12 ms·

Awesome-Selfhosted

194 points by diplodocusaur 6y ago

colecut 6y ago
I'm happy this exists and I scan it every time it is posted. These days I feel like there is more value in curation than an exhaustive list.. There is just too much on here and a lot of it not of super great quality for me to want to take the time to try a lot of things.. I would probably get more value out of a list that had the best overall 1 or 2 from each category on this list, and even a "best standouts from all categories" would be cool.
- Syonyk 6y ago
  Or even, "Most recent commit" information. I've run across plenty of interesting looking projects, last commit 7 years ago, README.md references Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as the preferred platform... Could I make that work? Probably, if I cared enough. Do I want to? Not unless I can't find something newer and similar enough.
  - jjav 6y ago
    Depends on the type of tool of course, but some tools are done and all bugs are fixed. There is no need for continuous commits if a tool is complete and functional. One of the CLI tools I use every day (minor filesystem management tool, written by me for me) hasn't had a commit since 1991. But I use it every single day, it does what it needs to do.
- chewmieser 6y ago
  Agreed. There's a lot of noise in massive software lists like this although they can be a very useful starting point. Perhaps more useful would be a feature matrix for each section of this repo so you can determine the "best" ones at-a-glance (since best is subjective based on your particular needs). Still a great start!
- zelon88 6y ago
  I like how it portrays projects without being judge jury and executioner. Most of these projects are works in progress. It would not be fair to exclude them in favor of projects with larger budgets and internal marketing.
  - awill 6y ago
    that's a strange thing to say. Sure it's great for in-progress projects to get visibility, but as a ready/user, it will waste my time if I just want something that's ready/usable right now, and end up trying a bunch of unfinished projects.
    - zelon88 6y ago
      How do you think projects get finished? I wrote a competitor to OwnCloud and NextCloud that took years of working by myself to make. With no budget by myself. Obviously the quality isn't quite as polished as my competition. By your logic only OwnCloud and NextCloud should be allowed on here. Despite both of them having their own marketing budget they promote with. They should get to come into aggregate lists and boot out the little guy.
      - akiselev 6y ago
        > How do you think projects get finished? Projects that fail to attracts users tend to do even worse at attracting developers because there are always going to be far more users than developers.
        zelon88 6y ago
        Some projects are aimed at higher level users of whom and outsized portion could be developers. Some products are meant to be unbranded products for integration into business products. Some products prioritize different things. For example, all of my products internalize fonts and scripts so they are truly self hosted. My competition doesn't do that. They host scripts on CDNs and utilize Google fonts. On some networks, particularly air gapped intranets or offline locahosts, that won't work. By passing objective judgement on the contents of the list, you're dictating to the audience the factors that you think should be important to them rather than showing them all factors and letting them choose what they believe is important.
- sparsely 6y ago
  Agreed. The nice thing about AWS is that they normally have at most a couple of different services that do what you're looking for, and you can be reasonably confident that they will work well and play nicely with all your other AWS hosted services.
- aidenn0 6y ago
  Even a simple what's good/bad about each one would be fine. I'm okay wading through a list of 12 items if there is some way for me to tell what distinguishes them from each other.
- qbasic_forever 6y ago
  This is a good podcast that effectively curates and discusses interesting self-hosted applications: https://selfhosted.show/ https://selfhosted.show/
  - opk 6y ago
    They tend to be overly positive of things like netdata and plex that are selfhosted but with closed cloud components. They also talk a lot about home assistant. And generally give thew impression that they have a short attention span, are always looking for shiny new and never have issues like the latest nextcloud upgrade breaking.
    - qbasic_forever 6y ago
      I've been listening since the start and don't share any of those perceptions, FWIW.
    - colecut 6y ago
      I got tired of managing my own nextcloud instance and now use a storage share box with Hetzner which is powered by NextCloud. Now it seems to just work all the time.
- atat7024 6y ago
  That's not the point of this list. Now you search one to three from category you're looking for to see what smart people are blogging about/what people are using who are accomplishing what you want to accomplish with that tool.
  - colecut 6y ago
    Yes, I'm just pointing out that there is a lot of opportunity to make the data that is already presented here in one place a lot more useful. I would probably be more helpful if i actually tried to do something about it.
teekert 6y ago
This may be a good place to plug one of my favorite podcasts called “Self Hosted” (not sure if related): https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/self-hosted/id1477997392 https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/self-hosted/id14779973...
gowld 6y ago
Why don't the #anchor links in the TOC work?
- qwertox 6y ago
  On the GitHub Readme Page? It's working for me.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- thunderbong 6y ago
  For whatever reason, anchor tags in Github don't work without enabling javascript. This bugs me no end, but there doesn't seem to be any workaround for it. Why the heck we need javascript to navigate within a page is beyond me.
  - atat7024 6y ago
    Microsoft fingerprinting? Or was this always the case?
    - thunderbong 6y ago
      Always
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
HN automatically strips the word "awesome" from titles, which is the right thing in 99% cases, this being a notable exception.
- tom_mellior 6y ago
  Interesting. If this is really automated, the implementation seems to miss a bunch of corner cases: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=awesome&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- dang 6y ago
  We've made it awesome again.
Johnny555 6y ago
It's pretty ironic that the selfhosted repo is hosted on a SaaS provider, and is not itself self-hosted.
- tomschlick 6y ago
  Not really. Know what you do well. Selfhosted is generally about providing it for yourself and possibly for a small number of friends / family (the exception might be a blog). Dealing with collaboration and HN/Reddit level of traffic coming to your server is best left to the big collaboration platforms.
  - flal_ 6y ago
    Also : marketing / discoverability
- guilhas 6y ago
  Or pretty smart, using SaaS to kill SaaS
  - atat7024 6y ago
    Know where your target audience is.
- qbasic_forever 6y ago
  Distributing content to the global public is one thing self-hosting doesn't do well. Maybe IPFS or other things will help over time. If github is going to pay for the servers and give you a ton of free bandwidth, why waste it. It's just a markdown file translated to HTML, they aren't locked into anything a SaaS provides.
open-source-ux 6y ago
This is a very helpful list but there remains an enduring problem with self-hosting server software: deployment. It remains ludicrously complicated to self-host server apps. It's no wonder that SaaS continues to dominate the software market when the self-host alternative is so time-consuming and unfriendly to set-up. Imagine if app installs on the server were as simple and easy as installing a desktop app. Having a ridiculously easy web app installation process for servers would unlock countless opportunities for developers to reach more users or customers. There appears to be no appetite or interest in the industry to tackle this problem. And just to pre-empt the suggestions that Docker, Cloudtron, Sandstorm, command-line scripts are possible options: none of these are easy or simple for non-technical users. Even one-click app marketplaces (Linode, Digital Ocean etc) have their complications. Without easy deployment, particularly for non-technical users, self-hosting will never be a viable option for most people, only for a tiny minority of technical users. If you disagree, take a look at the unstoppable juggernaut that is SaaS.
- granshaw 6y ago
  I'd think the ideal "magical" UX would be: - Have some "global self-hosted sass installer service" pre-installed and running - Visit someselfhostedsaas.com - it detects that you don't have their software installed yet - It automatically initiates a download and installation. User is shown a loading screen. Doesn't even need to be different than your standard SPA spinner. - Once installation is complete, the app/local-site automatically opens. User is off to the races I can't be the first one envisioning this, and I'm sure there's been work done in this area?
  - open-source-ux 6y ago
    Another possibility: a common or standardised 'installation' API for web apps adopted by web servers like Apache, NGINX,Caddy etc. The API covers security, permissions, installation location and even uninstallation. It will never happen...but one can dream.
- bobcostas55 6y ago
  Isn't that what docker does? I have found it very easy to get self-hosted stuff running on my VPS.
scorxn 6y ago
I'm so fascinated by the idea of self-hosting email, but /every/ time I see it come up on HN, someone asserts there be dragons, followed by lots of agreement. Maybe I'll try it on a toy domain anyway.
- jjav 6y ago
  And every time others (like me) remind that it's nowhere near as difficult as it's portrayed to be by the naysayers. And it will liberate your email, the most vital of internet services (think of every password recovery) from the control of arbitrary shutdowns by google et.al. Own your own destiny. You'll also get less spam and way less (none) legit emails going to spam and you'll discover how terribly bad gmail spam filtering actually is in comparison. If you're completely nontechnical, sure, don't go there. But if you're even passingly familiar with Linux administration and honestly willing to spend a week or so learning (assuming you're starting from knowing nothing about email hosting, only a couple days if you already know about SMTP and postfix), you can do it. Ongoing maintenance is nearly none. The majority of years I do nothing on my email server other than apt-get upgrade.
ricopags 6y ago
^f "Cloudron" 0 results In terms of the intersection of "awesome" and "self-hosted" I am surprised to not see Cloudron[0] mentioned here or in Github Awesome list. I'm not affiliated in any sense but a lazy+loyal lover of their service. https://cloudron.io https://cloudron.io
- slickdork 6y ago
  I just tested the demo and I am incredibly impressed by the matrix server it was able to build in seconds. I mainly self host to 'learn', so I can't see myself transitioning to Cloudron, but I'm glad it exists.
- Naac 6y ago
  Probably because it's a proprietary service.

194 points by diplodocusaur 6y ago

I'm happy this exists and I scan it every time it is posted. These days I feel like there is more value in curation than an exhaustive list.. There is just too much on here and a lot of it not of super great quality for me to want to take the time to try a lot of things.. I would probably get more value out of a list that had the best overall 1 or 2 from each category on this list, and even a "best standouts from all categories" would be cool.

Syonyk 6y ago
Or even, "Most recent commit" information. I've run across plenty of interesting looking projects, last commit 7 years ago, README.md references Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as the preferred platform... Could I make that work? Probably, if I cared enough. Do I want to? Not unless I can't find something newer and similar enough.
- jjav 6y ago
  Depends on the type of tool of course, but some tools are done and all bugs are fixed. There is no need for continuous commits if a tool is complete and functional. One of the CLI tools I use every day (minor filesystem management tool, written by me for me) hasn't had a commit since 1991. But I use it every single day, it does what it needs to do.
chewmieser 6y ago
Agreed. There's a lot of noise in massive software lists like this although they can be a very useful starting point. Perhaps more useful would be a feature matrix for each section of this repo so you can determine the "best" ones at-a-glance (since best is subjective based on your particular needs). Still a great start!
zelon88 6y ago
I like how it portrays projects without being judge jury and executioner. Most of these projects are works in progress. It would not be fair to exclude them in favor of projects with larger budgets and internal marketing.
- awill 6y ago
  that's a strange thing to say. Sure it's great for in-progress projects to get visibility, but as a ready/user, it will waste my time if I just want something that's ready/usable right now, and end up trying a bunch of unfinished projects.
  - zelon88 6y ago
    How do you think projects get finished? I wrote a competitor to OwnCloud and NextCloud that took years of working by myself to make. With no budget by myself. Obviously the quality isn't quite as polished as my competition. By your logic only OwnCloud and NextCloud should be allowed on here. Despite both of them having their own marketing budget they promote with. They should get to come into aggregate lists and boot out the little guy.
    - akiselev 6y ago
      > How do you think projects get finished? Projects that fail to attracts users tend to do even worse at attracting developers because there are always going to be far more users than developers.
      - zelon88 6y ago
        Some projects are aimed at higher level users of whom and outsized portion could be developers. Some products are meant to be unbranded products for integration into business products. Some products prioritize different things. For example, all of my products internalize fonts and scripts so they are truly self hosted. My competition doesn't do that. They host scripts on CDNs and utilize Google fonts. On some networks, particularly air gapped intranets or offline locahosts, that won't work. By passing objective judgement on the contents of the list, you're dictating to the audience the factors that you think should be important to them rather than showing them all factors and letting them choose what they believe is important.
sparsely 6y ago
Agreed. The nice thing about AWS is that they normally have at most a couple of different services that do what you're looking for, and you can be reasonably confident that they will work well and play nicely with all your other AWS hosted services.
aidenn0 6y ago
Even a simple what's good/bad about each one would be fine. I'm okay wading through a list of 12 items if there is some way for me to tell what distinguishes them from each other.
qbasic_forever 6y ago
This is a good podcast that effectively curates and discusses interesting self-hosted applications: https://selfhosted.show/ https://selfhosted.show/
- opk 6y ago
  They tend to be overly positive of things like netdata and plex that are selfhosted but with closed cloud components. They also talk a lot about home assistant. And generally give thew impression that they have a short attention span, are always looking for shiny new and never have issues like the latest nextcloud upgrade breaking.
  - qbasic_forever 6y ago
    I've been listening since the start and don't share any of those perceptions, FWIW.
  - colecut 6y ago
    I got tired of managing my own nextcloud instance and now use a storage share box with Hetzner which is powered by NextCloud. Now it seems to just work all the time.
atat7024 6y ago
That's not the point of this list. Now you search one to three from category you're looking for to see what smart people are blogging about/what people are using who are accomplishing what you want to accomplish with that tool.
- colecut 6y ago
  Yes, I'm just pointing out that there is a lot of opportunity to make the data that is already presented here in one place a lot more useful. I would probably be more helpful if i actually tried to do something about it.

teekert 6y ago

This may be a good place to plug one of my favorite podcasts called “Self Hosted” (not sure if related): https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/self-hosted/id1477997392 https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/self-hosted/id14779973...

gowld 6y ago

Why don't the #anchor links in the TOC work?

qwertox 6y ago
On the GitHub Readme Page? It's working for me.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
thunderbong 6y ago
For whatever reason, anchor tags in Github don't work without enabling javascript. This bugs me no end, but there doesn't seem to be any workaround for it. Why the heck we need javascript to navigate within a page is beyond me.
- atat7024 6y ago
  Microsoft fingerprinting? Or was this always the case?
  - thunderbong 6y ago
    Always

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago

HN automatically strips the word "awesome" from titles, which is the right thing in 99% cases, this being a notable exception.

tom_mellior 6y ago
Interesting. If this is really automated, the implementation seems to miss a bunch of corner cases: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=awesome&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
dang 6y ago
We've made it awesome again.

Johnny555 6y ago

It's pretty ironic that the selfhosted repo is hosted on a SaaS provider, and is not itself self-hosted.

tomschlick 6y ago
Not really. Know what you do well. Selfhosted is generally about providing it for yourself and possibly for a small number of friends / family (the exception might be a blog). Dealing with collaboration and HN/Reddit level of traffic coming to your server is best left to the big collaboration platforms.
- flal_ 6y ago
  Also : marketing / discoverability
guilhas 6y ago
Or pretty smart, using SaaS to kill SaaS
- atat7024 6y ago
  Know where your target audience is.
qbasic_forever 6y ago
Distributing content to the global public is one thing self-hosting doesn't do well. Maybe IPFS or other things will help over time. If github is going to pay for the servers and give you a ton of free bandwidth, why waste it. It's just a markdown file translated to HTML, they aren't locked into anything a SaaS provides.

open-source-ux 6y ago

This is a very helpful list but there remains an enduring problem with self-hosting server software: deployment. It remains ludicrously complicated to self-host server apps. It's no wonder that SaaS continues to dominate the software market when the self-host alternative is so time-consuming and unfriendly to set-up. Imagine if app installs on the server were as simple and easy as installing a desktop app. Having a ridiculously easy web app installation process for servers would unlock countless opportunities for developers to reach more users or customers. There appears to be no appetite or interest in the industry to tackle this problem. And just to pre-empt the suggestions that Docker, Cloudtron, Sandstorm, command-line scripts are possible options: none of these are easy or simple for non-technical users. Even one-click app marketplaces (Linode, Digital Ocean etc) have their complications. Without easy deployment, particularly for non-technical users, self-hosting will never be a viable option for most people, only for a tiny minority of technical users. If you disagree, take a look at the unstoppable juggernaut that is SaaS.

granshaw 6y ago
I'd think the ideal "magical" UX would be: - Have some "global self-hosted sass installer service" pre-installed and running - Visit someselfhostedsaas.com - it detects that you don't have their software installed yet - It automatically initiates a download and installation. User is shown a loading screen. Doesn't even need to be different than your standard SPA spinner. - Once installation is complete, the app/local-site automatically opens. User is off to the races I can't be the first one envisioning this, and I'm sure there's been work done in this area?
- open-source-ux 6y ago
  Another possibility: a common or standardised 'installation' API for web apps adopted by web servers like Apache, NGINX,Caddy etc. The API covers security, permissions, installation location and even uninstallation. It will never happen...but one can dream.
bobcostas55 6y ago
Isn't that what docker does? I have found it very easy to get self-hosted stuff running on my VPS.

scorxn 6y ago

I'm so fascinated by the idea of self-hosting email, but /every/ time I see it come up on HN, someone asserts there be dragons, followed by lots of agreement. Maybe I'll try it on a toy domain anyway.

jjav 6y ago
And every time others (like me) remind that it's nowhere near as difficult as it's portrayed to be by the naysayers. And it will liberate your email, the most vital of internet services (think of every password recovery) from the control of arbitrary shutdowns by google et.al. Own your own destiny. You'll also get less spam and way less (none) legit emails going to spam and you'll discover how terribly bad gmail spam filtering actually is in comparison. If you're completely nontechnical, sure, don't go there. But if you're even passingly familiar with Linux administration and honestly willing to spend a week or so learning (assuming you're starting from knowing nothing about email hosting, only a couple days if you already know about SMTP and postfix), you can do it. Ongoing maintenance is nearly none. The majority of years I do nothing on my email server other than apt-get upgrade.

ricopags 6y ago

^f "Cloudron" 0 results In terms of the intersection of "awesome" and "self-hosted" I am surprised to not see Cloudron[0] mentioned here or in Github Awesome list. I'm not affiliated in any sense but a lazy+loyal lover of their service. https://cloudron.io https://cloudron.io

slickdork 6y ago
I just tested the demo and I am incredibly impressed by the matrix server it was able to build in seconds. I mainly self host to 'learn', so I can't see myself transitioning to Cloudron, but I'm glad it exists.
Naac 6y ago
Probably because it's a proprietary service.