Updated June 2026
Self-hosted apps worth knowing about
A short list of useful self-hosted apps for a home server that goes beyond the popular piracy stack that gets so many people into self hosting.
Self-hosting is fun, but it can often feel like a solution looking for a problem. The apps below solved real problems for me. Some replaced crappy free apps from big tech companies that spy on you, while others added some much-needed structure and hygiene to my online life. Hopefully they can do the same for you too.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is basically the open-source, self-hosted version of Office 365. It has the normal office-style stuff like files, calendars, contacts, and sharing, but it also works well as a homelab hub with apps for photos, recipes, notes, tasks, and plenty more.
Immich
Immich is a self-hosted replacement for Google Photos or iCloud Photos. It is polished, moving fast, and keeps getting new features. If you have ever felt weird about Google training on or analyzing your photos, this is the app you are probably looking for.
flatnotes
flatnotes is a very lightweight self-hosted notes app. If you just want a simple scratchpad without a bunch of extra features, accounts, folders, and complexity, this is a good fit.
FreshRSS
FreshRSS lets you choose which publishers, blogs, and sites you want to follow instead of letting an algorithm feed you clickbait. It is a good way to read the internet without being constantly pushed toward outrage, division, and junk.
Glance
Glance is a highly customizable homepage for your server. You can use built-in widgets, add integrations, or create your own little widgets to show the information you actually care about.
Scrutiny
Scrutiny helps you keep an eye on your hard drives and the data stored on them. It shows SMART health data in a much cleaner way than digging through terminal output, which makes it easier to spot drive problems early.
Linkwarden
Linkwarden works as a bookmark manager, collection manager, and file archive. If you are always finding cool stuff online, telling yourself you will come back to it later, and then never seeing it again, this is one of the better apps for fixing that.
Homebox
Homebox is for tracking the stuff you own. It can be useful for home inventory, warranties, manuals, serial numbers, and the random things you only care about once something breaks or goes missing.
MeTube
MeTube is a simple web interface for saving online videos for personal offline use. It is useful when you want a clean “paste a link and download it” tool without turning it into a whole media-management project.
AdventureLog
AdventureLog is for tracking trips, hikes, places visited, and travel ideas. It fits well if you want a personal travel log instead of scattering that stuff across notes, photos, bookmarks, and memory.