r/SelfHosting

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts!
I’ve been using several third-party VPN providers, but I noticed in their dashboards that they’re logging things like my traffic, domains visited, and probably other resolution data I’m not even aware of. I’d rather keep as much control over my own privacy as possible.
I have my own VPS and I’m comfortable with Linux, but I’ve never set up a self-hosted VPN before (WireGuard, OpenVPN, etc.). A few questions:
1.How difficult is it to actually set one up from scratch?

2.Does it require ongoing maintenance (updates, monitoring, renewing certs, etc.), or is it mostly “set and forget”?

3.How does stability/reliability compare to commercial VPN providers, things like uptime, IP reputation for streaming/geo-unblocking, DDoS exposure, etc.?

4.Realistically, how should I weigh privacy/control against the extra operational burden of running my own?

Would really appreciate input from anyone who’s made the switch from commercial VPNs to self-hosted. Thanks!

There have been a few services that I have been wanting to use that can be self hosted but most of them I have had other options. So I have been putting off diving in for a while as I have been getting overwhelmed looking at setting up docker etc. However now there is a service that I can pretty much only find as a docker app (Storyteller for making EPUB 3 with Media Overlay) and so I’m kicking my butt into gear. For not I’m installing it on my desktop which is running CachyOS.

If anyone could give me an overview of setting up docker/compose/whatever else is needed for it, I would be so thankful. My eyes have been glazing over with some of the written guides online and I’m so used to video guides just taking way longer than necessary that I haven’t looked yet.

I’m currently building mostly static websites for small businesses, and my setup is:

• Vercel for hosting
• Cloudflare for DNS management
• Resend for transactional emails and contact forms
• The client keeps ownership of the domain, while I manage the technical setup

For these types of websites, managing my own servers or using AWS/DigitalOcean feels like unnecessary overhead. Vercel + Cloudflare seems much easier to standardize across clients, but I’m still figuring out the best long-term agency workflow, especially around account ownership, access, billing, maintenance, and eventual handoff.

Is this a fairly standard and scalable setup for a small web agency, or do you use a different stack/process to manage multiple client websites?

I’m running an old desktop as a small Minecraft server, but power costs and uptime are becoming a hassle. I’m considering moving to a hosting provider, what made you switch from self-hosting, and was it worth it?

Hey r/selfhosting

We’ve all been there: it’s Monday morning, and your server alerts you that disk storage hit 99% capacity. 🚨

Then begins the exhausting CLI routine:

1. Hunting down the right .pem SSH key.
2. Running df -h to find the dying partition.
3. Chaining du -sh * repeatedly deep into nested folders to find the culprit.
4. Spotting a massive 15GB log file that hasn't been rotated.
5. Typing rm -f, taking a deep breath, and hoping you didn't typo the path.

Finding "which folder is eating my storage" shouldn't feel like a mini-investigation in 2026.

To fix this friction, I'm building a self-hosted VPS File Manager & Server Panel. The goal is to manage any remote server directly from the browser without needing CLI for everyday checks.

Key Features so far:

• Visual Space Mapping: Instantly see file and directory sizes in a clean UI (no du -sh guessing games).
• Rich File Management: Compress, edit, delete, or change permissions (chmod).
• Built-in Code Editor: Edit Nginx, Docker, or system config files on the fly.
• Integrated Web SSH Terminal: Full browser shell (xterm.js) right beside your file explorer.
• Hardware Monitoring: Real-time RAM, CPU, and disk widgets to catch spikes early.

It runs locally on your server — 100% self-hosted, your keys, zero third-party dependencies.

I'm currently polishing the UI and adding security logs before releasing it.

Question for the community: What is your go-to terminal command or tool when a server's disk hits 99%? Also, would love to hear any features you'd find essential in a tool like this!

Trying to put together a list of solid free or open hardened image providers for a write up. A few keep coming up, free hardened, minimal images that are rebuilt continuously to stay near zero CVE, with no account needed to pull.

What else belongs on this list? Looking specifically for projects or services that are actually open or free to use long term rather than free tier then paywall, and ideally ones with transparent rebuild and provenance practices. Bonus points if you've compared a few side by side.

Hey masters,
I wanna get into self hosting to have my movie and photos managed and accessible on my phone - also just got curious about all those possibilities.

Where do I start? Do I need a diffrent system to build my first server or I can do it on my main pc?

Any guides that helped you start pls share 🙏🏻

So SelfHosting my business on a majorly low budget... like painful low budget, altought it has driven me to learn efficent python, to the point what was running on a full rack server has been made so fast and efficent that it runs on a 8gb 10 year old optiplex, and this isnt vibe-coded, 5 years of hard work, building training sets, training my own ML models, scripts code, functinationlity, and Now im in the home stretch getting ready to go live.

This is not a promotion for my business idea, and I wont answer questions about the business, but I just wanted to share my SelfHosted Datacenter.

Yes its a fully 3D printed, rack, all my budget of $200 went into picking up a collection of optiplex's from an ex homelaber. We have Security, Hosting, Automation, and even redendency failover. Already had a UPS and a 5G router with tons of credit on it as a backup (won it at a CTF event) ... big box on the right is my home AI server ... which ate up the original budget for the proof of concept that became the MVP hardware. On the shelf still to be installed is 8 x 2.5" SATA JBOD, when I pick up more drives that I can raid into a hot and cold backup for the main systems. Full rack including AI server is around 9 Kwh per day, which is the biggest killer in terms of cost right now.

But yea, pretty excited, nearly at the finish line of 10 years of ideas, and 5 years of building, months of 3-4am bug fix's to wake up for my day job at 9am. But im also crazy proud of my designs and system, that on such a budget the full MVP runs on minimal hardware why its currently getting stress tested by my testers, also thankfully its not a big volume business, not going to have a few k people at the same time, would be lucky if it was maybe 50 max at a day or time, and at that point if im hitting that, i'll be able to get new hardware and upload a new photo of a new full size rack that kills my power bills even more.

https://preview.redd.it/g64rt09b8uih1.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba353318733a4420b5498a3ad55216550acafe54

Hello!
I am fairly new to this and would like to self-host the media that I love. I was thinking of getting a little PC and install Linux on it. I unfortunately cannot do this on my main one (even if Windows is not activated on it). Ideally I would also like to build a little cyberdeck customized as well but that will need more material I guess. If anyone has any tips on how to get starting I would love to hear thank you & have a nice day !

For 20+ years, I have always used shared hosting. I have used several (inmotion, hostmonster, setrahost) with the changes being that the service just seems to steadily degrade through the years to the point it is just a headache to stay with them. I am coming to the conclusion that instead of continuing with the shared hosting, it is time for me to go with VPS. My problem is, I am not finding a good resource for actually learning about using one, other then provider videos telling how to purchase their service. I only have 3 sites with 1 being really the only one getting some traffic, nothing heavy. I prefer videos over manuals as it is easier to figure out and work along at the same time with them, like a walkthrough. I have had bot attacks (weird since I only get 2000 visitors or less a month), so I have got to be able to understand the security side of it also.

Raspberry pi’s come in a few different flavors. I’m planning on running either plex or jellyfin on it, possibly on Ubuntu since I want a gui.

Hi everyone, I need your help. I’d like to know if it’s possible to use a VPS to run my n8n automations, since I don’t have a powerful PC yet and I need to work on another project. Thanks—from a fellow tech enthusiast.