



Selfhosting is where you're hosting your own websites, apps, software, tools, and much more on your own server instead of having to rely on 3rd-party cloud providers such as Hetzner. Taking this approach to hosting gives you more control over your data and how your server or servers are managed.
When you are running multiple things on one or two servers, within your home, it's called a "Homelab" and you're "Homelabbing" at that point.
Running your own server and homelab within your home is great for privacy-conscious individuals such as myself, tech enthusiasts, small businesses, and those seeking more control of their digital life.
The following lists provided here are applications and software I've gotten comfortable with and enjoyed using over the past 3 years since I started homelabbing, it's based on my experience and what fits my criteria. Some well known softwares won't be listed here, as my experience may of not been at best with them.
My criteria is that software is built in the open, respects user privacy and security, should not require a license to operate, and don't contain profanity and other minor things.
I'm also willing to test new software to selfhost, feel free to comment or message me to try out other alternatives.
There are other places to check out as well for those interesting selfhosting, such as Awesome Selfhosted, selfh.st, and other places you can find on the internet.
If you ever need help with selfhosting, you can check out the following communities:
There's also a wiki you can look into as well.
If you believe an alternative software should be added to this list, please contact me or direct message via my AlternativeTo account. I'm also available on Signal.
This lists gets updated every month at least, check back regularly.




Starlight is the web framework for building modern documentation websites. Comes with navigation, search, i18n, syntax highlighting, dark mode, and more included. Supports React, Svelte, Vue, Tailwind CSS, Markdown, and MDX. All free + open source!




Just the Docs is a responsive Jekyll theme with built-in search that is easily customizable and hosted on GitHub Pages.



mailcow is a mail server suite based on Dovecot, Postfix, SOGo, Rspamd and other open source software, that provides a modern Web UI for administration.




Roundcube webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking.




Take control of your network and what goes through it.
AdGuard Home is a network-wide software for blocking ads & tracking. After you set it up, it'll cover ALL your home devices, and you don't need any client-side software for that.



Protect all network devices with DNS-level ad blocking, no client software needed. Features a web interface, query logging, whitelist/blacklist, and privacy controls.




mosparo is the modern solution for protecting your online forms from spam. The protection method is quite simple: mosparo blocks spam using rules matching the form’s data. The detection method is comparable to an e-mail spam filter.




Lightweight, modern open-source CAPTCHA alternative designed using SHA-256 proof-of-work.



Federated and open-source social network with no ads, 500-character limit, custom emojis, and content warnings, emphasizing privacy and personal interaction.




Iceshrimp is a derivative of Misskey that has been offering practical solutions, enhancements, and improvements since 2023. It is designed to address user needs directly, focusing on delivering straightforward fixes and features that users find valuable.
Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are...


Hoodik is a lightweight, secure, and self-hosted cloud storage solution. It's designed and built with Rust and Vue, focusing on end-to-end encryption that shields your data from prying eyes and hackers.

Easily back up, organize, and manage your photos on your own server. Immich helps you browse, search and organize your photos and videos with ease, without sacrificing your privacy.




Papra is a minimalistic document management and archiving platform. It is designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone. Papra is a platform for long-term document storage and management, like a digital archive for your documents.

Open Source cloud file storage server (similar to Google Drive). Host myDrive on your own trusted server or platform, then access myDrive via your web browser. MyDrive uses mongoDB to store file/folder metadata and supports multiple databases to store file chunks, such as Amazon...




Note about 4get: The official source code contains profanity on frontend pages, which goes against my profanity criteria. I've made a modified version of 4get that offers a cleaner UI, doesn't display banners, and removes profanity from the pages and API.
This is a metasearch engine that gets results from other engines, and strips away all of the tracking parameters and Microsoft bullshit they add. Most of the other alternatives to Google jack themselves off about being ""privacy respecting"" or whatever the...



Get Google search results, but without any ads, javascript, AMP links, cookies, or IP address tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file. Quick and simple to implement as a primary search engine replacement on both...


Umami is a self-hosted web analytics tool that emphasizes simplicity and privacy. It's a free, open-source alternative to Google Analytics and other paid services, collecting only essential metrics viewable on a single page.




Self-hosted GPL-licensed analytics with advanced privacy, customizable reports, insights on visitor languages, search keywords, and real-time traffic sources.


Self-hosted, Node.js based analytics tool for those who care about privacy. Ackee runs on your own server, analyses the traffic of your websites and provides useful statistics in a minimal interface.



Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.

The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system that we have created is called Debian.




Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.




Rocky Linux is a community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with America's top enterprise Linux distribution now that its downstream partner has shifted direction. It is under intensive development by the community.


Dockge could be considered a Portainer replacement if you're only managing your container with docker-compose. However, for managing docker networks and single containers, Portainer might still be necessary. You can install both Dockge and Portainer.








This project comes as a pre-built docker image that enables you to easily forward to your websites running at home or otherwise, including free SSL, without having to know too much about Nginx or Letsencrypt.
Makes it easy to administer Linux servers via a web browser. It allows you to easily perform simple tasks like storage administration, inspecting journals, starting & stopping services, monitoring & administering several servers at once.



Beyond coding. We forge. Forgejo is a self-hosted lightweight software forge. Easy to install and low maintenance, it just does the job.




Opengist is a self-hosted pastebin powered by Git. All snippets are stored in a Git repository and can be





Ship Code Fast. Drone is a Continuous Delivery platform that helps your organization optimize and automate software develiery.





Advanced self-hosted tool for tracking uptime across multiple services with reactive UX, interval checks, various notifications, and multi-language support.


Open-source Node.js status page tool, designed to make service monitoring and incident handling a breeze. It offers a sleek and user-friendly interface that simplifies tracking service outages and improves how we communicate during incidents. And the best part?




Beszel is a lightweight server monitoring platform that includes Docker statistics, historical data, and alert functions.





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Pingvin Share has been discontinued and the repository was archived in June 2025.
Could you replace Libreddit with Redlib?
Redlib