DEV Community

Cover image for 7 Open-Source Apps I Recommend to Everyone Starting with Self-Hosting
shiva shanker
shiva shanker

Posted on

7 Open-Source Apps I Recommend to Everyone Starting with Self-Hosting

If you’ve ever wanted to take control of your data, reduce reliance on Big Tech, or just learn how the web really works — self-hosting is the best place to start.

It might sound intimidating at first (Docker, ports, proxies, and all that), but trust me — once you spin up your first container, it’s addictive. You start realizing how much you can actually own and control yourself.

To help you start strong, here are seven open-source apps I recommend to anyone stepping into the world of self-hosting. They’re simple, reliable, and genuinely useful in everyday life.


1. Nextcloud — Your Personal Cloud

If you want your own version of Google Drive or Dropbox, Nextcloud is where you begin. It’s a self-hosted cloud server that lets you store files, photos, notes, calendars, and even collaborate with others.

You can install it on a Raspberry Pi, a home server, or any VPS. The built-in app store lets you extend it endlessly — from document editing to password management.

Why I love it: It replaces half the Google ecosystem, but you control every bit of it.


2. Bitwarden — Passwords You Actually Own

Bitwarden is one of the best open-source password managers — and yes, you can host it yourself. It syncs seamlessly across all your devices, supports browser extensions, autofill, and two-factor authentication. Hosting it via Docker takes minutes, and you’ll never worry about someone else holding your vault again.

Why I love it: It’s polished, secure, and I keep total ownership of my passwords.


3. Plausible — Privacy-Friendly Web Analytics

Plausible Analytics is a lightweight, privacy-respecting alternative to Google Analytics. No cookies, no invasive tracking, and it gives you all the insights that actually matter — pageviews, referrers, and engagement.

Perfect for blogs, portfolios, or small projects where you just want clean, ethical stats.

Why I love it: Beautiful, fast, and guilt-free analytics that just work.


4. Paperless-ngx — Organize Your Documents

If you’re drowning in PDFs, bills, and receipts, Paperless-ngx is a lifesaver. It scans, tags, and organizes your documents automatically with OCR (text recognition). Once it’s set up, you can search your entire digital filing cabinet by keyword, date, or tag.

Why I love it: It turns my chaotic “downloads” folder into an organized, searchable archive.


5. Uptime Kuma — Monitor Everything

Think of Uptime Kuma as your personal uptime monitor — a beautiful self-hosted dashboard that checks if your websites or services are online. It supports notifications through Telegram, Discord, email, and more.

Why I love it: Simple setup, beautiful interface, and instant peace of mind.


6. Vaultwarden — Lightweight Bitwarden Alternative

If Bitwarden feels heavy to run, Vaultwarden is your answer. It’s a lightweight Rust-based implementation of the Bitwarden server that uses far fewer resources but stays fully compatible with Bitwarden clients.

Why I love it: Same functionality, lower footprint — perfect for Raspberry Pi or small VPS setups.


7. Portainer — Control Your Docker Containers

Portainer is a web UI that makes managing Docker containers incredibly easy. No more long terminal commands — you can view logs, restart containers, update images, and deploy stacks right from your browser.

Why I love it: It makes Docker visual and beginner-friendly, without losing any power.


🧭 Final Thoughts

Self-hosting doesn’t have to be complex. You don’t need a data center or advanced skills — just curiosity and a bit of patience. Start small, experiment, break things, and rebuild them better.

The beauty of self-hosting is freedom: your data, your rules, your setup.

If you’re just starting, try hosting one app — maybe Bitwarden or Uptime Kuma — and go from there. You’ll learn a ton, and you’ll never look at cloud services the same way again.


If you enjoyed this list, leave a comment with your favorite self-hosted app — let’s help more people discover the open-source way

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
cyber8080 profile image
Cyber Safety Zone

Great list, @shiva_shanker_k! 🙌 I love how you balanced both beginner-friendly and power apps for self-hosting.

A few thoughts / additions from my experience:

  • I totally agree with your inclusion of Uptime Kuma — knowing whether my services are up or down in real time has saved me more than once.
  • One app that’s also been super useful in my setup is Netdata — for real-time system and infrastructure monitoring with visuals.
  • For users just getting started, the trickiest part is often setting up reverse proxies & SSL automatically (Let’s Encrypt + Nginx / Traefik). Having a “starter script” or boilerplate config can reduce friction a lot.

Thanks again for sharing this — I’ll definitely be referring folks here when they ask me where to begin with self-hosting.

Which one of these apps would you say is the “best next step” for someone already comfortable with Docker and ready to go deeper?

Safe hosting! 🖥️