Self-Hosting

Docker makes self-hosting easy. It also makes it easy to accidentally give an attacker root access to your entire server. Most self-hosting guides skip security entirely — here’s what they don’t tell you. 1. Never Run Containers as Root (When Possible) By default, processes inside Docker containers run as root. If an attacker escapes the container, they’re root on the host. Fix: Use the user directive: services: myapp: image: myapp:latest user: "1000:1000" Or in the Dockerfile: ...

Choosing a reverse proxy is one of the first big decisions when self-hosting. It sits in front of all your services, handles SSL certificates, and routes traffic to the right container. Pick the wrong one and you’ll waste hours fighting configuration files. This guide compares the three most popular options — Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy, and Traefik — from a beginner’s perspective. By the end, you’ll know exactly which one to start with. ...

Every self-hosting journey starts with the same question: where do I run my stuff? While a Raspberry Pi or old laptop works for tinkering, a VPS (Virtual Private Server) gives you a public IP, reliable uptime, and enough power to run dozens of services. But there are hundreds of VPS providers. This guide cuts through the noise and compares the six best options for self-hosters in 2026, based on what actually matters: price per performance, network quality, Docker support, and the little details that make daily management easier. ...

Running Changedetection.io: Website Change Alerts You want to know when a product drops in price, when a job posting appears, when a government page updates, or when your competitor changes their pricing. You could check manually every day. Or you could let a self-hosted tool do it for you. Changedetection.io monitors any webpage and alerts you when something changes. It’s like Google Alerts, but for the actual visual content of any page — not just search results. ...

Remote access to your self-hosted services is essential. Whether you’re checking on your media server from a coffee shop or managing your homelab while traveling, a VPN creates a secure tunnel back to your network. But which VPN should you run? The three dominant options — WireGuard, OpenVPN, and Tailscale — take very different approaches. This guide compares all three so you can make the right choice for your setup. ...

Best Budget Servers for Self-Hosting in 2026 You want to self-host, but you don’t want to spend $500 on hardware before you’ve even deployed anything. Good news: you can run a serious self-hosted setup for under $50/year — or under $200 one-time if you want your own hardware. This guide covers every option at every budget, from $3/month VPS to used enterprise servers on eBay. Quick Recommendation Budget Best Option Cost $0-5/mo Oracle Cloud Free Tier Free $5-10/mo Hetzner Cloud CX22 €4.49/mo $50-100 one-time Used Lenovo ThinkCentre ~$70 $100-200 one-time Beelink Mini PC ~$150 Learning/tinkering Raspberry Pi 5 ~$80 Serious homelab Used Dell PowerEdge ~$150-300 Option 1: VPS (Cloud Servers) Best for: remote access, static IP, no electricity costs, getting started fast. ...

compose-backup: One-Command Backup for Docker Compose Stacks If you’re running multiple Docker Compose services — Nextcloud, Traefik, Gitea, Home Assistant, whatever — you probably have a patchwork of backup scripts. Or worse, no backups at all. compose-backup fixes that. One command, and every Compose project on your server gets backed up: configs, .env files, override files, and Docker volumes — all compressed into a clean .tar.gz archive you can actually restore from. ...

Self-Hosting Audiobookshelf: Your Own Audible Replacement Audible charges $15/month for one audiobook. If you already own audiobooks (or know where to find DRM-free ones), you’re paying for a streaming app you don’t need. Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server that gives you everything Audible does — streaming, progress sync, mobile apps, chapters, bookmarks — for your own library. It’s free, open source, and genuinely polished. What Audiobookshelf Does Stream audiobooks from any device (web, iOS, Android) Track progress across devices with automatic sync Chapter support with skip and navigation Podcast management with auto-download Multiple users with individual progress tracking Metadata fetching from Audible, Google Books, OpenLibrary, iTunes Bookmarks and notes for any position in a book Sleep timer and playback speed controls Offline download in mobile apps Series and collection organization It’s not a compromise — it’s genuinely better than Audible for managing your own library. ...

Self-Hosting Uptime Ping: Zero-Dependency Monitoring Tool You’ve got a handful of self-hosted services running. Nextcloud, Gitea, maybe a media server. How do you know when one goes down? Most people reach for Uptime Kuma — and it’s great. But sometimes you want something simpler. No Node.js runtime, no database, no dashboard you’ll never look at. Just ping your services, tell you when something’s down, and get out of the way. ...

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. ...