Blog
Articles, guides, tutorials and comparisons — everything we publish about home servers and self-hosting.
How to Set Up Jellyseerr for Media Requests
Give your household a clean way to request movies and shows that flow automatically into your Jellyfin or Plex library.
How to Set Up Grafana and Prometheus
Stand up a metrics stack with Prometheus, node_exporter and Grafana to visualize your home server's health.
Home Server Monitoring: A Complete Guide
Monitor your homelab with Uptime Kuma, Prometheus and Grafana — track uptime, temperatures, disk health and get alerts before things break.
Docker Networking Explained for Home Servers
Understand bridge, host and macvlan networks, container DNS, and how to expose services safely behind a reverse proxy.
How to Choose the Right Home Server OS
Ubuntu Server, Debian, Proxmox, TrueNAS or CasaOS? A practical guide to picking the operating system that fits your goals.
The *arr Stack: Automate Your Media Library
How Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr and a download client work together to build a hands-off media server.
ZFS for Home Servers: A Practical Primer
Understand pools, vdevs, snapshots, RAID-Z and caching — and decide when ZFS is worth the RAM overhead for your NAS or Proxmox box.
How to Set Up WireGuard VPN
Self-host a fast, modern WireGuard VPN so you can reach your entire homelab securely from anywhere — with wg-easy for a simple UI.
How to Install Uptime Kuma
Monitor every homelab service and get instant alerts when something goes down, plus public status pages — all self-hosted.
How to Configure Proxmox Backups
Protect your VMs and containers with scheduled vzdump jobs and Proxmox Backup Server — including retention, verification and restore testing.
How to Install Portainer
Get a web UI for managing Docker containers, images, volumes and stacks in minutes — with security hardening and multi-environment tips.
How to Install Nginx Proxy Manager
Publish internal services with free Let's Encrypt TLS certificates and a friendly point-and-click UI — no config files required.
How to Install Nextcloud with Docker
Deploy a private cloud for files, calendars and contacts using Docker Compose, with MariaDB, Redis, HTTPS and a solid backup plan.
How to Install Immich Photo Backup
Replace Google Photos with self-hosted Immich — automatic mobile backup, ML-powered search, and a plan for storage and backups.
How to Install Home Assistant
Run Home Assistant on your server for private, local-first smart home automation — installation methods, first integrations and automations.
How to Install Fail2ban on Ubuntu
Automatically block brute-force SSH and web login attempts by banning abusive IPs — with jails, whitelists and monitoring.
How to Set Up Caddy as a Reverse Proxy
Get automatic HTTPS for all your homelab services with Caddy's tiny config — including Docker, subdomains and DNS challenges.
Secure Remote Access to Your Home Server
Reach your homelab from anywhere without exposing insecure ports — compare VPNs, Tailscale, reverse proxies and tunnels, and when to use each.
Proxmox Homelab Setup Guide
Install Proxmox VE, plan storage and networking, create VMs and LXC containers, and set up backups for a flexible, reliable homelab.
Home Server Backup Strategy That Actually Works
Build a real 3-2-1 backup plan for your homelab — what to back up, snapshots vs backups, tools like Restic and Borg, and tested restores.
Docker Compose Best Practices for Home Servers
Structure stacks, volumes, networks, secrets and updates so your Compose homelab stays clean, secure and easy to rebuild.
What Is a Home Server? A Plain-English Introduction
A beginner-friendly explanation of what a home server is, what you can do with one, and how to decide if you should build one.
Home Assistant vs openHAB
The two leading open-source home automation platforms compared for homelab users.
Tailscale vs WireGuard
Managed mesh VPN vs self-hosted WireGuard — ease vs control for remote homelab access.
Ubuntu Server vs Debian
The two most popular Linux bases for homelabs compared: release cadence, packages and support.
Unraid vs TrueNAS
Flexible parity array vs ZFS powerhouse — which NAS OS matches your homelab?
Nextcloud vs ownCloud
Compare the two private-cloud forks: features, apps, licensing and which fits your homelab.
The Complete Home Server Beginner's Guide
Go from zero to a running home server: choose hardware, pick an operating system, deploy your first apps, and keep everything secure and backed up.
Best Home Server Hardware in 2026
How to choose the CPU, RAM, storage and power for an efficient, reliable home server — with recommendations for every budget.
How to Install Docker on Ubuntu
A step-by-step tutorial to install Docker Engine and Docker Compose on Ubuntu Server, then run your first container.
The Home Server Security Checklist
A practical checklist to secure your home server: SSH hardening, firewall, updates, backups and safe remote access.
How to Build Your First NAS
A step-by-step guide to planning and building a reliable DIY NAS with TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault.
How to Set Up Pi-hole for Network-Wide Ad Blocking
Install Pi-hole with Docker to block ads and trackers for every device on your home network.
Docker Basics for Self-Hosting
Learn images, containers, volumes and Docker Compose so you can deploy self-hosted applications with confidence.
Self-Hosting Starter Guide: Replace the Cloud
Discover which cloud services you can replace with self-hosted alternatives, and how to get started.
How to Set Up a Jellyfin Media Server
Install Jellyfin with Docker and stream your movies, TV and music to every device for free.
RAID Explained for Home Servers
Understand RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10, what they protect against, and why RAID is not a backup.
Home Server Networking Guide
Reverse proxies, DNS, VLANs and secure remote access — give your services clean, reachable names the right way.
How to Reduce Your Home Server's Power Consumption
Practical tips to lower your home server's electricity use without sacrificing reliability or performance.
Plex vs Jellyfin
Plex vs Jellyfin compared: features, hardware transcoding, privacy, cost and which media server is right for you.
Docker vs Podman
Docker vs Podman: architecture, security, rootless mode, Compose support and which container engine to use at home.
TrueNAS vs OpenMediaVault
TrueNAS vs OpenMediaVault: ZFS, hardware requirements, ease of use and which NAS OS fits your build.
Proxmox vs VMware
Proxmox VE vs VMware ESXi for the homelab: cost, licensing, features, containers and which hypervisor to choose.
Synology vs DIY NAS
Synology vs building your own NAS: cost, performance, software, flexibility and which route suits you.