Why You Should Start Self Hosting Your Own Services

In an age where data breaches and privacy concerns dominate headlines, self hosting has emerged as a compelling solution for individuals and organizations seeking greater control over their digital lives.

What is Self Hosting?

Self hosting refers to the practice of running applications, services, or websites on your own hardware rather than relying on third-party providers. This can involve anything from hosting a personal blog on a Raspberry Pi to managing a full-fledged cloud storage solution on a dedicated server. The core idea is to take ownership of your digital environment, allowing you to dictate how your data is stored, accessed, and managed.

Why Should You Start Self Hosting?

There are numerous compelling reasons to self host:

• Independence: You are not dependent on third-party services that may alter their terms, raise prices, or even discontinue their offerings.
• Control: Self hosting provides you with complete control over the services you utilize and your data, including who has access to your information.
• Cost Savings: Although there may be initial setup costs, self hosting can be more cost-effective in the long run, particularly if you are currently subscribed to multiple cloud services.
• Privacy: Your data remains on your own hardware, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access by third parties.
• Customization: You have the flexibility to tailor your system to meet your specific needs, allowing you to install and configure software exactly as you desire.

What Services Can You Self Host?

How to Get Started Right Now

Ready to dive in? Self hosting has two main approaches: home servers (using your own physical hardware—from a Raspberry Pi to high-end custom rigs for file storage, media streaming, or websites; they’re flexible and ideal for hands-on control) or VPS rentals (virtualized servers with dedicated resources for easy scalability, popular with businesses needing managed 24/7 uptime). We recommend starting with a home server on an old laptop: it’s free, uses its battery as a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for outages, and perfect for quick experiments—then scale to better hardware if needed. If you don’t want to bother with setting something up on your own hardware then find a no-KYC VPS on kycnot.me.

Step 1: Install Debian (Without Desktop Environment)

• Download the ISO from debian.org/distrib.
• Flash to USB using Rufus or dd (see our Linux install guide guide for details).
• Boot from USB (enter BIOS via F2/Del, prioritize USB in boot order), proceed with default install, but in software selection, deselect Debian desktop environment and GNOME for a headless server.

Step 2: Install Docker

In the terminal run the following commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release -y
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin -y
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Test: docker run hello-world.

Step 3: Run a Service

Browse awesome-selfhosted for Docker-ready apps (e.g., Jellyfin). Use their docker run or docker-compose.yml.

• Jellyfin example:

docker run -d \
  --name=jellyfin \
  -p 8096:8096 \
  -v /srv/jellyfin/config:/config \
  -v /srv/jellyfin/cache:/cache \
  -v /media:/media \
  jellyfin/jellyfin:latest

• Now you can access Jellyfin via http://your-server-ip:8096 on your network.