Question
What self-hosted software do you use?
The CMS for your blog or website is likely self-hosted—unless you're using a service like Ghost's hosting or a website builder tool like Squarespace.
That's often supplemented with hosted services, say, for any forms and surveys, analytics, and more. Or you could self-host everything.
Then, for every team tool for project management and support and more, there are the popular cloud apps—along with self-hosted versions of those apps or open-source alternatives.
Which software if any does your team self-host, and why?
Mentioned
#Squarespace #Ghost #DigitalOcean #GitLab #BugHerd #Evernote #Metabase #GitHub #around #Zapier #Webflow #WordPressShare
I used to work on a 100% self-hosted stack.
For source code repositories, self-hosted GitLab (back in 2013 when they were quite the underdog). I just loved getting most of GitHub features at the time without the monthly fees.
I used DokuWiki for wiki needs.
Dolibarr for accounting.
Too many self-hosted, open-source project management apps to list them here.
For file syncing in the cloud, I'd have two instances of OwnCloud (one for personal stuff and the other for professional).
I even had my own self-hosted RSS reader. Not a desktop app, but a website put on a server, called Selfoss. Surprisingly, it's still maintained.
At one point, I started looking for self-hosted replacements for Facebook and LinkedIn 😂
But all of this was when I had time to waste on maintenance. You know, update, upgrades, bugs, installs, availability... In 2016 I progressively got rid of all the self-hosted software I was using until I ditched them all.
Nowadays I'm 100% cloud-based SaaS, with a few licensed desktop apps.
I don't find spending time on set up and maintenance worth the money saved.
Not saying self-hosted apps are a waste for everyone. Just me in my very own context, I find it so much simpler to not have to think of all the maintenance associated with self-hosted apps, and I'm gladly paying others to take care of that. But it could make sense for bigger companies and teams who can afford to have a person dedicated to everything self-hosted.
Personally, I use Troop Messenger On-premise Software. I have secure work conversations with an on-premise chat solution from Troop Messenger! and you can easily Deploy it on your private cloud to have full control of your data centers and server resources.
For the best <a href="https://www.troopmessenger.com/blogs/top-self-hosted-chat-software">on-premise chat</a> solution Troop Messenger is the best.
I used BugHerd as self-hosted for several years;
- Annual Cloud Edition cost was close to Self Host License.
-Hosting it was no big deal, we were using it internally within our 10-12 developer team, and we just hosted it on a $5/month DigitalOcean droplet.
PS: This was at least six years ago, not sure license we used still available.
Currently, we are using Github Free Edition. Instead of start paying $4/month per user for the missing features; we are planning to use self-hosted GitLab or Gitea for our team.
I think the price is the same for self hosted. I've normally seen customers move to self-hosted instances for regulatory reasons. GitLab SaaS does not comply with ITAR restrictions for instance, if your engineering team is subject to ITAR and you want to use GitLab you have to self-host.
We use Metabase which has been great instead paying a ton of money for a BI tool.
I've seen Metabase recommended a lot recently; it was one of the top mentioned products on a recent What BI tool do you use discussion.
Were you using anything else prior to Metabase, or was that the BI tool your team started with?
Joplin for notes. My notes are extremely sensitive and private data and I do not trust Evernote or anyone else to store them.
That's super cool. Are you running it on a server, or just on desktop+mobile and syncing locally?
How well does Joplin's web clipper work? That was always one of my favorite Evernote features.
I run in on a nextcloud instance being hosted here: https://cloud.tab.digital/
The webclipper works fine. I just download content and tag it with 'unread', then tag it with 'read' after I read it. I stopped using pocket once I realized how valuable my reading list was. Even more than my browsing history.
Didn’t realize there was a .digital TLD!
Oh wow, didn’t expect it to replace Pocket too. Nice to keep everything in one place.
For static web sites, I use AWS S3 buckets. I usually have a browser tab that has the AWS console open so it's easier for me to find a theme and hack something together versus using another hosting provider.
For dynamic websites where I need more features, I will build the website in asp.net core and host it on an aws t2-micro ec2 linux webserver within a docker container.
Most recently, I have stumbled upon some no-code and low-code solutions. As a developer, I'm tired of writing the same methods over and over, and would rather spend more time interacting with my clients to understand their needs. Therefore, I'm looking to go with a low-code platform. With low-code, there's still flexibility to extend the platform for custom integrations, and it provides the client the ability to self-service themselves by moving their logo a pixel up or down to their heart's content. =)
No-Code and Low-Code Platforms:
bubble
webflow
kissflow
voiceflow (Voice Apps)
unqork (For enterprise, pricing start at six figures)
zudy (For enterprise)
appery (Mobile, PWA, and Web)
It would be interesting to see more low-code self-hosted apps. WordPress basically counts there, since with minimal server maintenance skills you can run it on your own hosting without coding, and build apps via WordPress add-ons. Huginn would give you a self-hosted Zapier-style tool. A self-hosted Webflow would be amazing.
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This is a great list; thanks for sharing!
I used to have more self-hosted apps—used Fever for RSS feed syncing, and Mint for analytics, both from the same developer. They're currently unsupported, though, and so I ended up switching back to hosted alternatives.
Did any of the self-hosted project management apps stand out as better than the average?
A self-hosted Facebook might work if you could get all your friends/family to join, but a self-hosted LinkedIn seems far harder to pull off!
Your journey there matches mine. For personal stuff, generally the time put into maintaining stuff isn't worth it, except for my personal blog CMS where the benefits of having more flexability outweigh the time/frustration costs. For teams, it's similar to the build vs buy debate—open-source or self-hosted stuff might get you some of the build advantages, though there's definitely a time + maintenance cost in running it all.