This is my personal, actively evolving self-hosted stack.
I run my own VPS and prefer tools I can understand, control, and migrate without vendor lock-in. The apps here are ones I actually use (or am seriously testing), chosen for a balance of simplicity, flexibility, and long-term survivability.
This list isn’t about “the most powerful” tools — just what works for me. I update it as my setup grows and my opinions sharpen!
VPS-specific services or services that cover purposes I use for everything (i.e. both work and personal).
Dokploy is a free self-hostable Platform as a Service (PaaS) that simplifies the deployment and management of applications and databases.
My main deployment and orchestration layer. Handles apps, domains, certificates, and updates without turning every change into a weekend-long Docker archaeology dig.
The Cloud Native Application Proxy Simplify networking complexity while designing, deploying, and operating applications.
Reverse proxy and traffic cop for the entire stack. Handles routing and TLS cleanly and stays out of the way once configured properly.
Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes environments. It is designed to be as simple to deploy as it is to use.
Occasional visual sanity check for containers and volumes. Useful when I want confirmation rather than control.
On-premises file sync, universal access, integrated collaboration, real-time communication with privacy and data control focus.
Private cloud for files, sharing, and collaboration.
Extensible offline AI platform with user-friendly interface, LLM runner support, RAG inference, privacy focus, no registration, text-to-image, cloud sync, and dark mode.
Self-hosted interface for interacting with local or remote AI models.
Keeping the engine running, and letting me know when it has stalled.
Advanced self-hosted tool for tracking uptime across multiple services with reactive UX, interval checks, various notifications, and multi-language support.
Lightweight uptime and service monitoring. Simple alerts without enterprise noise. Easy to configure too.
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.
Privacy-focused analytics without cookies or dark patterns. Clear insights with minimal overhead.
changedetection.io - The best and simplest self-hosted free open source website change detection monitoring and notification service. An alternative to Visualping, Watchtower etc. Designed for simplicity - the main goal is to simply monitor which websites had a text change for...
Monitors websites for content changes. Useful for tracking updates without manual checking.
SEOnaut is an open source SEO auditing tool that checks your website for any issues that might be affecting your search engine rankings. It crawls your site and gives you a report with a list of any problems it finds, organised by how important they are to fix.
Self-hosted SEO crawling and analysis tool. Helpful for understanding site structure and technical SEO issues.
Shared databases, individual service databases and related services.
All-in-one backend for small apps and experiments. Perfect for rapid prototypes without heavy infrastructure.
PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system with over 35 years of active development that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, feature robustness, and performance.
Primary relational database for anything important. Stable, powerful, and easy to migrate or back up.
pgAdmin is the most popular and feature rich open source administration and development platform for 
PostgreSQL, the most advanced open source database in the world.
Administrative interface for PostgreSQL when deeper inspection or structured management is needed.
Free GPL database platform supporting SQL and NoSQL applications with InnoDB storage, replication, clustering, connectors, and cross-platform deployment.
Widely supported relational database for compatibility-focused projects and legacy integrations.
MongoDB is a document database with the scalability and flexibility that you want with the querying and indexing that you need
Document-oriented database used where flexible schemas make more sense than rigid tables.
MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement of the MySQL® Database Server. It includes all major open source storage engines.
Drop-in MySQL replacement with strong open-source governance. Reliable and familiar.
The in-memory data store used by millions of developers as a cache, vector database, document database, streaming engine, and message broker.
Fast in-memory store for caching and queues. Invisible when working, missed when gone.
Services directly related to my work.
Beyond coding. We forge. Forgejo is a self-hosted lightweight software forge. Easy to install and low maintenance, it just does the job.
Self-hosted Git service for repositories, issues, and collaboration without platform lock-in.
Penpot is the open-source design platform for teams that design, build, and scale digital products.
Open-source design and prototyping tool.
Open-source all-in-one platform integrates task tracking, real-time collaboration, instant messaging, video calls, GitHub sync, and team workspace tools.
Work management and planning tool aimed at replacing heavyweight SaaS stacks.
Welcome to OmniTools, a self-hosted platform offering a variety of online tools to simplify everyday tasks. Whether you are manipulating images, crunching numbers, or coding, OmniTools has you covered. Please don't forget to star the repo to support us.
Collection of small, practical developer tools hosted locally for everyday tasks.
Personal and professional blog/website/newsletter projects.
Open-source software for creating websites and blogs with an emphasis on accessibility, ease of use, performance, and security.
Flexible publishing platform powering sites, tools, and experiments across the stack.
Open-source, self-hostable tool for bookmarks, notes, and images with AI-powered tagging, full-text search, Chrome extension, and web dark mode.
Self-hosted knowledge and note-keeping tool for structured documentation.
Send e-mail campaigns, newsletters, manage mailing lists, all from a powerful self-hosted dashboard released as a single binary. High performance and feature packed open source app written in Golang, and backed by Postgres.
High-performance, self-hosted mailing list manager. No SaaS pricing, no hidden limits.
AI-driven social media platform with automated scheduling, cross-channel posting, visual design tools, team collaboration, and integrated analytics data.
Open-source social scheduling that doesn’t require handing data to third parties.
A non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet. Store, trade, send/receive, buy/sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dash (with more coins to come). Free, secure, fast and simple — it's all about Plark.
Planning and organisation tool for content workflows and publishing cadence. Great landing page builder.
Focused writing and newsletter platform when clarity and speed matter more than plugins.
Automation tools - not all AI!
n8n is a workflow automation platform for building AI-powered agents and workflows. n8n is built for technical teams who need production-grade infrastructure: connect any LLM provider, build multi-step agents with conditional logic and human-in-the-loop approvals, and audit...
Automation glue for the entire stack. Connects services without building custom backends.
BentoPDF is a PDF Toolkit that works fully offline with no sign ups. It's fast, secure and forever free. In an era where data is a commodity, we take a different approach. All processing for BentoPDF tools happens locally in your browser.
Automates PDF generation and processing as part of larger workflows.
ERPNext is a free and open-source integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software developed by Frappé Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and is built on MariaDB database system using a Python based server-side framework.
Open-source ERP for experimenting with integrated business workflows and data.
Open-source appointment scheduler offering self-hosted or hosted white-label deployments, API-driven integration, customizable features, and control over data.
Self-hosted scheduling and bookings. Replaces third-party tools while keeping control of data.
Self-hosted apps I'm tinkering with.
Simple web UI for running predefined server commands safely.
Activepieces is an open source no-code AI automation tool. The only AI automation tool loved by both technical and non-technical users. It's super extensible code-wise and super easy UI-wise. With Activepieces, you can automate your departments (marketing, sales, HR, legal...
Automation platform exploring alternatives to n8n and SaaS workflow tools.
Free e-book manager offering library management, multi-format conversion, syncing to devices, news download as e-books, built-in viewer, editor, and privacy.
E-book management and conversion tool, self-hosted for personal libraries.
Self-hosted project and task management inspired by Trello and Notion.
Self-hosted game library and metadata management for personal collections.
This is my personal, actively evolving self-hosted stack — the tools I actually run, test, and rely on day to day. I prefer software that’s understandable, inspectable, and migratable: things I can host myself, back up cleanly, and move on from if needed. The focus here isn’t on chasing the most feature-dense platforms, but on building a system that feels calm, dependable, and human-scale.
You’ll find a mix of core infrastructure, publishing tools, automation, databases, and experiments — some battle-tested, others very much in progress. I update this list as my needs change, tools mature, or better options emerge. Think of it less as a “best of” list and more as a living snapshot of how I currently work and think about ownership, longevity, and pragmatic self-hosting.
Comments
Great list! Lots to investigate. You might have the wrong Plark though, from your description you may want the app listed here as "Plark Website Builder"