How to choose what to self-host (a priority order)
A decision framework for what to self-host first — ranked by savings, control gained, and how much maintenance each app really costs you.
Self-hosting has a spectrum: a weekend hobby, a privacy project, or a way to cut real software costs. The mistake people make is starting with the hardest, most fragile service and burning out. Here is a sane priority order.
The rule: start with unglamorous, high-value, low-risk
Pick services that (a) replace a recurring bill, (b) are well documented, (c) run on one small VPS, and (d) are not catastrophic if they break for an hour. Then add the harder ones once you are comfortable with the workflow.
Tier 1 — start here (light, safe, immediate value)
Uptime monitor — Uptime Kuma. Tiny, and it tells you when everything else breaks. → What is Uptime Kuma
Password manager — Vaultwarden. Small, and it removes a per-seat bill. (Back it up carefully.) → What is Vaultwarden
Backup target — MinIO/Garage + restic/rclone. The foundation: a backup destination you control. → S3-compatible object storage
Automation — n8n. Flat cost instead of per-task pricing. → What is n8n
Tier 2 — the big wins (still simple, higher impact)
Files & office — Nextcloud. Replaces Drive/Dropbox and increasingly Google Docs. → What is Nextcloud
Team chat — Mattermost / Rocket.Chat. Fixed cost vs per-user SaaS. → Self-hosted team chat
Music/audiobooks — Navidrome / Audiobookshelf. Pure enjoyment, zero subscription. → Navidrome & Audiobookshelf
Photos — Immich. Get out of Google Photos. → What is Immich
Tier 3 — worth it if you need them (heavier)
Git hosting — Gitea/Forgejo/GitLab CE. If you pay per seat and want code control. → Self-hosted Git
Monitoring — Prometheus + Grafana. When "is it up?" is not enough. → What is Grafana+Prometheus
Help desk — Zammad / osTicket. When a shared inbox stops scaling. → Self-hosted help desk
Learning — Moodle. For real cohorts of students.
Tier 4 — be careful (high effort or high stakes)
Email hosting — the deliverability battle makes this the least rewarding self-host. Many teams self-host everything else but keep mail at a specialist. → Email DNS: SPF/DKIM/DMARC
Matrix/Synapse — federation is a public service; more hardening and maintenance than a single-tenant app. → What is Matrix Synapse
Anything you will not back up or update — an unmaintained service is a liability, not an asset.
The three habits that make self-hosting sustainable
One VPS, one workflow. Deploy with Docker, put TLS in front, back up the volume. Repeat the same pattern for every app.
Back up before you need to, and test the restore. → Backups that actually save you
Monitor it. An uptime monitor pointed at your services means you find out first. → Monitoring alerts that matter
Start at Tier 1, get comfortable, then work down. Every app in the /app-hosting catalogue has a spec sheet and a deployment recipe so you are never guessing.