this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
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I'm not affiliated with this in any way but saw it posted at the other place & thought fellow Lemmyzens might like to take a look.

I always find it quite hard to answer "favorite" apps as some infrastructure critical self hosted apps aren't as sexy as others which sit front & centre so I feel they often don't seem to get as much credit or attention (such as NGinX/DuckDNS compared to Immich/Jellyfin etc)

Hi everyone,

Like in previous years, I'm running a survey about self-hosting. The focus is on your favorite self-hosted apps, but there are plenty of other (optional) questions too. The top five app lists are free response fields, you don't have to select the suggestions.

Link to take the survey:

https://survey.deployn.de/s/self-host-2026

Last year's results

More info:

  • The survey is anonymous. Like last year, results will be published in aggregated form. I'm currently planning to publish them in December.

  • It takes about 10-25 minutes.

  • Some of you asked for more questions in the comments. I added a lot at first, then realized it took 45 minutes to fill out properly. So I threw some out again, but there are still quite a few. The survey now has a core section that mainly covers the MVPs (your 5 favorite apps), and you can switch on other modules if you want. Almost every question is optional and can be skipped. If you answer everything at a reasonable pace, it takes around 20 minutes.

  • The proprietary survey tool caused new problems every year, so last year I switched to HeyForm while the survey was already running. That wasn't ideal for my purposes either, so this year the survey runs on a new app. It should also make entering your apps faster.

  • It's still easier to fill out on a desktop computer.

Thank you in advance for participating.

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[–] habitualTartare@lemmy.world 48 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

Top Motivation: Cost

The several hundred dollars a year and hours spend is definitely worth saving that $14-30/month in subscriptions right? right?

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 4 weeks ago

Initial cost may be high. But I have calculated that my system. Would cost me 9 euros a month at 12tb of cloud storage. Something that I can't achieve if I pay for cloud storage to a big man.

What brings me from clouds back to earth is current hard drives prices. Fuck AI.

[–] esc@piefed.social 9 points 4 weeks ago

Right, $14-30/m actually adds up to hundreds and is less reliable.

I know, I know super duper clouds, six nines of availability for cloud services etc., yet github (for example) fails more often then my media/git/file/print server on 10 y.o. laptop with tens of terabytes of media and data, that is less maintened and exists in a far worse conditions (comparison is incorrect but the fact stays).

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

$14-30/month in subscriptions is $168-360/year.

You likely spend more than that a year on what you host (I know my power alone is going to run higher than that), but the monetary cost doesn't cover the joys of the hobby, the knowledge aquired, and the fact that your shit still works even after the Internet goes out

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago

My wife spent about $130 for a year subscription to a service that she figured would always have her favorite show on it, because they own that show. Then like 10 seasons of it left for an exclusivity deal on another service. This was a contributing factor to pushing me into self hosting. Some of it is saving money, but some of it is also making sure you actually got what you paid for.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

That's $14 to $30 a month per subscription per user. I've got close to a dozen people using mine, most of which can very much not afford those kind of subscriptions.

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[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 3 weeks ago

Getting labelled "AI pioneer" would feel like being called a slur

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

This survey definitely looks vibe-coded as heck lol but I hope the results will be good.

My results :)

Data Hoarder 💾

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · More than 50 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Customization & full control
  • My MVPs: Immich, Baikal, Forgejo, qBitTorrent, Home Assistant

God knows I wasn't going to put cost as a motivation... I am actively losing money running double the storage I am using and 100+ GB of RAM on a Xeon chip, but having the headroom is certainly nice and has allowed me to expand as much as I want. Getting a good deal a couple of years back before the price explosion was a huge stroke of luck. If this server ever failed I could figure out a smaller operation with more confidence.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Cost was one of my motivations, but it wasn't cost to me. Most of the people using my server definitely can't afford to subscribe to all those streaming services.

[–] achsonaja@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

Glad you mentioned that. A lot of folks are saying costs isn't a good reason (for valid reasons), but I don't think the other users costs are typically thought of. I don't host to a lot of people, but they are active and use a few different services I host. That easily multiplies the cost savings imo.

[–] Hugh@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You have over 100gb of ram? What do you need so much ram for?

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[–] giant_smeeg@feddit.uk 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Eternal Tinkerer 🔧

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · 21–50 TB
  • Motivation: Cost savings, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Privacy & data ownership
  • My MVPs: FreshRSS, Home Assistant, Radarr, Sonarr, Nginx Proxy Manager
[–] sulgoth@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I haven’t used an RSS in years, might have to look at that and start reading web comics again.

[–] dragonlover@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I recommend looking into rssbridge too! Its a companion that makes most websites rssable

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[–] SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago

Self-Hoster 🏡

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · 5–10 TB
  • Motivation: Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Privacy & data ownership, Customization & full control
  • My MVPs: Jellyfin, Sonarr, Pi-hole, Navidrome, Home Assistant

This survey is going to become our version of Spotify Wrapped isn't it?

[–] jdr@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 weeks ago

Reeks of Claude

[–] praxispotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

AI Pioneer 🤖

  • Fleet: 4–5 devices · 21–50 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Fun / the hobby itself, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions
  • My MVPs: Gitea, Grafana, InfluxDB, LibreChat, Ollama
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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Fleet Commander 🚀

  • Fleet: More than 10 devices · 21–50 TB
  • Motivation: Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Fun / the hobby itself, Customization & full control
  • My MVPs: Homepage, homelable.net, healthchecks.io, ntfy.sh, WireGuard

My fleet sounds bigger than it is since theyre all small or older and also small underpowered devices (repurposed laptops, low end chromebox, various pis).

[–] blueduck@piefed.social 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Data Hoarder 💾

  • Fleet: More than 10 devices · More than 50 TB

  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Learning & experimenting

  • My MVPs: Audiobookshelf, Arr stack broadly, Actual Budget, Self built utilities and custom code, Homedex

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[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 weeks ago

It's a nice survey, but often forgets that you can also self-host in the cloud, and doesn't even consider that rented root-servers exist.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Somehow veteran isn't the right word. Veteran kind of implies you have learned along the way, yet I keep making the same mistakes

Homelab Veteran ⚡

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · 5–10 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Cost savings
  • My MVPs: Immich, Jellyfin, Radarr, Sonarr
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[–] reader@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 weeks ago (8 children)

I can't self host I'm not smart enough :-(

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 9 points 4 weeks ago

Don't be so down on yourself mate, start with the Linux upskill challenge then look at some Docker YouTube tutorials. You will be there in no time.

[–] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 weeks ago

Legitimate feedback for the survey.

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 weeks ago

A lot of it is doing what other people tell you to do. This may be encouraging or not, but I consider myself fairly versed in tech and there is still troubleshooting where it feels like trying things at random rather than any skilled insight to a solution. The take-away is it's okay to skip an app that has terrible documentation and you can't figure out. Start with something that has good tutorials and if that doesn't work, try something else. If you can get that up and running those skills will carry over.

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

I'm not either but I still do it.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

Whether you think you are or aren't smart enough, you're right!

If you want to do it, read up and just try it. Throw a Linux install on an old desktop or laptop and try to follow a guide and make it work. It seems daunting, but most anyone can follow a guide and get to a usable product.

[–] ItsNotImportant24@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (4 children)

I didn't know anything about self-hosting when I started either. There is a learning curve but it's not difficult, just takes some time and is totally worth it to own your data, have a little more privacy and to stop shelling out money for subscriptions, etc. Totally worth it. I've been self hosting for almost 2 years now and have learned alot but still learning every day. Theres alot I still don't know and still encounter issues at times but it doesn't keep me from figuring it out and to keep self-hosting. Go for it, you won't regret it.

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[–] Strider@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

I wanted to do the survey, but at some point the ui is barely understandable (#10 or so) and I gave up shortly after. And that's from a nerd.

[–] dimjim@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

Self-Hoster 🏡

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · 11–20 TB
  • Motivation: Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Privacy & data ownership, Fun / the hobby itself
  • My MVPs: Immich, Navidrome, Dockhand, Proxmox VE, Caddy
[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Future Self-Hoster 🌱

  • Next up: Jellyfin, Immich
[–] Joelk111@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Data Hoarder 💾

  • Fleet: 6–10 devices · More than 50 TB
  • Motivation: Fun / the hobby itself, Customization & full control, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions
  • My MVPs: Immich, PeerTube, Ghost, Actual Budget, Home Assistant

I create videos for YouTube/PeerTube and backup all of the raw footage. The actual storage count is currently 130TB in my main NAS with about 250TB for an offsite cold storage backup (as most of my data doesn't change much) and on-site live-ish backup. I also have the benefit of being able to get reputable used commercial grade HDDs from work for $10/TB, even right now, it makes it way too easy. Shameless plug of my PeerTube instance: https://joeltube.com/ or @JoelKalich on YouTube.

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[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

Self-Hoster 🏡

  • Fleet: 4–5 devices · 11–20 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Fun / the hobby itself
  • My MVPs: Radicale, Baikal, OPNSense, Home Assistant, AdGuard Home

[–] DickCaramel@piefed.social 3 points 4 weeks ago

Homelab Veteran ⚡

  • Fleet: 4–5 devices · 21–50 TB
  • Motivation: Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Learning & experimenting, Cost savings
[–] opalbolt@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

What is a physical device? I am a bit unsure in relation to this question.

I mean. A server is a physical device. A router is a physical device A switch is a physical device Even my zigbee lightbulbs is a physical device

Where should i draw the line?

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[–] Hal@piefed.nz 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Looking at last year's survey, the number of self-hosted devices has 2-3 first. And Raspberry Pi is most popular.

I wonder about this, because I have Pi for Pi hole, and one for Home Assistant, each dedicated. Then almost everything I self host is on a different server. But this still represents Raspberry Pi twice as much as the main server. I think Pis may be most popular because there's many single-purposes uses for them.

[–] tburkhol@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I feel like (mostly because of my own path) Pi is a great platform to get started with self hosting because of projects like pihole, homeassistant, and osmc. Projects where someone has put together simple, all-in-one solutions where you can just download an image and go. That same approach, and the Pi's hardware limitations, make it harder to co-host multiple services, while the price point of Pi's, at least pre-2023, made it reasonable just to run a handful of them. Only once you start wanting larger or more compute intensive stacks does the pressure to use containers/VMs on 'real' hardware appear. If you've already got pihole and ha running on Pis, there's no pressure to move them to the big server.

If it's the path I followed, it must be the path everyone follows :)

[–] Freeposity@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was thinking the same thing. My path was self hosting on old desktops for the longest time then the pi came out and I ended up doing a birdnet project, then home assistant and now I've got about a half dozen data collectors on pi zero 2 w machines. They are pretty much set and forget. I use an orange pi for my instance of Solar Assistant because I wanted something that was not affected by anything but the network and the inverter and I know how rock solid these little machines are.

But in the last few years I've started embracing docker and NUCs and have pulled apps off Synology, making it just a file server at this point.

So technically I have more raspberry pis than anything else but they are really just edge devices, except for Home Assistant. And it will probably stay that way until there is a good reason to switch. I don't see that happening for years.

[–] tburkhol@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Also love the pi-0-2w, but I've started to use ESP32 for those edge sensors. You can get those for like $1-2 each on aliexpress, where real world prices on Pi zero is upwards of $20 now. Truly embedded systems like arduino were always intimidating to me, but esphome reduces 'programming' to a YAML for any of the many supported devices. The Pis that are working now aren't likely to change any time soon, but I bought a handful of ESP32s for $10, and I'll probably buy another handful before I buy another zero. Maybe convert a zero to ESP32 if I really need a whole OS for something new.

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[–] Noggog@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

Data Hoarder 💾

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · More than 50 TB
  • Motivation: Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Fun / the hobby itself, Privacy & data ownership
  • My MVPs: Jellyfin, Plex, Foundry, Immich, Pangolin
[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Data Hoarder 💾

  • Fleet: More than 10 devices · More than 50 TB
  • Motivation: Learning & experimenting, Privacy & data ownership, Fun / the hobby itself
[–] The_Zen_Cow_Says_Mu@infosec.pub 3 points 4 weeks ago

Self-Hoster 🏡

  • Fleet: 2–3 devices · 5–10 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Fun / the hobby itself
  • My MVPs: Mythtv, PocketID, Plex, Immich, Home Assistant
[–] Branny@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

AI Pioneer 🤖

  • Fleet: 1 device · 21–50 TB
  • Motivation: Privacy & data ownership, Independence from Big Tech & subscriptions, Learning & experimenting
  • My MVPs: Jellyfin, Navidrome
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