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Free Software Collection

Free Self-Hosted Software

The reasons to self-host are usually specific: the cloud drive raised its price, the photo service started charging by the gigabyte, the notes product announced a shutdown, a feature moved behind a subscription. What you get back is data on your own disk and features nobody can withdraw; what you take on is backups, updates and security. This list follows the order you build in — the base layer first (container management, reverse proxy, private networking), then the services on top, then monitoring. Everything here deploys with Docker.

30 curated recommendations

Selection Criteria

Deployable in full on your own server, with core features not depending on a vendor cloud.
Open source, with no community edition crippled by user or capacity caps.
Data sits on disks you control, and export is unrestricted.
An official Docker image or clear self-hosting documentation exists.

Recommended Tools

Portainer CE

Manage containers from a browser — logs, shell, config, restart

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Caddy

Two lines of config, and HTTPS certificates obtain and renew themselves

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Nginx Proxy Manager

Reverse proxies and certificates set up by clicking, without touching an Nginx config

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Tailscale

Wires all your devices into one private network — no router config

Open Source
No Ads
Cross-platform
Self-hostable

Podman Desktop

Container management with no licence to buy, and Docker's own commands

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Apple Container

Apple's own container tool — one lightweight VM per container

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Gitea

Your own GitHub, from a single executable

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Nextcloud

Everything a cloud drive does, on a disk you own

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Immich

Google Photos on your own disk, with your disk as the storage limit

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Vaultwarden

Run your own password vault server — the official clients still work

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Paperless-ngx

Scan the paper in once, then search for it instead of digging through drawers

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Jellyfin

A fully self-controlled, free media server

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Navidrome

Turn your own music library into streaming, uploaded to nobody

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Audiobookshelf

Your own audiobook server, with progress that follows you between devices

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Karakeep

A self-hosted bookmark vault that keeps the page, not a link that will rot

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

FreshRSS

You decide what you read — no algorithm involved

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Home Assistant

One interface for every smart-home brand — and it keeps working offline

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Offline

Uptime Kuma

Know the moment your site goes down, without paying for monitoring

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Mattermost

Slack on your own server, with a free edition that keeps your full history

Open Source
No Ads
Cross-platform
Self-hostable

Headscale

Run the Tailscale control server yourself, no official account needed

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

MeshCentral

Your own web console for remote desktop and device management

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Memos

Self-hosted quick notes — open it and write, no titles or folders

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

ntfy

Push a notification to your phone with one line of curl

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
No Sign-up

Mealie

A shared family recipe library, weekly meal plan and shopping list

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Linkwarden

Bookmarks that keep a screenshot and PDF, even after the page is gone

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Cross-platform

Wallos

Every auto-renewal on one list, with a reminder before each charge

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking
Self-hostable

Recommended Skills & MCP

🔌 MCP Server

n8n MCP

Let AI build your n8n automation workflows

Works with: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor

Open Source
No Ads
No Sign-up

🔌 MCP Server

SearXNG MCP

Private web search for AI via your own SearXNG, no API key

Works with: Claude · Claude Code · Cursor

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking

🔌 MCP Server

Basic Memory

Long-term AI memory stored as plain local Markdown

Works with: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking

🔌 MCP Server

mcpo

Expose any MCP server as a standard OpenAPI service

Works with: Open WebUI · Any OpenAPI client

Open Source
No Ads
No Tracking

FAQ

What goes in first?: The base layer. Portainer for containers — logs, restarts and config changes in a browser instead of an ssh session every time — and Caddy or Nginx Proxy Manager for domains and HTTPS. With those in place, every later service is one compose file plus one proxy record.
Caddy or Nginx Proxy Manager?: It depends on whether you want to write config. Caddy is two lines — a domain and a backend — with certificates fully automatic, suited to people comfortable editing text. Nginx Proxy Manager is a web form where a few clicks create a proxy and certificate status sits in a table, suited to people who would rather not. Both are sufficient; do not run both.
How do I keep services off the public internet?: Use Tailscale to join your devices into a private network and have services listen only on that address, so nothing is scannable from outside. Your phone still reaches the home service while no open port exists on the public internet. That beats "expose it, change the default port, and hope."
What about backups?: This is the real cost of self-hosting and nobody does it for you. At minimum, back data volumes up to another disk or machine on a schedule, and verify periodically that a restore actually works. Kopia in this directory handles encrypted incremental backups and Syncthing handles multi-machine sync. Ten services with no backup is riskier than the commercial cloud you left.