What's the biggest reason you self-host? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 05:30 This is purely for my own personal curiosity, but what's the main reason you self-host? I say main because I don't know how to allow multiple answers, if that's possible at all. For me it's the last option; because it's cool. If it's none of these reasons, absolutely make additional options in the comments. @ mods, if this in any way breaks any of the rules or just generally detracts from the sub at all, I'll gladly remove it. Also I didn't flair it because none of the flairs seem to fit. [View Poll](https://www.reddit.com/poll/1811ss5) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vogelke · 2023-11-22 05:44 Stuff can disappear or stop being free at any time for no reason, with no notice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tman5400 · 2023-11-22 05:45 Can I do all of the above? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 05:46 An entirely valid answer and I very much wish I could enable multiple choices ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 05:46 Oh I hadn't thought of that, that's a really good one! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jusepal · 2023-11-22 05:53 Cost and privacy. Currently selfhosting adguardhome. Something like nextdns or controld cost like $35-40/year. Mine cost nothing monetarily since its hosted on oracle cloud free tier. Only costed me like an hour or two of my time to set it up. Plus i don't trust them enough to not sell my browsing habit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ChrunedMacaroon · 2023-11-22 06:09 Cost is kind of in the grey zone for data/media hoarders. Like, I bought two 16tb HDDs and that cost me a pretty penny. I could have used that same amount of money for streaming services (or whatever) and relieve myself of the pain of tinkering. Partially, it's about saying fuck you to the giant corpos in my own little way, and a little bit is about just knowing how to get what I need without paying for them which feels neat. Sometimes I feel a little guilty doing this but most media are shit anyway, and I buy the things I really like so that's that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jusepal · 2023-11-22 06:23 Technically you can. Make last option being "all of the above" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AK1174 · 2023-11-22 06:49 all of the above + more??? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-11-22 06:52 There's no option for "all of the above" and also no option for "I just want to see the results". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dazchad · 2023-11-22 07:22 I’ll expand on that to say “control”. I’m tired of companies pivoting and ruining the stuff I use. I’m tired of not being able to do something because some product manager deemed it low priority. I’m tired of being bothered by some feature that is “almost there” and hacking it is a pain. But I’m mostly tired of products salivating over my attention. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dx3756 · 2023-11-22 07:56 Cool and better - It's cool when you got something working in your house and it's better when it's in your hands, rather than companies which declare limitless free storage for photos and videos, and then after some time and tens of gigabytes they decide to stop uploading more data, limit max size for file and charge you to pay for this service. Nah, I'll rather just buy this cool mini PC, components and storage for it once and will not pay infinitely for that sometimes changing crap service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Toutanus · 2023-11-22 07:57 The reason I got serious about self hosting is the death of google music. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jealy · 2023-11-22 08:05 What about "it's a fun hobby" or "for learning purposes"? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IC3P3 · 2023-11-22 08:20 Education, sometimes better service, mostly because I just have fun with and regarding video streaming because I'm not willing to pay for every service existing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- p4ck3ts · 2023-11-22 08:26 i've got extra gear so why not put to good use? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Charming_Sheepherder · 2023-11-22 08:36 Sheesh could have made it top 2 or 3. Talk about tough ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CMageti · 2023-11-22 09:00 I started for education, around 20 years ago. Then, the "main" reason shifted to cost for a short period, and is now privacy (albeit education and cost still being in line :-)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-11-22 09:08 I'm going to say sort of all of the above, but not just across the whole board. Some services I host because I want a better service than is available elsewhere. For example I host AdGuard Home and OPNsense because it's better than my ISP supplied router and I get more out of it so that's better service. I host Immich because I don't want to pay Google to store all my photos when I have a server sat here that's quite capable of doing it so that's cost I guess. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon-RedditAccount · 2023-11-22 09:24 Privacy, Education, Being Cool. Also, there are some services that are not available commercially. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ragerist · 2023-11-22 09:25 For me it's both Privacy, control and education. > The cloud is just someone else's computer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fuken33 · 2023-11-22 11:23 A mix of cost (questionable), education (less questionable) and coolness (not questionable) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clouded_Aim · 2023-11-22 13:05 I like control and i like to do cool things. There is a reason I never let a friend manage or host an event to an unhealthy point of being stubborn. I love my Lychee server, I love my Bitwarden server and I love my Minecraft server. Allows me to simply share it and have no issue or worry of it being looked at. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- it_prof · 2023-11-22 13:07 When you use the service hosted by someone else there is a compromise on lot of features that you can have for free. Though the luxury of having privacy, security and learning while you dosel host cannot be discounted and above all free. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PristinePineapple13 · 2023-11-22 13:42 mostly for fun, cuz i guess for some reason i enjoy having problems, but that leads to it also being for education. i’ve learned a lot maintaining these systems. and it’s just cool, i like being able to say i can and try out different software to see what works. i like the custom approach rather than a one size fits all society ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PovilasID · 2023-11-22 13:53 Cost. But I do not agree with 'Whi would i pay for a service when i could host it myself for **free**?' It is not 'free' it is cheaper. Today I got a quote from utilities company saying that api access to how much heat I use is 20 EUR/month a software defined radio recover is 20-40 USD + shipping. To do a full setup and research it takes about half of day some exiting HW and electricity but even summing all of that up. It is cheaper and utils company has already lied to me at least twice this year, so... their stacking motivation for me to independetly monitor the metering. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:03 Very good point, not all self-hosted services are free, and even the ones that have no direct cost still use power, which isn't free. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HellDuke · 2023-11-22 14:03 Mainly started off with using Plex since shows that I wanted to watch were simply not available on any service available to me. Now it gets used when the service where the content would be available craps itself. Otherwise I use it to host a nightscout service for my diabetes management since the CGM manufacturer dropped support for an old phone I kept around for no other reason than to use the CGM since the new phone I had was never supported to begin with. Granted now the manufacturer came out with a standalone receiver, but why bother when I can just use my regular phone now? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MadAndriu · 2023-11-22 14:03 I have not bothered to rank my many reasons. Why would I? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:07 That's basically where I'm at too, it's cool to host my own stuff, and it's fun to figure out how to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:13 I wish I could have, I think multiple choices would have made for a much more accurate poll. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:17 I would probably group fun into the "because it's cool" category, but maybe I should have added its own option. Learning purposes would be the "education" one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:18 Stability is one I wish I would have thought to add, you just never know when a commercial service will change or go under. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:19 If I'd put all of the above, it'd be like 90% that and it wouldn't be a very insightful poll, but I do wish it would support multiple choices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jealy · 2023-11-22 14:19 I honestly didn't see those options... in my defence it was early in the morning (for me). It's hard for me to choose a single option to be honest haha. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:20 Valid answer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:21 Yeah, I wish I could allow multiple answers because, for most people, it's not just one single reason. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:22 Yeah, but if I did that, the poll would be 90% the last option, which isn't very insightful at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:24 Maybe I should have added "spite" as an option, I feel like that's a fairly common theme, especially among the datahoarder crowd 😂 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OniNiubbo · 2023-11-22 14:25 This for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheSmashy · 2023-11-22 14:41 It can be all those reasons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lancaster1983 · 2023-11-22 14:41 For me it's all the reasons but it started of as an educational thing for my job. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 14:52 Oh definitely, I would suspect for most people it's a mix of most of them, but it's probably not equally weighted between all of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Expensive_Finger_973 · 2023-11-22 14:59 I do it because "all of the above". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- r4nchy · 2023-11-22 15:23 Freedom !! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- that_one_wierd_guy · 2023-11-22 15:37 variety of content. who wants to pay for five plus services because there's not one that has everything you want to watch/read/listen to ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 15:38 The exact reason I hoist the flag right there ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ratthing · 2023-11-22 15:46 Many years ago I finally got fed up with having my favorite tools for productivity becoming obsolete or just disappearing. It was at that point that I decided to base my entire workflow on simple text files. The development of clouds made it much easier to adopt lots of self- hosted tools that could be based on text files, such as some apps in Nextcloud. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DARKEASC · 2023-11-22 16:00 Privacy, it is almost impossible in the modern era. But still a bit more under control Security, it is an illusion, very hard to keep on security Cost, the hardware, time invested and energy may be higher than standard services Education, good reason Because it is cool, yeah it is Better services, disagree, they are not better, usually clumsy and high maintenance, may work as intended or lack features There is a simpler reason I like self hosting, I don't want to be subject to the mercy of the changing of rules of a tool I can't manage. Possible closure, increasing cost, features by tiers, I really hate subscription models. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 16:03 Yeah stability is one I wish I would have thought of. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- seanpmassey · 2023-11-22 16:11 It's all of those. I'm not voting because I can't decide what the biggest reason is, and there is no "two or more of the above" options to pick from. The only one I don't think applies to me is "Better Services" as many of the open-source/self-hosted solutions aren't necessarily better than commercial options. Or they're missing SSO support in the free/freemium/open-source tier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mirandanielcz · 2023-11-22 16:37 All of the above ---------------------------------------------------------------------- certuna · 2023-11-22 16:40 Mostly because hosting commercially with large (multi-TB) storage gets very expensive very quickly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-11-22 16:44 You forgot the most important one: Piracy (Oops!) Y****arr!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 16:52 I feel like if your reason for self hosting is the jolly roger, then this poll is more about the reason why you hoist the flag. Personally I don't mind paying a subscription for streaming, but I'm not gonna pay 8 of them to find the shows I actually want to watch. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-11-22 16:56 It's not my pregnancy reason is literally 90% of this sub. Great Poll though. Many people underestimate the cost of electricity to run their homelab. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mattmattatwork · 2023-11-22 16:57 Voted privacy - but more importantly (and not listed) "My services wont disappear with little or no notice" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 17:01 Yeah but why do you pirate instead of stream through Netflix or whatever? To me piracy is a form of self hosting, not a reason for self hosting, if that makes sense. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 17:02 Yep, I definitely dropped the ball on that reason. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fjixdla · 2023-11-22 17:24 Independence. I'm done with relying on external service providers. They can't be trusted. There is an inherent conflict of interests between commercial service providers and their users. It's not in their best interest to provide the best service possible, it's in their interest to provide a service that is barely better than the competition (if there even is any competition). That's the reason why commercial services are never great and always just "meh". I don't want to rely on parties whose interests are against mine. Because sooner or later they will turn into shit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-11-22 17:30 I don't pirate anything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 17:32 I mean none of us actually do of course, but since you brought it up, my point is that I think it's covered under the poll. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Historical_Share8023 · 2023-11-22 17:50 >Mine cost nothing monetarily since its hosted on oracle cloud free tier. What features does this free tier have? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SamSausages · 2023-11-22 17:56 I started out self hosting everything... 20 years ago or so. Then I got swept up in the "cloud" movement and put so many things into the "cloud". Today I'm reverting back to how I started, self hosting everything that I can. Mainly privacy, but also because they keep changing and I don't want to have to worry about them. I just didn't feel like it was 'my' data anymore. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anothercorgi · 2023-11-22 17:56 I would have voted "because it's cool" but really it's because I have control of my equipment. Education is part of the deal. Security and privacy is not guaranteed but it's under my control. Definitely missing out on "better services" because large data models can do very good spam filtering which I don't get because I don't have access to other peoples' mail ... (which falls into privacy concerns... of other people...) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas5020 · 2023-11-22 18:06 Cost, and control. I want to own my stuff. And I want direct control over it. I want it to do exactly what I want, when I want, how I want. I'm sick of paying monthly rental charges, and I'm sick of companies making changes to services that negatively impact my experience. My hardware, my software, my rules. Simple as that really. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmartin72 · 2023-11-22 18:14 Cost? when you look at price of equipment plus increase in power consumption, is it really cheaper? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 18:20 I mean, at least 73 people think so. But it really depends on what you're doing. If you're buying all new equipment to watch your movie collection more easily, then no it's probably not saving you anything. But if you build it from used, low power stuff and can cancel your Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc subscriptions, then yeah it can totally pay for itself after a while. But most of the time it doesn't save money overall, especially if you like to play around and get into homelabbing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2023-11-22 18:33 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lechauve911 · 2023-11-22 18:43 I voted for one but I would say all are valid and as important ---------------------------------------------------------------------- InfaSyn · 2023-11-22 19:47 All of the above. + Archival ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JoeB- · 2023-11-22 19:48 OP, your poll needs an "**All of the above**" option. That would be my choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkextratoasty · 2023-11-22 19:49 They're not all the biggest reason, everyone has weights to each option and a poll that's 90% "all of the above" isn't very interesting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ikus060 · 2023-11-22 20:15 Privacy and control are the main reasons why I host some of my data myself. This choice is closely linked to my values, as I'm not comfortable with the idea of entrusting my data to large companies whose only motivation is to make more money over customer satisfaction. I prefer to keep my autonomy. However, simplicity is the main reason why I choose not to self-host certain elements. For example, I'm not yet ready to manage the self- hosting of my e-mails. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JoeB- · 2023-11-22 20:27 I can't argue with you, but I also personally couldn't choose any one reason as being more important than the others. That's just me though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- malferro · 2023-11-22 20:37 D. All of the above. Mainly to learn but I wouldn't put my self hosted services anywhere else. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bobbycancode · 2023-11-22 21:14 "Because FUCK THE MAN!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheDarkerNights · 2023-11-22 21:57 I started self-hosting a few years ago for privacy reasons. Now I do it for a mix of reasons. I got my current job because I was one of the only applicants who had experience using Linux outside of a classroom. Last weekend I spent a day learning how `podman play kube` worked because it was fun and because it'll be useful to know for a new app we're deploying at work. ...it's certainly not cost though. This shit gets expensive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primalbluewolf · 2023-11-22 23:39 Well, I'm not sure how insightful it is when you have votes like mine, cast into a random category because there's no applicable one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- justinf210 · 2023-11-23 02:06 Funny, that's usually my biggest reason *not* to self host something. If my \~\~server\~\~ pi dies, I don't want to lose anything important. Of course, I have backups, but restoration is a hassle. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CobreDev · 2023-11-23 03:59 For me it's a combination of cost, education, and cool factor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mattmattatwork · 2023-11-23 16:45 That's how I used to be; but after a number of things that I enjoyed using got shut down I've just become so annoyed at the idea that I self-host out of spite. 😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Charming_Sheepherder · 2023-11-23 23:10 i was teasing you would have had "all of the above" for 99% ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SourceDocMD · 2023-11-24 22:00 I second this. My journey started with hosting Adguard Home. I needed an adblocker that would not need to run on my phone. Then, as I expanded, I discovered an entire world out there, that fulfills all of the OP's choices. Now I run 2 separate servers, running a host of services. My wife, not a very tech-savvy person, also loves them as they are so simple, easy to use, and don't randomly change. TL;DR: Started out with a specific need, expanded for all of the above reasons and more.