I don’t have a home server yet but I’m exploring and sometimes I get confused about some posts here.
For example I saw a post asking for recommendation for a “self hosted budget management app”. Can’t you just install this type of app to your phone or pc? What’s the purpose here, will you host it and access it from a browser? Or do you only want to backup its data to your server?
I hope I don’t sound stupid please enlighten me.
For one instance of app, it’s possible to install it onto a single machine.
Things get tricky when you want to access the data from multiple devices. Even trickier, when several people want to access it. After a certain point, it’s easier to have a “cloud” solution. And since “cloud” is just somebody’s else computer, why not make this a computer YOU own?
This, above all other reasons given in other replies.
Exactly- I have a desktop and a laptop and want the same experience on both. I do have file sync setup with Nextcloud so that is handled, but for some things a hosted version makes sense. I’ve come a long way from using briefcases on a 3.5 floppy to have my data where I want it.
I ❤️ this answer.
if someone wrote an open source free solution for you to self-host i think its just rude not to use it. so self-hosting is just being polite
I like this logic.
I think for a lot of people as well, a big factor is when you share that data between multiple devices, if you use your own solution, then you don’t have to trust other companies with your data.
No, but now you have to trust yourself with security.
It seems to me to be a bit of the fly vs drive debate. Flying is objectively safer, but lots of people get more freaked out by it because they have zero control over the outcome.
Flying is only safer than driving until the fuel runs out, then you’re much safer in a car 😉
actually when a plane runs out of fuel it doesn’t drop out of the sky, a trained pilot can glide the plane down (eg Hudson River landing ) mow if u r on a highway and u run out of fuel the car behind u might hit u
I think the threat model is sufficiently different enough for self hosters versus commercial offerings that it is possible to maintain a comparable level of security to what you’d enjoy elsewhere with significantly less technical training. E.g., I run a home server using a point-to-point Wireguard configuration such that only devices I’ve explicitly set up with Wireguard can access any of its services. My ports are very quiet.
This is exactly it - storage is the best example
Could I run all of my stuff using a cloud service? Of course, but it would be very expensive and only available if my internet works (and there’s a lot of hops between me and my data in the cloud)
I can buy a 2TB HDD for £64 - most cloud providers charge that much per year for 1TB
ideally youd buy like a 14-20 TB hard drive for less than 200 GBP. economies of scale!
top 4 highest rated comments on this post say it all
Thanks! This answer is really helpful for someone new to this!