The Rise of Self-Hosting: Why More People Are Taking Control of Their Digital Lives
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The Rise of Self-Hosting: Why More People Are Taking Control of Their Digital Lives
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About this listen
Hello and welcome to Tech Brief. Today, we’re diving into why self-hosting is having a moment, thanks to insights from Ethan Sholly of selfh.st.
Sholly started by helping friends stream movies. “Turn your desktop on—it’s movie night,” he joked. From there he built a tower server with 10-terabyte drives and asked, “What else can I self-host?” He bookmarked dozens of GitHub projects and created a single site and newsletter to track them all.
In a recent survey of nearly 3,700 self-hosting enthusiasts, 60 percent said “no” when asked, “Have you donated to a self-hosted project in the last year?” Yet Plex still ranks third behind Jellyfin and Home Assistant.
So what’s driving this trend? Privacy for your photos and files, the rising cost of cloud storage, easy installation with Docker and Unraid, and affordable hardware like Raspberry Pi and Intel NUCs. Sholly distinguishes self-hosting from a home lab, noting you could even run everything on a closet-stored laptop.
And yes, piracy plays a role, too. But Sholly reminds us: “Convenience shouldn’t be an add-on; privacy shouldn’t be a value-add.”
That’s our minute on self-hosting—reach out and share your journey next time on Tech Brief.
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