Hundreds of thousands of people subscribe to different subreddits related to self-hosting. When you’re part of those communities, it feels like every day, more and more people join, each with different purposes in mind.

Personally, I think my journey started like many people’s today: with multimedia. My interest grew as I started to understand that there were more things I could do, especially after I bought my first Raspberry Pi (a Model B) in the early 2010s. My thinking shifted from “what can I buy to do what I want?” to “what can I do myself that’s also fun?”

Why I Bother Self-Hosting (When I Could Pay Someone Else)

Before diving into what I’m running, I want to share a bit about why I do it, especially since, yes, I could often pay for managed services instead. Which for certain services I do as I do not want to manage that myself.

My reasons evolved over the years, especially as the tech world shifted from perpetual licenses towards monthly subscriptions and a model where we don’t truly ‘own’ our digital tools. Initially, my main reasons were cost and access to technology. I was still in school and didn’t really have the money to buy expensive software, hardware, or even software I wanted but didn’t strictly need.

I remember tinkering with voice command control via my Raspberry Pi and setting up a web interface to send Wake-on-LAN packets. Alright, it wasn’t fancy, but we all start somewhere. Then, my focus shifted to media. Setting up a file server using FileZilla Server and OwnCloud felt incredible at the time – suddenly, I could access my files from anywhere!

Over the years, something shifted. At some point, it became less about the fun of hosting media at home and managed by me, and more about learning and the philosophical aspects of controlling my own data and services. Hey, I still have fun, and I still host my media at home (even more than before!). But now, my primary motivation comes from how my perspective on technology has changed — shaped by my own growth and the evolution of technology itself over the years.

Missing the Old Internet

When I first started using the internet in the late 2000s, I found so much information freely available online with forums, chat rooms, IRC. It felt like I had access to countless places to learn and discover new hobbies.

Sure, I also had more free time back then, but mostly, when I needed information, it was usually there. I didn’t have to struggle as much to figure out if a solution actually worked, if it was just vaporware, or if half the useful details were hidden behind a paywall. It felt more like a place where people shared what they knew and what they had, simply because they enjoyed it. They liked building things and sharing their passion with others. And that’s what I liked.

I spent countless hours on FlightGear (an open-source flight simulator), partly because it was free, yes, but also because there was an active community working on the project. They helped me learn Blender to build 3D models for the aircraft and were even helpful in understanding Linux and compiling the game. And that was for me the first time I truly understood the power of opensource and the community behind it.

Today, honestly, I’m tired of feeling like simple things require me to sign up, pay, or use a proprietary platform just for knowledge sharing. Why did we move from forums that were visible via search engines to Discord? I now have to pay to see snippets of code in some places.

Sharing is Caring

Many people still believe strongly in open-source software (FOSS), and I am one of these people. Was the old internet FOSS, no and don’t get me wrong, there’s even more open-source projects today than ever. This isn’t about waging war on closed-source software or big corporations; it’s about finding a healthy balance. We need both corporate tools and community-driven projects. I acknowledge that you can self-host proprietary software too (and I do for some things). For me, having control over where it runs is still an important factor. I use Windows, Obsidian, and other tools where I might pay or don’t have access to the source code.

This desire for sharing and community, reminiscent of the old internet I miss, is a big part of why I continue down this path.

Today, I could easily pay for whatever I might need: Adobe or an equivalent for editing PDFs, plenty of cloud storage, integrate everything with Google Home, and subscribe to Gemini or ChatGPT to potentially make my life ’easier’. But this raises a couple of questions for me: Do we really need paid software just to open a PDF? Do all text editors need to be paid or require an internet connection?

I value privacy, so I’d rather run tasks like AI inference locally when possible. I value the work of the open-source community and believe in many of its underlying principles. So, I’ll continue spending my time learning, troubleshooting, and occasionally breaking things, all because someone generously decided to share their work with the world for free, often without mandatory costs or vendor lock-in with their solution. And when I find software or services that I believe are worth paying for, I’ll donate, pay for a license if it seems fair, or pay for something if I feel it has no comparable alternative.

Conclusion

My journey into self-hosting might be similar to many others’. People get into it for all sorts of reasons. Some simply don’t want to pay for Netflix and prefer ripping their old DVDs; others do it because it seems cool, or they started wanting to learn and fell down the rabbit hole.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that self-hosting isn’t free. It has costs: licenses, hardware, electricity, and your time… often, a lot of your time!

Whatever our individual reasons, the community often benefits collectively. I hope the people building great open-source software continue to do so and receive the support they need. And I hope corporations continue to embrace the open-source community, as we all benefit from it in one way or another.