Take control of your digital life
Comprehensive guides for replacing SaaS with self-hosted open source alternatives. Own your data, save money, and learn along the way.
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Vikunja: Self-Hosted Task Management That Replaces Todoist and Trello
A practical guide to Vikunja, the open-source self-hosted task and project management tool. Covers setup, features, integrations, and how it compares to Todoist, Trello, and Notion for personal and team productivity.
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Docker Compose for Self-Hosting: The Complete Guide
Master Docker Compose for self-hosting — from first container to a full stack of services with networking, volumes, and automatic updates.
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Self-Hosted Backups with BorgBackup and Restic: A Practical Comparison
A hands-on guide to self-hosted backup solutions using BorgBackup and Restic. Covers deduplication, encryption, remote storage, and how to build a reliable 3-2-1 backup strategy for your homelab.
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PhotoPrism: AI-Powered Photo Management You Can Self-Host
A practical guide to self-hosting PhotoPrism for AI photo management with face recognition, auto-tagging, and RAW support. Covers Docker setup, hardware requirements, storage planning, and comparison with Immich.
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Coolify: A Self-Hosted Heroku That Actually Delivers
A practical guide to self-hosting Coolify as a platform-as-a-service for deploying apps, databases, and services. Covers setup, Git integration, one-click apps, and comparison with Dokku and CapRover.
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Yacht: Simple Docker Container Management for Small Homelabs
A guide to self-hosting Yacht for Docker container management. Covers installation, template system, container management, and comparison with Portainer and Dockge for small homelab use cases.
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Self-Hosting Mastodon: Run Your Own Fediverse Social Media Instance
A guide to self-hosting Mastodon for decentralized social media. Covers Docker deployment, federation, moderation, storage management, and comparison with GoToSocial, Akkoma, and Misskey.
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Plex vs Jellyfin: Which Self-Hosted Media Server Should You Choose?
An honest comparison of Plex and Jellyfin for self-hosted media streaming. Covers features, performance, client support, transcoding, and which one is right for your setup.
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Cloudflare Tunnels: Zero-Trust Access to Your Self-Hosted Services
A practical guide to using Cloudflare Tunnels for secure remote access to self-hosted services without port forwarding. Covers setup, DNS configuration, access policies, and comparison with Tailscale Funnel, ngrok, and Pangolin.
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Self-Hosting Actual Budget: A Local-First Alternative to YNAB
A guide to self-hosting Actual Budget for envelope-style budgeting. Covers Docker setup, zero-sum methodology, bank sync, multi-device access, and comparison with YNAB and Firefly III.
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Tailscale vs WireGuard: Which VPN Is Right for Your Homelab?
A practical comparison of Tailscale and raw WireGuard for self-hosted remote access. Covers setup complexity, performance, security, and when to use each for your homelab or small business.
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Pi-hole: Network-Wide Ad Blocking for Your Entire Home
A complete guide to setting up Pi-hole for network-wide DNS-based ad blocking. Covers installation, configuration, blocklists, performance tuning, and comparison with browser-based ad blockers.
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Self-Hosting Seafile: A Faster, Lighter Alternative to Nextcloud
A practical guide to self-hosting Seafile for file sync and storage. Covers Docker setup, library-based organization, versioning, encryption, SeaDrive, and comparison with Nextcloud and Syncthing.
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Woodpecker CI: Self-Hosted CI/CD That Isn't Overcomplicated
A practical guide to self-hosting Woodpecker CI for continuous integration and deployment. Covers setup, pipeline configuration, and how it compares to Gitea Actions, Drone, and Jenkins.
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Uptime Kuma: Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring and Status Pages
Complete guide to setting up Uptime Kuma for monitoring service availability. Covers installation, monitor types, notifications, status pages, and maintenance windows.
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Authentik: The Self-Hosted Identity Provider That Hits the Sweet Spot
A practical guide to self-hosting Authentik for SSO, OAuth2, SAML, and user management. Covers Docker setup, LDAP integration, and how it compares to Authelia and Keycloak.
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Self-Hosting n8n: Build Powerful Workflow Automations Without Code
A hands-on guide to self-hosting n8n for workflow automation. Covers Docker deployment, building workflows, credential management, webhook triggers, error handling, and practical automation examples for self-hosters.
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Self-Hosting Firefly III: A Free Alternative to Mint and YNAB
A practical guide to self-hosting Firefly III for personal finance management. Covers Docker setup, double-entry bookkeeping, transaction imports, budgeting, and comparison with Mint, YNAB, and Actual Budget.
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Self-Hosting Meilisearch: Lightning-Fast Full-Text Search for Your Apps
A practical guide to self-hosting Meilisearch for full-text search. Covers Docker deployment, index configuration, relevancy tuning, security, and comparison with Elasticsearch and Typesense.
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Kavita: A Self-Hosted Reading Server for Books, Comics, and Manga
A practical guide to self-hosting Kavita for managing your reading library. Covers Docker setup, library organization, OPDS support, reader features, and comparison with Komga and Calibre-Web.
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Self-Hosting Duplicati: Automated Encrypted Backups with a Web UI
A practical guide to self-hosting Duplicati for automated backups. Covers Docker deployment, backup configuration, cloud storage backends, encryption, scheduling, and comparison with BorgBackup and Restic.
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Healthchecks: Self-Hosted Cron Job and Background Task Monitoring
How to self-host Healthchecks for monitoring cron jobs, backups, and scheduled tasks. Covers installation, ping-based monitoring, alerting, and integration with your existing infrastructure.
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Forgejo: The Community-Driven Self-Hosted Git Forge
Host your own GitHub-like platform with Forgejo — a lightweight, community-owned Git forge born from Gitea, with CI/CD, packages, and issue tracking.
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Nginx Proxy Manager: The Easiest Reverse Proxy for Self-Hosting
A practical guide to Nginx Proxy Manager for self-hosted services. Covers setup, SSL certificates, proxy hosts, access lists, and comparison with Traefik and Caddy.
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Proxmox VE: The Self-Hoster's Virtualization Platform
Run virtual machines and containers on bare metal with Proxmox VE — the free, open-source hypervisor that powers serious home labs.
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Keycloak: Enterprise Identity Management for Your Homelab
A practical guide to self-hosting Keycloak for single sign-on (SSO), user management, and identity federation. Covers setup, OIDC, SAML, and integration with self-hosted apps.
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Zitadel: Cloud-Native Identity and Access Management You Can Self-Host
A guide to self-hosting Zitadel for identity and access management. Covers Docker setup, OIDC/OAuth2 configuration, multi-tenancy, and comparison with Authentik, Keycloak, and Authelia.
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Running Matrix Synapse: Self-Hosted Encrypted Messaging at Scale
A deep dive into deploying Matrix Synapse as your homeserver for encrypted messaging. Covers Docker deployment, federation, database optimization, bridges, worker scaling, and performance tuning.
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Umami: Simple, Private Web Analytics You Can Self-Host
Track website visitors without compromising their privacy. Umami is a lightweight, open-source Google Analytics alternative you can run on your own server.
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Dockge: The Simplest Docker Compose Manager
Guide to self-hosting Dockge for managing Docker Compose stacks through a clean web UI. Covers installation, stack management, and comparison with Portainer and Yacht.
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Gluetun: Route Docker Containers Through a VPN
How to use Gluetun to route specific Docker containers through a VPN while keeping the rest of your network unaffected. Covers setup with major VPN providers, kill switch, and common use cases.
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Self-Hosting Ghost CMS: A Modern Blog Platform You Actually Own
A practical guide to self-hosting Ghost as your blog platform. Covers Docker deployment, theme customization, email newsletters, membership features, and comparison with WordPress and Hugo.
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Self-Hosting Matrix with Element: Decentralized Chat You Actually Control
A practical guide to running your own Matrix homeserver with Element. Covers Synapse and Conduit, bridges to Slack and Discord, encryption, and why Matrix beats proprietary chat.
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Centralized Logging with Loki and Grafana: The Lightweight ELK Alternative
A practical guide to self-hosting Grafana Loki for centralized log aggregation. Covers deployment with Docker, Promtail configuration, LogQL queries, alerting, and comparison with the ELK stack.
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Self-Hosting Zipline: A Modern File Sharing and Screenshot Server
A guide to self-hosting Zipline for file sharing and screenshot uploads. Covers Docker setup, ShareX integration, URL shortening, user management, and comparison with alternatives.
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Self-Hosting Strapi: A Headless CMS for Your Frontend Stack
A practical guide to self-hosting Strapi as a headless CMS. Covers Docker deployment, content type design, REST and GraphQL APIs, media handling, and comparison with Ghost, Directus, and WordPress.
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CrowdSec vs Fail2Ban: Modern Intrusion Prevention for Self-Hosters
A detailed comparison of CrowdSec and Fail2Ban for protecting self-hosted services. Covers setup, configuration, performance, and when to use each tool.
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Audiobookshelf: Self-Hosted Audiobooks and Podcasts Done Right
A complete guide to Audiobookshelf, the self-hosted audiobook and podcast server with mobile apps. Covers setup, library organization, podcast management, and how it compares to Audible and Pocketcasts.
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Self-Hosting Pangolin: The Tunneled Reverse Proxy with Built-in Auth
A practical guide to self-hosting Pangolin, a tunneled reverse proxy with built-in identity-aware access control. Covers setup, Newt WireGuard client, access policies, and comparison with Cloudflare Tunnels, Traefik, and Nginx Proxy Manager.
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Beszel: Lightweight Server Monitoring with a Beautiful Dashboard
How to set up Beszel for monitoring server resources across multiple machines. Covers installation, agent deployment, alerting, and comparison with Netdata and Grafana.
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Komga: A Self-Hosted Comics and Manga Server
How to set up Komga for managing and reading your digital comics and manga collection. Covers installation, library setup, OPDS support, and reader apps.
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Speedtest Tracker: Monitor Your Internet Speed Over Time
How to self-host Speedtest Tracker for automated internet speed testing and historical tracking. Covers setup, scheduling, alerting, and interpreting your speed data.
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Mealie: Self-Hosted Recipe Manager and Meal Planner
Organize recipes, plan meals, and generate shopping lists with Mealie — a beautiful, self-hosted alternative to recipe apps and meal planning services.
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CrowdSec: Collaborative Intrusion Prevention for Your Self-Hosted Services
A practical guide to CrowdSec, the open-source security tool that blocks attackers using crowd-sourced threat intelligence. Covers installation, bouncer setup, integration with reverse proxies, and how it compares to Fail2ban.
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Self-Hosting Discourse: Build a Modern Community Forum
A practical guide to self-hosting Discourse as a community forum. Covers the official Docker installation, configuration, moderation, SSO, plugins, email setup, and comparison with Flarum.
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SearXNG: Self-Host Your Own Private Search Engine
A practical guide to self-hosting SearXNG, a privacy-focused metasearch engine. Covers Docker setup, search engine configuration, rate limiting, public vs private instances, and customization.
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Self-Hosting Typesense: A Fast, Typo-Tolerant Search Engine
A practical guide to self-hosting Typesense as a search engine for your applications. Covers Docker deployment, collection schema design, search configuration, clustering, and comparison with Meilisearch and Elasticsearch.
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Self-Hosting Ghostfolio: Open Source Wealth Management and Portfolio Tracking
A guide to self-hosting Ghostfolio for investment portfolio tracking. Covers Docker setup, adding assets, multi-currency support, performance analysis, and comparison with Personal Capital and Sharesight.
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Self-Hosting changedetection.io: Track Changes on Any Website Automatically
A hands-on guide to self-hosting changedetection.io for website change monitoring. Covers Docker deployment, CSS selector filtering, visual diffs, notification integrations, browser-based monitoring, and practical use cases.
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IT-Tools: A Self-Hosted Swiss Army Knife for Developers
Set up IT-Tools as a self-hosted collection of developer utilities. Covers installation, available tools, and why you'd want a local instance of common online converters and generators.
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Frigate NVR: Self-Hosted Security Cameras with AI Object Detection
A practical guide to Frigate, the self-hosted NVR with real-time AI object detection. Covers setup, hardware acceleration, camera configuration, Home Assistant integration, and comparison with commercial NVR solutions.
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Self-Hosted Dashboards: Homepage, Homarr, and Dashy Compared
A practical guide to self-hosted server dashboards. Compare Homepage, Homarr, and Dashy for organizing your services, monitoring your infrastructure, and building a personal start page.
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FreshRSS: A Self-Hosted RSS Reader That Respects Your Attention
A practical guide to self-hosting FreshRSS for RSS and Atom feed aggregation. Covers Docker setup, extensions, mobile apps, API support, and comparison with Miniflux and Tiny Tiny RSS.
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TrueNAS: Build Your Own Network Storage Server
A complete guide to building a self-hosted NAS with TrueNAS. Covers TrueNAS CORE vs SCALE, ZFS basics, hardware requirements, Docker apps, and comparison with Synology and QNAP.
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Netdata: Real-Time Server Monitoring Without the Complexity
A practical guide to Netdata for self-hosted server monitoring. Zero-config installation, real-time dashboards, alerting, and how it compares to Grafana and Prometheus.
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Dashy: The Most Customizable Self-Hosted Dashboard
A guide to self-hosting Dashy, a highly customizable dashboard for organizing your services. Covers YAML configuration, widgets, themes, status checking, and comparison with Homepage and Homarr.
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Self-Hosting AI with Ollama and Open WebUI: Run LLMs Locally
A practical guide to running large language models locally with Ollama and Open WebUI. Covers Docker setup, GPU vs CPU considerations, model recommendations, and hardware requirements.
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Self-Hosting BookStack: A Wiki That Actually Gets Used
A practical guide to self-hosting BookStack for team documentation. Covers Docker deployment, organizing content with shelves, books, and chapters, LDAP/SAML authentication, API usage, and comparison with other wiki platforms.
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Homarr: A Modern, Feature-Rich Self-Hosted Dashboard
How to set up Homarr as your self-hosted dashboard. Covers installation, widget configuration, service integrations, and comparison with Homepage and Heimdall.
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Self-Hosting Docmost: An Open Source Alternative to Notion and Confluence
A guide to self-hosting Docmost for team wikis and knowledge bases. Covers Docker setup, block editor, real-time collaboration, spaces, permissions, and comparison with BookStack, Wiki.js, and Outline.
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Setting Up WireGuard: The Modern Self-Hosted VPN
A practical guide to setting up WireGuard as a self-hosted VPN. Covers server setup, client configuration, common use cases, and comparison with OpenVPN and commercial VPN services.
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How to Self-Host a Minecraft Server: Complete Setup Guide
A practical guide to running your own Minecraft server. Covers hardware requirements, Java vs Bedrock, server software options, Docker setup, performance tuning, and keeping your server secure.
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Home Assistant: The Open Source Smart Home Hub That Replaces Everything
A practical guide to Home Assistant for self-hosting your smart home. Covers installation, device compatibility, automations, dashboards, and why it beats vendor-specific apps.
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Immich: The Self-Hosted Google Photos Replacement That Actually Works
A hands-on guide to Immich, the self-hosted photo and video management platform. Covers installation, mobile backup, face recognition, sharing, and how it compares to Google Photos and Apple Photos.
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Self-Hosting Excalidraw: A Collaborative Whiteboard That Feels Like Paper
A guide to self-hosting Excalidraw for collaborative diagramming and whiteboarding. Covers setup, real-time collaboration, comparison with draw.io, and practical use cases.
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Self-Hosting Gotify: Simple Push Notifications for Your Server
A guide to self-hosting Gotify for push notifications. Covers setup, comparison with ntfy, integration with monitoring tools, and building notification workflows.
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Syncthing: Peer-to-Peer File Sync Without a Server
A practical guide to Syncthing for decentralized file synchronization. Covers setup, sharing folders, conflict resolution, and comparison with Nextcloud, Dropbox, and Resilio Sync.
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Vaultwarden vs Bitwarden: Which Self-Hosted Password Manager Is Right for You?
An in-depth comparison of Vaultwarden and Bitwarden for self-hosted password management. Covers features, resource usage, security considerations, and which one to choose for your setup.
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Self-Hosting Tandoor Recipes: Your Personal Recipe Manager
A practical guide to self-hosting Tandoor Recipes for managing your recipe collection. Covers setup, importing recipes from websites, meal planning, shopping lists, and comparison with Mealie and Paprika.
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Self-Hosting MinIO: S3-Compatible Object Storage on Your Own Hardware
A guide to self-hosting MinIO for S3-compatible object storage. Covers setup, use cases, backup integration, performance tuning, and comparison with cloud S3.
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Self-Hosting Paperless-ngx: Digitize and Organize Every Document You Own
A guide to self-hosting Paperless-ngx for document management. Covers setup, OCR, automatic tagging, and why it beats filing cabinets and cloud storage.
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Self-Hosting Nextcloud: The Complete Google Drive & Dropbox Replacement
How to replace Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud with Nextcloud — a self-hosted file sync, calendar, contacts, and collaboration platform. Covers setup, apps, performance tuning, and honest trade-offs.
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Self-Hosting Jellyfin: A Free, Open Source Plex Alternative
A practical guide to self-hosting Jellyfin as a media server. Covers setup, hardware transcoding, client apps, and honest comparison with Plex.
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Self-Hosting Plausible Analytics: A Privacy-Friendly Google Analytics Alternative
A complete guide to self-hosting Plausible Analytics as a lightweight, privacy-respecting replacement for Google Analytics. Covers setup, features, costs, and trade-offs.
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Self-Hosting ntfy: Simple Push Notifications for Your Server
A practical guide to self-hosting ntfy for push notifications. Covers setup, sending alerts from scripts and services, phone integration, access control, and comparison with Gotify and Pushover.
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The Complete *Arr Stack Guide: Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, and More
A comprehensive guide to building the full *arr stack for automated media management. Covers Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Lidarr, Docker Compose setup, quality profiles, and integration with Jellyfin or Plex.
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Self-Hosting Grafana and Prometheus: Build Your Own Monitoring Stack
A guide to self-hosting Grafana and Prometheus for server and application monitoring. Covers setup, dashboards, alerting, and comparison with paid alternatives.
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Stirling PDF: The Swiss Army Knife for PDF Processing
A comprehensive guide to self-hosting Stirling PDF for document processing. Covers Docker setup, merge/split/rotate, OCR, format conversion, form filling, security features, API automation, and comparison with online PDF tools.
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Self-Hosting Changedetection.io: Monitor Any Website for Changes
A guide to self-hosting changedetection.io for website change monitoring. Covers setup, notification integrations, visual diffing, filtering, and practical use cases.
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Linkwarden: Self-Hosted Bookmark Manager with Archiving
A practical guide to self-hosting Linkwarden for bookmark management. Covers Docker setup, browser extensions, collections, automatic archiving, collaboration, import/export, and comparison with Linkding and Wallabag.
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Caddy: The Easiest Self-Hosted Web Server with Automatic HTTPS
A practical guide to self-hosting Caddy as your web server and reverse proxy. Covers automatic HTTPS, Caddyfile configuration, reverse proxy setup, and comparison with Nginx and Traefik.
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Portainer: The Docker Management UI That Makes Self-Hosting Easier
A practical guide to Portainer for managing Docker containers through a web interface. Covers installation, container management, stacks, templates, and comparison with other Docker UIs.
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Self-Hosting Traefik: The Modern Reverse Proxy for Your Home Lab
A practical guide to setting up Traefik as a reverse proxy for your self-hosted services. Covers automatic HTTPS, Docker integration, middleware, and comparison with Nginx Proxy Manager and Caddy.
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Self-Hosting Calibre-Web: Your Personal Ebook Library in the Cloud
A practical guide to self-hosting Calibre-Web for managing and reading your ebook collection. Covers setup, OPDS feeds, Kindle integration, and comparison with Calibre desktop and Kavita.
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OPNsense: Build Your Own Enterprise Firewall and Router
A comprehensive guide to replacing your consumer router with OPNsense. Covers hardware selection, installation, firewall rules, VLANs, WireGuard VPN, IDS/IPS with Suricata, and comparison with pfSense.
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Self-Hosting Immich: A Google Photos Replacement That Actually Works
A guide to self-hosting Immich for photo and video management. Covers setup, mobile apps, machine learning features, migration from Google Photos, and honest trade-offs.
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Self-Hosting n8n: A Powerful Open Source Alternative to Zapier
A practical guide to self-hosting n8n for workflow automation. Covers installation, building workflows, integrations, and comparison with Zapier, Make, and Huginn.
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Self-Hosting Authelia: Add Single Sign-On to All Your Services
A guide to self-hosting Authelia for single sign-on and two-factor authentication. Covers setup with reverse proxies, MFA configuration, and comparison with alternatives.
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Self-Hosting Git with Gitea: A Lightweight GitHub Alternative
A practical guide to self-hosting Gitea as a GitHub/GitLab alternative. Covers features, resource usage, CI/CD with Gitea Actions, migration from GitHub, and when self-hosted git actually makes sense.
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Self-Hosting AdGuard Home: Network-Wide Ad Blocking for Your Entire Home
A guide to self-hosting AdGuard Home for DNS-level ad blocking. Covers setup, comparison with Pi-hole, configuration tips, and honest trade-offs.
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K3s: Lightweight Kubernetes for Self-Hosters
A practical guide to running K3s for self-hosted applications. Covers single-node and multi-node setup, deploying apps, Helm charts, persistent storage, Traefik ingress, cert-manager, and comparison with Docker Compose and Nomad.
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Self-Hosted Email in 2026: Your Options from Practical to Paranoid
A realistic guide to self-hosting email. We cover the major options — Stalwart, Maddy, Mail-in-a-Box, mailcow — their trade-offs, and when you should just use a paid provider.
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Replacing Notion with a Self-Hosted Alternative: AppFlowy, AFFiNE, and Outline Compared
A detailed comparison of the top self-hosted Notion alternatives — AppFlowy, AFFiNE, and Outline. Features, setup, trade-offs, and honest recommendations.
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Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring: Uptime Kuma, Gatus, and Statping-ng Compared
Compare the best self-hosted uptime monitoring tools. We cover Uptime Kuma, Gatus, and Statping-ng — with setup guides, feature comparisons, and honest trade-offs.
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Self-Hosting Vaultwarden: Run Your Own Bitwarden-Compatible Password Manager
Complete guide to self-hosting Vaultwarden — a lightweight Bitwarden-compatible password manager. Covers setup, security hardening, backups, and comparison with Bitwarden's official server.