A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
For Example
We welcome posts that include suggestions for good self-hosted alternatives to popular online services, how they are better, or how they give back control of your data. Also include hints and tips for less technical readers.
Useful Lists
I try to NOT self-host any service that:
Do you have an example?
"Open Source + hosted" always involves trust, as you can only look into the Github repository, not if the running hosted application is running identically.
Only exception: It's an E2EE encrypted solution, and everything else happens client-side (example: Bitwarden)
Self-hosted internet is pain in the ass. Cellular services too.
My benchmark is kinda "how annoying or disruptive would it be if it broke and I didn't feel like fixing it for a few days"
So email for example, I could selfhost, but I'd rather just have someone else do it so I don't have to worry about it.
Emails
Smtp isn't that bad so long as you ensure you're not operating an open relay.
Really bad stuff will happen once exploited and it will take major work on your part to undo ranging from getting removed from block lists like XBL to possibly having to renegotiate your ISP contract if they have to get involved.
While mail is definitely doable, imho it's not worth the hassle, you'll always have to maintain it, that's definitely not a launch and forget solution.
| Just too complicated and hard to manage.
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lol.. and now its easy.. i remember doing m4 macros for sendmail, now with postfix its easier than ever.
dont host anything you cant properly secure.
Porn. :-D
Yea, Email is a big one... it'd be kind of pointless, because the person on the other end is NOT using a self-hosted solution, odds are, and it would be a ton of work to maintain, etc., and likely less reliable.
I wouldn't self-host my voicemail server, most likely, either. :P Just no point.
Email. It sounds good on paper until you realize basically every email service on earth either marks you as spam or blocks you completely
Mail server, too many troubles related to domaine name blocking/ban, good for internal network/VPN use but not for anything serious