while keeping full control, Headscale is the answer. Headscale is an open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale coordination server. Your devices still use the official Tailscale client, but they talk to your server instead of Tailscale’s cloud. Same great UX, complete sovereignty. ...

Discord is everywhere — gaming communities, dev teams, study groups. But it comes with baggage: data harvesting, Nitro upsells, and zero control over your data. If you’re already self-hosting, why not host your chat too? Here are the 5 best self-hosted Discord alternatives you can deploy today, ranked by feature completeness, ease of setup, and community size. 1. Revolt — The Closest Discord Clone Best for: Communities that want a Discord-like experience without the surveillance. ...

Choosing the right VPS is the most important decision you’ll make for your homelab-in-the-cloud. Get it wrong and you’re overpaying, underperforming, or dealing with support nightmares. I’ve tested all the major providers. Here’s what actually matters. TL;DR — Best VPS Picks Use Case Best Pick Why Starting Price Best Overall Hetzner Unbeatable price/performance €3.79/mo Best US-Based Vultr 32 locations, hourly billing $5/mo Best Managed DigitalOcean Easiest UI, great docs $4/mo Best Free Tier Oracle Cloud 4 ARM cores + 24GB RAM free forever Free Best for Europe Hetzner German datacenters, GDPR-native €3.79/mo Best High-Performance Vultr Bare Metal Dedicated hardware $120/mo 1. Hetzner — Best Price-to-Performance Hetzner is the open secret of the self-hosting community. German company, incredible pricing, solid hardware. ...

Managing Docker from the command line works fine — until you’re juggling 20+ containers across multiple stacks. That’s where Portainer comes in. It gives you a clean web UI to manage everything: containers, images, volumes, networks, and even Docker Compose stacks. Portainer CE (Community Edition) is free, open source, and takes about 2 minutes to set up. Here’s how to get it running on your server. What Is Portainer? Portainer is a lightweight management UI for Docker (and Kubernetes). Instead of remembering docker ps, docker logs, docker exec commands, you get a dashboard that shows everything at a glance. ...

Your self-hosted server is exposed to the internet. Bots, brute-forcers, and scanners hit it constantly. Fail2ban helps, but it only learns from your own logs. What if you could tap into threat intelligence from thousands of other servers? That’s CrowdSec. It’s like a community-powered immune system for your infrastructure. What Is CrowdSec? CrowdSec is an open-source security engine that: Parses your logs (Nginx, SSH, Traefik, WordPress, etc.) Detects attack patterns using behavioral scenarios Blocks attackers via bouncers (firewall rules, Nginx deny, Cloudflare API) Shares threat intel — when you block an IP, the community benefits and vice versa Think of it as Fail2ban + community blocklists + modern architecture. ...