Want a Private Homelab? Put These 12 Apps at the Top of Your List

Are you looking for ways to chopped your reliance connected the cloud, bring the services you usage in-house, and bolster your online safety? If so, past you perfectly should regenerate cloud-hosted services with self-hosted alternatives. Here's 12 privacy-focused self-hosted apps and the services they replace.

12 Frigate oregon Scrypted (Camera Recording)

For the privacy-conscious, cameras mightiness beryllium the archetypal happening connected your caput to self-host. There's stories each implicit astir unreality camera retention being hacked. From iCloud years agone to Wyze and eufy recently, having footage stored successful the unreality is simply a information nightmare waiting to happen.

That's wherefore it's a bully thought to support your information camera footage stored locally. I personally went the way of utilizing Scrypted to big my NVR locally, but Frigate is besides a fantastic choice.

Both programs can beryllium tally successful Docker and let you to integrate some third-party and ONVIF-supported cameras. Each offers a mode to seizure the footage locally connected your ain computer, and tin beryllium tally offline truthful that mode your camera recordings are air-gapped from the net if you want.

11 Nextcloud (Cloud Storage)

Another country that's ripe for privateness concerns is your unreality storage. Have you ever wondered conscionable however overmuch entree Dropbox, Google Drive, oregon OneDrive has to your files? While they each accidental they can't entree your data, that doesn't mean hackers won't summation entree successful information breaches.

Self-hosting your unreality retention is simply a large mode to unafraid your files and inactive entree them remotely. For that, there's thing amended than Nextcloud. While I bash privation determination was an easier-to-use portion of bundle retired there, Nextcloud truly is the champion mode to big a Dropbox-like bundle stack astatine home.

It's easiest to acceptable up with Docker Compose and is full-featured arsenic a unreality record absorption stack. There's papers editors, chat systems, sharing setups, and much disposable done Nextcloud. If you're wanting to instrumentality power of your files, past Nextcloud is the champion option.

10 Immich (Photo Storage)

One of the astir egregious information breeches relating to photos has to person been the iCloud Photo leak of 2014. Extremely backstage and delicate photos were leaked to the satellite due to the fact that they were not conscionable stored successful the cloud, but unprotected successful however they were stored.

While it's imaginable to person information breeches with self-hosted services, they're typically obscurity adjacent arsenic predominant arsenic monolithic hacks. Simply put, a self-hosted solution isn't a large target.

That's wherefore I've moved a batch of my cloud-hosted photos to Immich. It's a Google Photos and iCloud Photos replacement that you tin big astatine home. Mine is accessible via the internet, but you tin marque it truthful yours ne'er sees the airy of day.

Immich offers instrumentality learning algorithms to present representation designation truthful you tin hunt for dog, and person pictures with a canine propulsion up, conscionable similar with some iCloud and Google Photos. It besides supports geolocation, mobile uploads, sharing, and much depending connected however you configure it.

So, if you privation to backmost up your telephone and camera photos to a cloud-like service, but without risking it being compromised, Immich is cleanable for the job.

9 Bitwarden (Password Management)

Let's look it, we each reuse (or person reused) passwords to immoderate extent. It's not the champion practice, and we shouldn't bash it, but it's inevitable. That's wherever a password manager comes in.

I've personally utilized 1Password for years, and spot them to support my information secure. However, determination are those retired determination that won't spot their passwords to immoderate 3rd party. That's precisely wherefore Bitwarden exists.

Bitwarden is simply a self-hosted password manager that lives connected your ain server. It's arsenic unafraid arsenic you marque it, which tin beryllium some bully and bad.

You'll find that Bitwarden has apps for each large operating systems, including iPhone, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. One happening to support successful caput with Bitwarden is that it does necessitate a reverse proxy and domain sanction to relation if you privation to self-host it, truthful that's thing you'll request acceptable up connected your server to usage it.

However, erstwhile you person Bitwarden up and running, past you'll beryllium capable to make unafraid passwords and support your information stored locally alternatively of connected idiosyncratic else's server.

8 Home Assistant (Smart Home Management)

Smart location platforms are a dime a dozen, and you ne'er cognize what benignant of information is being collected with them. That's wherefore bringing each of your astute location absorption nether 1 extortion is important for other privacy.

Home Assistant is simply a self-hosted astute location level that has the quality to grip each processing locally. Depending connected what astute devices you have, Home Assistant tin either interface with them done the unreality oregon nonstop the commands via your section network.

This means you'll beryllium capable to truly dial successful your astute location setup to debar having to scope extracurricular of your location to power lights and switches, arsenic good arsenic support your astute devices from reaching retired to servers, sending who-knows-what accusation backmost home.

On apical of that, Home Assistant besides allows for section dependable processing, thing that Amazon precocious got escaped of with Alexa. So, if you're looking to marque your astute location next-level private, past springiness Home Assistant a try.

7 Pi-Hole and Unbound (DNS)

Companies are collecting much and much accusation to usage for targeted advertizing and tracking, and not everybody is good with that. Pi-Hole helps curtail that arsenic a contented blocker.

It tin beryllium utilized to artifact each sorts of content, and tin beryllium scaled up and down depending connected what you privation to get retired of it. If you conscionable privation to usage it arsenic a contented filter to support adult-themed websites blocked connected your network, it'll bash that. Want it to besides artifact tracking from advertisers and companies? It tin bash that too.

Pi-Hole is arsenic robust (or scaled back) arsenic you marque it. It's adjacent imaginable to acceptable up your ain authoritative sanction server astatine home. This is done with Unbound.

When you usage Unbound, your DNS requests aren't sent done Cloudflare, Google, oregon anyone else. Instead, the Unbound server reaches retired to the superior DNS servers for each TLD to find retired however to resoluteness a domain request. This allows your web postulation to beryllium kept overmuch much backstage than routing everything done your ISP's DNS server.

Everyone loves a bully TV amusement oregon movie, but media providers cod a ton of accusation connected us, arsenic good arsenic effort to curate the ads they amusement to what they deliberation we'll privation to see.

I honestly haven't paid for a streaming work successful fractional a decade. Why? I big my ain streaming work done Plex. I person a monolithic room that I've built implicit the past 10 oregon much years, ripping my monolithic Blu-ray collection (which I was past capable to get escaped of truthful it wasn't taking up abstraction anymore), and borrowing movies and TV bid from friends to adhd to my server.

You tin bash the same. It's not hard to get started with Plex oregon Jellyfin, and you'll past beryllium capable to instrumentality your streaming habits into your ain hands. I highly urge doing this, arsenic it'll support your ticker information distant from large companies similar Disney and Netflix, allowing you to conscionable bask what you like, ad-free, and without large member watching.

5 Audiobookshelf (Audiobooks)

In my thrust to escaped myself of services that I don't privation knowing excessively overmuch astir me, I came crossed Audiobookshelf. It's a self-hosted media server that tin big audiobooks overmuch similar Plex oregon Jellyfin. However, dissimilar Plex and Jellyfin, it's purpose-built to bash audiobooks and thing else.

My acquisition with Audiobookshelf has been superb. The interface is great, the work works great, and it has allowed maine to ditch services similar Audible.

You'll request to find services that fto you download an audiobook's root record to usage Audiobookshelf, oregon find a mode to extract them from different sources similar Audible. However, erstwhile you person the MP3 oregon M4B file, past Audiobookshelf works great.

Using a work similar Audiobookshelf means I don't person to interest astir Audible taking distant a publication that I've purchased due to the fact that it has been removed from the library. Plus, cipher but maine volition spot my listening stats, and that conscionable feels good.

4 Calibre / Kavita (eBooks)

In a akin vein, Calibre and Kavita are some large options to get retired of the Kindle ecosystem. Like Audiobookshelf, you'll request to acquisition oregon download eBooks from sources that let you to entree the EPUB record to upload.

However, erstwhile you get that eBook file, the Calibre and Kavita volition fto you ditch the ties to Amazon's Kindle services and instrumentality backmost your eReading habits. This is great, particularly since Amazon conscionable removed the quality to download your ain books.

Since Amazon is known for removing books from its ain library, which, successful turn, removes it from yours, you tin remainder assured you won't beryllium affected erstwhile that happens again.

3 GitLab (Code Revision)

GitHub is simply a golden standrd respository work for codification retention and collaboration. However, portion you mightiness technically ain the codification you enactment there, that doesn't mean it's wholly private.

That's wherever GitLab comes in. With GitLab, you tin self-host your ain distant git repository. It's a afloat codification revision level that handles commits, tracking, files, projects, and more.

Moving your projects to GitLab means you won't beryllium burdened by GitHub's escaped program limits, and you're besides successful power of your ain projects successful their entirety. Want a task to beryllium private? Easy. Want to cognize that it'll ever enactment private? Even easier.

2 Focalboard (Project Management)

I'm a immense kanban committee instrumentality erstwhile it comes to task management. We usage Asana present astatine How-To Geek, and I adjacent usage Asana personally to negociate my projects and tasks. I utilized to usage Trello, Todoist, ClickUp, and different akin programs, too.

However, if privateness is your main concern, past utilizing third-party clients similar that conscionable won't chopped it. Instead, cheque retired Focalboard. While there's nary dedicated mobile apps, Focalboard is simply a afloat task absorption strategy akin to Asana and ClickUp that tin beryllium hosted astatine home.

You're successful complaint of everything with it, including however unafraid the server is, whether it's accessible extracurricular your network, and who has entree to it.

1 Paperless-ngx (Document Scanning and Management)

Document absorption is 1 of those things that's ever a symptom to do. Finding a bully work to grip your documents is not easy. Many years ago, I utilized Neat, but past I stopped due to the fact that the subscription was conscionable excessively much. That and I didn't privation them to person entree to each the documents I support scanned for taxation purposes and such.

With Paperless-ngx, you're capable to self-host your ain papers absorption service. It handles each the organization, displaying, and different absorption tasks erstwhile it comes to PDFs.

This means that you tin take to support it wholly isolated from outer net entree truthful there's zero accidental your documents tin beryllium leaked, making it large for storing delicate accusation that you privation to guarantee ne'er falls into the incorrect hands.