Take Control of Your Data

If you have a collection of eBooks scattered across devices, Calibre-Web brings them together into a beautiful, self-hosted library you can access from anywhere. Think of it as your personal Kindle store — minus the DRM and data harvesting. Calibre-Web is a web-based frontend for the popular Calibre eBook manager. It gives you a clean, modern interface to browse, read, and download your books from any browser or eReader device. ...

You’re already using OpenAI’s API for chat, embeddings, or image generation. But every request costs money, sends your data to a third party, and depends on their uptime. What if you could run the same API — same endpoints, same format — on your own hardware? That’s exactly what LocalAI does. What Is LocalAI? LocalAI is a drop-in replacement for the OpenAI API. It runs entirely on your server and supports: ...

You’re running a home server with important data — photos, documents, databases, configurations. What happens when a drive dies? When you accidentally rm -rf the wrong directory? When ransomware hits? Restic + Rclone is the gold standard backup combo for self-hosters. Restic creates fast, encrypted, deduplicated snapshots. Rclone syncs them to any cloud provider. Together, they give you enterprise-grade backups for free. The 3-2-1 Backup Rule Before we start, understand the rule that prevents data loss: ...

Mint is dead. YNAB costs $99/year. Your bank’s budgeting tools are terrible. Actual Budget is the answer — a fast, privacy-first budgeting app you can self-host for free. Originally a paid product, Actual was open-sourced in 2022 and is now maintained by a thriving community. It’s one of the best self-hosted finance tools available, with envelope budgeting, bank sync, and a beautiful UI that works on desktop and mobile. Why Actual Budget? Envelope budgeting — assign every dollar a job (YNAB-style) Bank sync — automatic transaction imports via GoCardless (free for personal use) Fast — local-first architecture, syncs in the background Multi-device — access from any browser, sync across devices Import — migrate from YNAB, Mint, or any CSV/OFX/QFX export Reports — spending trends, net worth, cash flow charts Rules — auto-categorize transactions 100% private — your financial data never leaves your server Prerequisites A Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose ~128MB RAM (very lightweight) A domain or local IP for access Step 1: Create the Project Directory mkdir -p ~/actual-budget && cd ~/actual-budget Step 2: Docker Compose Setup Create docker-compose.yml: ...

If you’re running a home server, you need visibility into what’s happening. Grafana + Prometheus is the gold standard monitoring stack — and it’s completely free to self-host. In this guide, you’ll set up Prometheus to collect metrics and Grafana to visualize them with beautiful dashboards. By the end, you’ll have real-time monitoring of your server’s CPU, memory, disk, network, and any Docker containers you’re running. What You’ll Build Prometheus — time-series database that scrapes metrics from your services Grafana — dashboard and visualization platform Node Exporter — exposes hardware/OS metrics to Prometheus cAdvisor — exposes Docker container metrics Prerequisites A Linux server (Ubuntu, Debian, or similar) Docker and Docker Compose installed Basic terminal knowledge ~512MB RAM for the full stack Step 1: Create the Project Directory mkdir -p ~/monitoring && cd ~/monitoring Step 2: Docker Compose Configuration Create docker-compose.yml: ...

Running a bunch of Docker containers but hate switching between docker logs commands? Dozzle gives you a beautiful, real-time web UI to view logs from all your containers in one place. No database, no agents, no configuration — just deploy and go. Why Dozzle? Zero config — point it at Docker and it works Real-time streaming — logs appear instantly, no polling Multi-container view — watch several containers side by side Search and filter — find what you need fast No storage — doesn’t store logs (uses Docker’s own log driver) Tiny footprint — ~10MB RAM, single binary Multi-host — monitor remote Docker hosts from one dashboard Dark mode — easy on the eyes during late-night debugging Prerequisites Docker and Docker Compose That’s it. Seriously. Step 1: Deploy Dozzle Create docker-compose.yml: ...

Tailscale is brilliant — it creates a zero-config mesh VPN using WireGuard that just works. But it routes all coordination through Tailscale’s servers. If you want that same magic while keeping full control, Headscale is the answer. Headscale is an open-source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale coordination server. Your devices still use the official Tailscale client, but they talk to your server instead of Tailscale’s cloud. Same great UX, complete sovereignty. ...

Discord is everywhere — gaming communities, dev teams, study groups. But it comes with baggage: data harvesting, Nitro upsells, and zero control over your data. If you’re already self-hosting, why not host your chat too? Here are the 5 best self-hosted Discord alternatives you can deploy today, ranked by feature completeness, ease of setup, and community size. 1. Revolt — The Closest Discord Clone Best for: Communities that want a Discord-like experience without the surveillance. ...

Choosing the right VPS is the most important decision you’ll make for your homelab-in-the-cloud. Get it wrong and you’re overpaying, underperforming, or dealing with support nightmares. I’ve tested all the major providers. Here’s what actually matters. TL;DR — Best VPS Picks Use Case Best Pick Why Starting Price Best Overall Hetzner Unbeatable price/performance €3.79/mo Best US-Based Vultr 32 locations, hourly billing $5/mo Best Managed DigitalOcean Easiest UI, great docs $4/mo Best Free Tier Oracle Cloud 4 ARM cores + 24GB RAM free forever Free Best for Europe Hetzner German datacenters, GDPR-native €3.79/mo Best High-Performance Vultr Bare Metal Dedicated hardware $120/mo 1. Hetzner — Best Price-to-Performance Hetzner is the open secret of the self-hosting community. German company, incredible pricing, solid hardware. ...

You’ve got Ollama running. You’re pulling models, chatting through curl commands in your terminal. It works, but let’s be honest — typing JSON into a terminal isn’t exactly the ChatGPT experience. Open WebUI (formerly Ollama WebUI) gives you a polished, feature-rich chat interface for your local models. It looks and feels like ChatGPT, but everything runs on your hardware. Conversations stay private. Models run offline. And it’s packed with features that even OpenAI’s interface doesn’t have. ...