Rocky Linux

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 and a half 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. https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted https://github.com/awesome-foss/awesome-sysadmin https://github.com/veggiemonk/awesome-docker If you ever need help with selfhosting, you can check out the following communities: Homelab Community on Fluxer, I personally run /r/selfhosted (Reddit) /c/selfhosted (Lemmy / Fediverse) 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.

I have noticed in general that the recommendation list for alternatives on this site is broken when it comes to Linux Distros. Often times when looking for a server distro or gaming distros, I will get generic recommendations for any Linux distribution and I will have to guess if the use-case is right. This list seeks to provide true alternatives based on use-cases for the most popular Linux and BSD distributions out there! Note this is a 2026 update to my original list posted several years ago. https://alternativeto.net/lists/23956/xenmaster-s-linux-distro-master-list/ Rather than re-write history, I'm adding a new post with the below link to my original. A lot has changed in the OS world so adding some details regarding what I use and how. Unlike my old list, this one will include both Linux and BSD related systems, similar in their unix-like behavior, but each with different utilities and mechanisms for performing operations. Note that as of the posting of this list, only OpenBSD supports Full Disk Encryption on installation without manual configuration steps, a major drawback if this is a critical component to your use as a desktop setup.

If You Need A Fedora Fork Or Fedora-based Distro, Then, There's The Epic List