Guides

If you’re a developer tired of depending on GitHub, GitLab.com, or Bitbucket for your code repositories, self-hosting your own Git server gives you complete control, privacy, and freedom. Whether you’re managing personal projects, team collaboration, or want to escape vendor lock-in, running your own Git infrastructure is easier than ever. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll compare the three most popular self-hosted Git solutions—Gitea, GitLab, and Forgejo—and show you exactly how to set up each one using Docker. By the end, you’ll know which platform fits your needs and have a production-ready Git server running on your homelab or VPS. ...

RSS feeds remain one of the most powerful tools for curating your own information diet. Instead of relying on algorithmic timelines that optimize for engagement over quality, RSS puts you back in control. But which self-hosted RSS reader should you choose? In this comprehensive comparison, we’ll pit three of the most popular options against each other: FreshRSS, Miniflux, and Tiny Tiny RSS. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. Why Self-Host Your RSS Reader? Before diving into the comparison, let’s talk about why you’d want to self-host an RSS reader in the first place. Cloud-based services like Feedly are convenient, but they come with trade-offs: ...

When it comes to self-hosted cloud storage, Nextcloud and Seafile are two of the most popular options. But there’s a crucial difference between them: Nextcloud is an all-in-one productivity platform, while Seafile is laser-focused on file sync and storage performance. If you’re trying to decide between the two, performance is often the deciding factor. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. In this comprehensive comparison, I’ll break down how Nextcloud and Seafile stack up in terms of sync speed, resource usage, scalability, and real-world performance. I’ll also help you decide which one is the better fit for your specific use case. ...

Syncthing is one of the most powerful self-hosted file synchronization tools available, but many users barely scratch the surface of its capabilities. While getting basic sync working is straightforward, mastering advanced features like ignore patterns, versioning strategies, and relay server configuration can transform Syncthing from a simple sync tool into a robust backup and collaboration system. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive deep into three critical advanced features that will help you fine-tune your Syncthing setup for maximum efficiency and data protection. Whether you’re syncing development projects, backing up important documents, or coordinating files across multiple devices, these techniques will give you precise control over what syncs, how it’s protected, and how devices connect. ...

When running privacy-sensitive applications through a VPN, one of your biggest concerns should be connection drops. If your VPN disconnects unexpectedly, your real IP address gets exposed—defeating the entire purpose of using a VPN in the first place. A VPN kill switch solves this problem by blocking all non-VPN traffic automatically. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. In this guide, we’ll build a robust, self-hosted VPN kill switch using Docker containers and iptables firewall rules. You’ll learn how to create an isolated network namespace where applications can only communicate through the VPN tunnel—if the VPN drops, all traffic stops completely. We’ll use qBittorrent as our example application, but the same approach works for any Docker container. ...

If you’re running multiple self-hosted services on Docker, managing access to each one can quickly become a mess. Different ports, manual SSL certificate management, and complex nginx configurations are enough to make anyone want to give up. That’s where Traefik comes in—a modern, Docker-native reverse proxy that automatically discovers your services and handles SSL certificates without you lifting a finger. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. Traefik v3, released in 2024, brings significant improvements over v2, including better performance, enhanced middleware options, and improved configuration syntax. In this complete guide, you’ll learn how to set up Traefik v3 from scratch, configure automatic SSL certificates with Let’s Encrypt, and connect your Docker services—all without touching a single nginx config file. ...

Keeping Docker containers up to date is one of those chores that sounds simple but quickly becomes a time sink when you’re running a dozen self-hosted services. Miss an update and you might leave a security hole open for weeks. That’s where Watchtower comes in — a lightweight container that monitors your running Docker containers, detects new image versions, and automatically pulls and restarts them for you. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. Watchtower has been a staple of the homelab community for years, and for good reason: it’s dead simple to configure, surprisingly flexible, and it runs entirely inside Docker itself. This guide covers everything from a basic one-shot update run to a fully configured, notification-enabled automatic update setup — including how to exclude containers you don’t want touched. ...

If you’ve ever wanted to track your internet speeds over time without relying on third-party services that log your data, self-hosting your own speed test tool is the answer. Two of the most popular options in the homelab community are LibreSpeed and Speedtest Tracker — and they serve surprisingly different purposes despite sharing a similar name space. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. In this guide, we’ll break down what each tool does, how to set them up with Docker, and which one makes sense for your homelab. By the end, you’ll know exactly which to deploy — or whether you need both. ...

If you’ve decided to stop trusting Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud with your files, you’ve got two outstanding self-hosted options staring you in the face: Syncthing and Nextcloud. Both are open-source, both respect your privacy — but they are built around fundamentally different philosophies. This guide cuts through the noise. By the end, you’ll know exactly which one fits your situation. 💡 This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. The Core Difference: Sync vs Cloud Before diving into feature tables, you need to internalize this: ...

Pi-hole is one of the most popular self-hosted tools in the homelab community — and for good reason. It blocks ads, trackers, and malicious domains at the network level, protecting every device on your network without installing anything on individual devices. Smart TVs, smartphones, game consoles — they all benefit automatically. In this guide, you’ll learn how to run Pi-hole in Docker, configure it properly, set up custom DNS records, and squeeze every last bit of blocking power out of it. ...