Digital & Tech
Self-hosting
The service runs in your house, and backups are now your problem
Entry can be light: a second-hand mini PC or an old laptop running a few services, and your photos and files stop living on someone else's machine. Be clear about what you took on, because updates, backups and recovery are yours now, and self-hosting without backups just bets your data on one disk. Do not expose it directly.
First stepOn an old laptop or a secondhand mini PC, set up one photo library service reachable only on your home network, with an automatic backup.
Barriers
Cost to start
Under $50
Going deep → $2k–10k
Alone or with people
On your own
Effort
Sitting
Without a teacher?
Self-taught
One session takes
1–2 hours
Where
At home
Why people take it up
Related guides
Keeping the spending in checkStarts at Under $50, going deep runs $2k–10kSkills
BuildsBasic programming ↗