I don’t have a home server yet but I’m exploring and sometimes I get confused about some posts here.
For example I saw a post asking for recommendation for a “self hosted budget management app”. Can’t you just install this type of app to your phone or pc? What’s the purpose here, will you host it and access it from a browser? Or do you only want to backup its data to your server?
I hope I don’t sound stupid please enlighten me.
I dont understand it either. I host on a VPS, because I trust my hoster more than my ISP and more than my own security-skills. Also its cheaper than running own hardware.
You can still self-host on a rented VPS. And unless you have a managed VPS, then you’re still responsible for the security, and managed hosting is far too restrictive in terms of what you can do. It’s just up to you to decide if you trust that company to host your box.
And running one at home is cheap as hell.
This is exactly why I host my own stuff. I know how to tighten up the security to the point where it’s just as safe as it would be sitting on some other companies’ system, and I don’t have to worry about what they’re doing with my data, or a data breach. Seen too many companies that are lax on security (such as LastPass).
I throw extra encryption in place when means even if someone were to be able to gain physical access; they’ve got a hell of a brute force to go through just to break one part.
Digital ocean got too expensive for me. The raspberry pi server I’m using will pay itself off in about 5 months.
My Raspberry Pi’s cost $5 each. Should easily have a lifespan of 10 years. Show me a VPS that can beat a one-time cost of $5?
My internet cost is sunk, so I don’t count that.
I’m running Tailscale so roaming devices always have encrypted connectivity to home that isn’t through an exposed port (working on self-hosting a mesh, will likely need a VPS then).
I have Backups of systems via a combo of Crashplan (individual machines) and Backblaze for file server data and things like Docker. Backblaze and Crashplan are also sunk costs, because I used them long before self-hosting was an idea for me. I’d still have Backblaze costs even with a VPS.
Long term I expect to drop Crashplan and to setup Rpi’s for friends and family so they get the benefit of things like PiHole and centralized Syncthing to replicate their mobile device data, I get a Tailscale into their networks for support, and we can backup our file servers to each other.