How to Self-Hosted All Kinds of Apps (and Why You Should)

In many ways, privacy is dead — or at least much harder to maintain than it used to be. In public spaces, you’re likely watched by dozens of cameras every day as you go about your daily business. At home, nearly everything we do online — from the things we post on social media to the shows we watch on our screens — is tracked, packaged, and sold. The apps we use are among the worst offenders, especially if they’re free, which means you’re paying either with your eyes (for ads) or with the data the app collects and sells.

The problem is simple: we don’t own or control the apps we use. But you can change that, to some extent. The list of “self-hosted” alternatives to commonly used apps is growing. A self-hosted app is exactly what it sounds like: instead of relying on third-party servers to run an app, you host your own server. That means you control all of your data, and your privacy levels skyrocket. Understandably, “running your own server” can sound daunting, but it’s often much easier than it sounds. Here’s how self-hosted apps work, and which ones you can start using today to improve your online privacy.

How Self-Hosted Apps Work

The standard apps we use every day — those from companies like Google or X — are incredibly convenient. They can be set up and running in minutes, and they usually run pretty smoothly. The downside is the mountains of personal data they collect and use in mysterious ways. Even if it’s anonymous, it’s still a concern, and since these companies can change their terms of service (ToS) at any time, there’s no guarantee how your data will be used in the future. A self-hosted app keeps everything local. You provide your own storage and your own features, and only you can decide how your data is used.

The benefits are obvious. Control over your data and privacy is key. It also potentially reduces costs (since you’re not paying a subscription) and you won’t be at the mercy of a corporation that might decide to discontinue your favorite app or force you to upgrade. Plus, you can choose which features and add-ons you want, rather than having unwanted features forced upon you.

Disadvantages of self-hosting

Of course, there are potential downsides. Self-hosting means you’re responsible for security and keeping your software up to date. Hardware can fail, and if you don’t have a recent backup of your data, you’ll have no one to turn to for help. You’re your own help desk, and your tech support is basically a Google search.

And switching to local hosting can sometimes be a challenge; some local applications require containerization environments like Docker or Homebrew , which makes it easy to run software on any machine without having to worry about software dependencies or conflicting libraries (if that sentence doesn’t ring a bell, keep reading, it’s not that bad).

Another hurdle is hardware: depending on what you want to host, you may need a lot of storage. Movies and TV shows can be huge amounts of media files, taking up gigabytes (or even terabytes) of storage, and one of the things you’ll have to do yourself when self-hosting is back up. This means that a reliable self-hosting system may require a few extra hard drives (or a virtual personal server – VPS – which costs money) and possibly a cloud backup solution.

Apps you might want to host

But we can simplify things: Many self-hosted apps also offer ready-made app packages that can be easily installed on your computer, just like any other software. You can host them on your regular desktop computer, or turn an old desktop or laptop into your own personal server. If you want to see if self-hosting apps is right for you, start by installing one of the following alternatives to popular self-hosted apps on your current computer.

• Plex . Plex is one of the most well-known and trusted solutions for self-hosting content. Plex is essentially your personal media server for streaming photos, audio, and video files to devices, like your own Netflix with your movies, TV shows, and music. You can install the Plex app on your Roku device and connect it to your personal media server to stream anything, and you can also share your server with friends and family. Plex also offers a paid service for remote access to your media, such as when you’re away from home.

• Kodi . Like Plex, Kodi turns your PC’s hard drive into a media server. Unlike Plex, Kodi is open-source software that isn’t controlled by a single company, allowing for greater privacy. Once installed, you tell it where your videos and audio are stored, and then Kodi streams those files over your Wi-Fi network to other devices. For example, I use Kodi at home to stream all my music to devices using VLC . It’s a lightweight, easy way to host your media on your own server. If you’re just looking to stream for yourself, Kodi is much easier to set up and use than Plex.

• Jellyfin : Jellyfin is another alternative media server that’s a little more complicated to set up, but offers a free, open-source alternative to Plex with a richer feature set than Kodi. If you really want to fully embrace your streaming libraries without the involvement of third-party services, Jellyfin might be your best bet.

• Grocy : If you use apps like Plan to Eat to organize your pantry and meal plan, Grocy offers the same functionality without the subscription fees or the need to scrape data from third-party sites. A full installation of Grocy involves setting up your own server using Docker, but Grocy Desktop is a simpler solution that installs like any other software on your PC. Grocy lets you track groceries, stock up your home, automate your shopping lists, track expiration dates, and add recipes so you can see what you need to cook at a glance.

• Mastodon : If you’re wary of privacy issues on social media, since you typically don’t own or control your posts or audience data, there’s a self-hosted alternative: Mastodon. Mastodon has gained a lot of attention in the past few years and is still going strong. You can create a Mastodon account like any other Twitter-like platform, but Mastodon can also be self-hosted, meaning you can run your own social network with your own rules. Users on different servers can also follow each other, so you’re not limited to just friends or coworkers — Threads is also trying to integrate into this network.

  Setting up a Mastodon server can be a bit of a hassle : you’ll need your own domain, a VPS, and an email provider tied to a specific server. But if you want real privacy on social media, this is the way to go.

• Owncast : If you want to broadcast video to the world like Twitch and YouTube , Owncast is a video streaming platform that keeps all your data and media under your control. That means you’ll never get banned, for example if YouTube decides you’ve violated some arcane policy or someone’s dubious copyright.

  Owncast can be easily installed on cloud hosting services like DigitalOcean if you’re willing to pay for the service, but you can also run it locally (keeping in mind that streaming video requires a lot of storage and bandwidth). It’s fairly easy to install locally on Linux systems, but it will require Docker for Windows or Homebrew for macOS.

• Immich . Google Photos is a great tool, but it means your personal photos are stored on the company’s servers under its terms of service, and if you’re not careful, you’ll quickly run out of free storage and have to pay for more. Introducing Immich, a self-hosted alternative. It requires Docker to install, but it’s fairly easy to set up and is administered via a web interface or mobile phone. Its features are powerful, including automatic backups, facial recognition, and easy file sharing with other users.

• Home Assistant . If you have smart devices in your home, Home Assistant offers centralized control that avoids the security and privacy issues associated with third-party Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. It works with most open-source and proprietary smart home devices, offering a level of customization that rivals any paid solution.

  While you can set up Home Assistant on your computer yourself, the easiest way to use it is to purchase Home Assistant Green , a ready-made device that works on a plug-and-play basis. Home Assistant Green simply plugs into the network and is ready to go. Otherwise, it is usually installed on a single-board computer, such as a Raspberry Pi, or on a regular PC using Docker or a virtual machine.

• Ollama : Using large language models (LLMs) like those behind ChatGPT, but not comfortable with your chats being exposed? Ollama lets you install lightweight versions of LLMs, like gpt-oss, locally on your computer and run them. The process is very similar to using web-based LLM tools, although they may be slower and less performant than the full versions, depending on your hardware. But if privacy is your goal, it’s an option, and Ollama makes it easy to install several different AI models to experiment with.

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