Self-Hosted Alternatives to Popular Services

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A place to share, discuss, discover, assist with, gain assistance for, and critique self-hosted alternatives to our favorite web apps, web...

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1451
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/Niftyrider on 2025-03-16 09:17:08+00:00.


I recently came across Monetr, a self-hosted budgeting tool that looks pretty solid on paper. It seems fairly new, but the feature set looks promising—especially the free-to-use feature.

Has anyone here tried it? How does it compare to something like Actual? I'm debating whether I should go with Actual (which is more established) or give Monetr a shot. Would love to hear any experiences or thoughts!

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/cashmirsvetter on 2025-03-16 03:42:42+00:00.


I am looking for a selfhosted solution that can download my email from various services - Gmail, purelymail, exchange, etc. I want to have a webmail client, maybe even a mobile app, that I can access on my gear to send and receive emails. Behind the scenes though, it is really sending and receiving through the the email service that is actually hosting the email account.

The goals are:

  • have all of my email on my local storage,
  • have a single place to go for all of my mail,
  • have email sent to me still deliver even when my server is offline, and
  • not have to deal with all the other painpoints when truly self hosting my email.

It seems like local email clients, like Thunderbird, do this, but are not a web client that can be used from many devices and locations.

Am I just missing something on some of the open source solutions? It seems like this would be the point of tools like Roundcube.

If this doesn’t exist, I may start building one. Is this something that other people want?

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/remodeus on 2025-03-16 01:33:08+00:00.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/Least-Flatworm7361 on 2025-03-15 12:34:38+00:00.


I started selfhosting many years ago. Over the time I learned so much about networking, orchestrating, containerization,... A homeserver is a powerful tool to educate yourself in a wide range of IT fields. It is also great if you don't want to store your data in any big companies cloud. But you should always keep in mind how much effort it takes to have a reliable and secure environment. It's for sure a hobby that consumes a lot of time. Over the last years I started many private projects away from my homelab. Biking, car restoration, bodybuilding,... But I never wanted to drop my homelab. In the opposite I even started rebuilding my servers to make everything better with the knowledge I gathered of the last years. As a result I now have servers in an unfinished state, with half-setup services and a lot of headache while using them. It costs me a lot of mental energy to think about the workload I have to do for having the "perfect" homeserver as I want it. There are so many interesting selfhosted services I would love to try. Everything can be setup so fast with some lxc scripts, but hardening the service and get to know all the options and features they offer takes a lot of time again.

So I asked myself why am I even doing this. And the answers were:

  • learning new stuff for myself and future jobs
  • storing my data at home and not in the cloud
  • data protection
  • being able to say "Oh, I don't use Google Drive. I have my own cloud. Duh."

But in the meantime I learned more than I would ever need for jobs in the field I'm working in. I also realized, that I'm missing out on new technologies because of my conviction on not giving my data to big compainies. I'm in my 30s and feel like a grumpy grandpa who "hates" this AI stuff or VR goggles, because they are only made for collecting your data.

So I decided to surrender. I bought a Meta Quest 3 in december. I bought a Google Pixel this month. And I'm going to use all the convenient possibilities Google offers with Gemini, Drive,.... And I have to say it feels great not having this never ending project called homelab/selfhosting in my mind, next to all the other unfinished business everyone has in his life. I will keep my server running for playing minecraft with friends and probably using some other services. But I wont try anymore to have the best setup with terraform deployment, ansible automatios, multiple security layers, clustering multiple proxmox servers,...

This post is also to convince myself to do this step. Because right now I'm still half-comitted. But writing this essay feels good and I think I should drop this time consuming hobby for having more time available for other fun stuff in life.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/prime_1996 on 2025-03-15 20:00:14+00:00.


These are some findings/learning after a full drive migration.

  • The NVME on my Proxmox server has been in a bad state for a while now, proxmox has been really tough on it. This is with pve-ha-lrm.service and pve-ha-crm.service disable and set Storage=volatile and ForwardToSyslog=no in /etc/systemd/journald.conf. Any other tips?
  • I have a goal to have all my disks/drives encrypted with LUKS, including Fedora Laptop, data SSD and backups HDs. These have been encrypted for a while, only one left was Proxmox main drive.
  • Enabled full disk encryption for my Proxmox drive. I had to install debian with full encryption first, then install Proxmox on top of it.
  • I was able to restore all my LXCs from backups, including PBS backups running in LXC.
  • I was also able to fully test my ansible pull playbook, had to fix/add some stuff, but worked fine.
  • After getting everything up and run, started getting Failed to allocate directory watch: Too many open files. Found a solution here. This is interesting because I never saw this before with Proxmox VE instalation, I guess Debian has this set to a lower value by default.
1456
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/headlessdev_ on 2025-03-15 15:21:14+00:00.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/PromaneX on 2025-03-15 13:58:06+00:00.


Hello r/selfhosted community! It's been a while since my last update, and I'm excited to share the significant improvements I've made to Erugo.

What is Erugo?

For those unfamiliar, Erugo is a fully self-hosted file sharing platform (similar to WeTransfer) that gives you complete control over your data. No telemetry, no tracking—just simple, private file sharing on your own terms.

Upload interface showing dark and light themes

What's New?

I've been working hard to enhance Erugo's features, stability, and user experience. Here's what's changed:

🎨 Revamped UI

The interface has received a comprehensive overhaul:

  • Improved layout and usability
  • More polished visual design
  • Completely rewritten colour customisation system
    • Now supports themes
    • Easily modify appearance through JSON theme files
    • Powerful theming capabilities to match your brand or preferences

🔐 External Authentication Support

Erugo now integrates with external authentication providers:

  • Currently supports Microsoft, Google, Authentik, and Generic OIDC
  • More providers coming soon
  • Configure everything through the web UI—no config files needed!
  • Internal users can link their external accounts for seamless login
  • Coming soon: Optional registration via selected external providers

📤 Chunked Upload Support

Handling large files is now smoother than ever:

  • New chunked file upload system improves stability for larger files
  • Choose between chunked mode or direct uploads
  • Enable/disable upload modes via admin panel
  • Users can select their preferred upload method per share

🌍 Expanded Language Support

Erugo speaks your language:

  • Now available in English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Portuguese
  • I'm looking for more translators—reach out if you'd like to contribute!

📧 Comprehensive Email Integration

Stay informed with our new email notification system:

  • Receive alerts about share events (expiry warnings, download notifications, etc.)
  • Easy setup through the admin panel
  • Full control over which notifications are enabled
  • Customisable email templates
  • Support for password reset emails and user invitations
  • Specify recipients who will receive an email link once files are uploaded

Give Erugo a Try!

Whether you're new to Erugo or tried it previously and found it lacking features, now is the perfect time to jump in. I've invested significant effort into making it intuitive and powerful.

Getting started is simple—just use the provided docker-compose file: Quick Start Guide

I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how I can make Erugo even better. Thanks for your support!

Erugo: Your files, your server, your rules.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/horia141 on 2025-03-15 13:50:59+00:00.


You can get it at  or directly at for the self-hosting bits. It currently works on MacOS, iOS, Android, and as a web app.

This thing started as a simple todo list and habit tracker in Notion, and across a number of years things escalated to the system I have today. I'm using it to track habits, plan my year/month/week/day, take notes, keep track of birthdays, and much more.

Figured there are other folks who want a tool like this, so I've set out in the last couple of months to make it usable to others.

Some screenshots:

1459
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/ComplexIt on 2025-03-15 08:37:26+00:00.


Hey r/selfhosted community! I wanted to share a project I've been working on that I think might interest folks who value privacy and local computing. It's called Local Deep Research - a fully self-hosted AI research assistant that:

  • Runs 100% locally using your own LLMs via Ollama (Mistral, DeepSeek, etc.)
  • Only sends search queries to external sources (ArXiv, Wikipedia, PubMed), keeping all processing on your hardware
  • Conducts multi-stage research through multiple iterations of questioning
  • Searches your private document collections using vector embeddings alongside online sources
  • Features a web interface for tracking research progress (but works via CLI too)
  • Works with modest hardware (anything that can run Ollama effectively)

What makes it different from most AI tools:

  • No API keys required for basic functionality (optional API keys only for specific search sources)
  • No data sent to OpenAI/Anthropic - all processing happens on your machine
  • Full control over which search sources are used (can disable external sources entirely)
  • Persistent storage of all research results locally

Examples of what it can generate:

Setup is simple on any system that can run Python and Ollama:

git clone pip install -r requirements.txt ollama pull mistral python main.py

I'd love to hear feedback from the self-hosted community - what other privacy-focused features would you like to see? Any integration ideas for other self-hosted tools in your stack?

Link:

1460
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/CrispyBegs on 2025-03-15 08:48:35+00:00.


woke up to see my homepage was inaccessible. a bit of digging shows a breaking change was made overnight and your compose needs an extra line

My homepage host:port is 192.168.1.14:3000 so updating my compose to include this fixed it:

    environment:
      HOMEPAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS: 192.168.1.14:3000

hope that saved you a few clicks, the docs weren't immediately clear

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/SirRawrz on 2025-03-15 06:39:52+00:00.

Original Title: Our rural internet goes out often and over the course of the last couple weeks I managed to cobble together a plug and play swappable usb Media Server! EmulatorJS also lets it act as an emulator console for any number of simultaneous players!

1462
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/mjh2901 on 2025-03-14 21:23:25+00:00.


I was moving a directory full of movies from one spot on my truenas scale to another. There were issues so I needed to start again. In order to prevent loss I switched to rsync but truenas scale does not have rsync available on the command line so I looked up how to copy a directory to another directory without overwriting.... cp -r --no-clobber . This is my first time ever using the no-clobber options, I did not know it existed until chatgpt made the suggestions. So I will pour a shot in the never tried this command before drinking game.

No clobber I just love how that sounds.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/OkCommunication1427 on 2025-03-14 20:59:04+00:00.


I discovered this on F-Droid and since no one has mentioned it in this sub, please take a look at it.

It's called Lissen and it seeks to simplify the Audiobookshelf experience.

GitHub -

F-Droid -

(I'm not the developer, but do show the app some love by using, starring and reporting bugs)

1464
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/tgp1994 on 2025-03-15 02:55:49+00:00.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/PeterHash on 2025-03-15 01:29:59+00:00.


I just published a no-BS step-by-step guide on Medium for anyone tired of paying monthly AI subscription fees or worried about privacy when using tools like ChatGPT. In my guide, I walk you through setting up your local AI environment using Ollama and Open WebUI—a setup that lets you run a custom ChatGPT entirely on your computer.

What You'll Learn:

  • How to eliminate AI subscription costs (yes, zero monthly fees!)
  • Achieve complete privacy: your data stays local, with no third-party data sharing
  • Enjoy faster response times (no more waiting during peak hours)
  • Get complete customization to build specialized AI assistants for your unique needs
  • Overcome token limits with unlimited usage

The Setup Process:

With about 15 terminal commands, you can have everything up and running in under an hour. I included all the code, screenshots, and troubleshooting tips that helped me through the setup. The result is a clean web interface that feels like ChatGPT—entirely under your control.

A Sneak Peek at the Guide:

  • Toolstack Overview: You'll need (Ollama, Open WebUI, a GPU-powered machine, etc.)
  • Environment Setup: How to configure Python 3.11 and set up your system
  • Installing & Configuring: Detailed instructions for both Ollama and Open WebUI
  • Advanced Features: I also cover features like web search integration, a code interpreter, custom model creation, and even a preview of upcoming advanced RAG features for creating custom knowledge bases.

I've been using this setup for two months, and it's completely replaced my paid AI subscriptions while boosting my workflow efficiency. Stay tuned for part two, which will cover advanced RAG implementation, complex workflows, and tool integration based on your feedback.

Read the complete guide here →

Let's Discuss:

What AI workflows would you most want to automate with your own customizable AI assistant? Are there specific use cases or features you're struggling with that you'd like to see in future guides? Share your thoughts below—I'd love to incorporate popular requests in the upcoming instalment!

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/FutureRenaissanceMan on 2025-03-15 00:32:08+00:00.


I've gone back and forth. Do you use Portainer? Why or why not?

1467
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/json12 on 2025-03-14 23:38:13+00:00.


Hey everyone!

Looking for self-hosted apps that actually look good and don't make my eyes bleed. You know, the ones that make you go "damn, this looks better than most paid services!"

What are your favorites? Here are some I’ve come across with:

  • AdGuard Home
  • Dockge
  • Immich
  • LibreChat
  • Autobrr
  • Overseerr
  • TheLounge
  • Stirling-PDF
1468
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/jonasrosland on 2025-03-14 14:06:49+00:00.


Hello fellow Self Hosters!

I've been eagerly awaiting Gitea's PR 20311 for over a year, but since it keeps getting pushed out for every release I figured I'd create something in the meantime.

This tool sets up and manages pull mirrors from GitHub repositories to Gitea repositories, including the entire codebase, issues, PRs, releases, and wikis.

It includes a nice web UI with scheduling functions, metadata mirroring, safety features to not overwrite or delete existing repos, and much more.

Take a look, and let me know what you think!

1469
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/Tolriq on 2025-03-14 15:28:26+00:00.


Hey r/selfhosted,

It has been a while since the last update about Symfonium. The community’s ongoing support and feedback have led to many improvements and new features. Below is a quick rundown of the major changes introduced over the past months (from most recent to older):

  1. Smart Queue / Smart Flow
    • Creates personalized queues using various data points, including Plex Sonic Analysis when available.
    • Helps keep playback varied and aligned with user preferences, even without Plex data.
  2. Casting to PlexAmp Devices
    • Enables casting to PlexAmp headless and similar setups.
    • Offers greater flexibility for multi-room audio.
  3. Complete Rewrite of the Now Playing Screens
    • Every interface element can be customized to personal preferences.
    • A few example setups can be found in this forum post.
  4. Extensive New Settings for Interface & Navigation
    • Introduces more control over the look and feel of the UI, from button layouts to navigation options.
    • Designed to help users shape Symfonium according to their own workflow.
  5. Wear OS Application
    • Allows direct media caching and playback from Wear OS devices.
    • No need to keep the phone nearby, making it convenient for on-the-go situations.
  6. Waveform Data Extraction and Visualization
    • Adds visual feedback for each track’s audio wave.
    • Useful for quickly gauging volume peaks and dynamics.
  7. Overhauled Theming System
    • Provides individual control over every color in the application.
    • Makes it easier to tailor Symfonium to any aesthetic preference.
  8. Continuous Monthly Improvements
    • Regular updates include bug fixes, new features, and performance optimizations.
    • Many changes come directly from user suggestions, so keep them coming!

Thanks again to everyone in this community for helping shape Symfonium. Feedback and ideas are always welcome here or over on the support forums.

Note: Symfonium is a paid app currently available on Android only. More information can be found at the links below:

  • Website:
  • Play Store:

Happy self-hosting!

Tolriq

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/w-zhong on 2025-03-14 15:49:40+00:00.

1471
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/HamburgerOnAStick on 2025-03-14 15:44:39+00:00.

1472
 
 
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/DigiGoon on 2025-03-14 14:01:39+00:00.

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/TheWicklowWolf on 2025-03-14 13:11:50+00:00.


What is it?

It’s a Media Discovery and Download Hub which acts as add-on or extension for the Arr stack and more, designed to manage and obtain media both manually and automatically. Think of it as a media manager, recommendation and helper app.

What's the Problem?

I've made a start, but for long-term stability and maintainability, the project needs more contributors. It's highly modular, with separate services, making it easy for new developers to jump in and focus on specific areas.

Where to Start?

I’ve set up the organization on GitHub at and I’m happy to add people to the the poject . This way, the project won’t be dependent on any one individual. With enough developers, it will help keep the project alive and ensure long-term stability.

Why?

I’ve already worked on these services individually (check out my other projects here) and I would prefer to bring them all into a unified project for better management and collaboration. This way, further development can be streamlined in one place, rather than scattered across multiple repos.

🌍 Proposed MediaWolf Features:

Books (Readarr & Anna’s Archive)

✅ Missing List → Read from Readarr, fetch missing books and auto-download via Anna’s Archive

✅ Manual Search → Search Anna’s Archive and download books (user selection and defined file structure)

✅ Recommendations → Generate book suggestions based on Readarr library (using a background tasks to scrape from Goodreads) - with options to add or dismiss suggestions including filters and sorting

Movies (Radarr & TMDB)

✅ Recommendations → Read Radarr library and suggest similar movies via TMDB (with options to add or dismiss suggestions including filters and sorting)

✅ Manual Search → Search via TMDB with option to add to Radarr

TV Shows (Sonarr & TMDB)

✅ Recommendations → Read Sonarr library and suggest similar shows via TMDB (with options to add or dismiss suggestions including filters and sorting)

✅ Manual Search → Search via TMDB with option to add to Sonarr

Music (Lidarr, LastFM, yt-dlp, Spotify)

✅ Manual Search → Search Spotify for music and download via spotDL (which uses yt-dlp)

✅ Recommendations → Generate artist recommendations from LastFM based on Lidarr library (with options to add or dismiss suggestions including filters and sorting)

✅ Missing List → Read Lidarr library, fetch missing albums and download via yt-dlp

Downloads (via yt-dlp)

✅ Direct Download Page → Input YouTube or Spotify link and download video/audio using spotDL or yt-dlp

Subscriptions (via spotdl and yt-dlp)

✅ Schedule System → Subscribe to YouTube Channels, Spotify or YouTube Playlists and download on a schedule

🛠️ Tech Stack Overview

| Layer | Technology | |


|


| | Frontend | Bootstrap (JS/HTML/CSS) | | Backend | Python with Flask | | Database | SQLite (SQLAlchemy) | | Scheduler | APScheduler (for cron-based scheduling) | | Downloader | spotdl and yt-dlp | | Containerization | Docker + Docker Compose |

📂 Proposed Project Structure

MediaWolf/
├── backend/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── api/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── auth_api.py
│   │   ├── books_api.py
│   │   ├── downloads_api.py
│   │   ├── logs_api.py
│   │   ├── movies_api.py
│   │   ├── music_api.py
│   │   ├── settings_api.py
│   │   ├── shows_api.py
│   │   ├── subscriptions_api.py
│   │   └── tasks_api.py
│   ├── db/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── database_handler.py
│   │   ├── music_db_handler.py
│   │   └── music_models.py
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── config_services.py
│   │   ├── lastfm_services.py
│   │   ├── lidarr_services.py
│   │   ├── radarr_services.py
│   │   ├── readarr_services.py
│   │   ├── sonarr_services.py
│   │   ├── spotdl_download_services.py
│   │   ├── spotify_services.py
│   │   ├── subscription_services.py
│   │   ├── tasks.py
│   │   └── ytdlp_services.py
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── string_cleaner.py
│   ├── logger.py
│   └── main.py
├── docker/
│   ├── .dockerignore
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── requirements.txt
├── frontend/
│   ├── static/
│   │   ├── base_script.js
│   │   ├── base_style.css
│   │   ├── book_script.js
│   │   ├── favicon.png
│   │   ├── lidarr.svg
│   │   ├── logo.png
│   │   ├── logs_script.js
│   │   ├── movies_script.js
│   │   ├── music_script.js
│   │   ├── music_style.css
│   │   ├── settings_script.js
│   │   ├── shows_script.js
│   │   ├── subscriptions_script.js
│   │   ├── tasks_script.js
│   │   ├── theme_script.js
│   │   └── yt_dlp.png
│   └── templates/
│       ├── base.html
│       ├── books.html
│       ├── downloads.html
│       ├── login.html
│       ├── logs.html
│       ├── movies.html
│       ├── music.html
│       ├── settings.html
│       ├── shows.html
│       ├── subscriptions.html
│       └── tasks.html
├── docs/
│   └── screenshot.png
└── README.md

Edit:

Edit: Anyone interested, create a PR for whatever section you want to take on...

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/shol-ly on 2025-03-14 11:59:39+00:00.


Happy Friday, r/selfhosted! Linked below is the latest edition of This Week in Self-Hosted, a weekly newsletter recap of the latest activity in self-hosted software and content.

This week's features include:

  • Home Assistant Matter updates and Android Linux support
  • Software updates and launches
  • A spotlight on Cup -- a container update monitoring platform
  • A ton of great guides and content from the community

Thanks, and as usual, feel free to reach out with feedback!


This Week in Self-Hosted (14 March 2025)

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This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/Docccc on 2025-03-13 11:16:35+00:00.


There dashboard is a marketing pain. Every click almost always results in shoving an Ad or Upgrade message in my face.

Are there any alternatives ? i guess fail2ban but that doesnt have shared blocklists as far as i understand

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