Self Hosting
Tailscale vs Headscale: What Self-Hosting the Control Plane Changes
Headscale moves Tailscale-compatible coordination, identity integration, policy distribution, upgrades, and recovery into your infrastructure. It does not automatically move peer traffic, remove DERP, or eliminate endpoint and application security work.
Self-Hosted App Lifecycle: Updates, Rollbacks, and Release Notes
A self-hosted operations guide for updating containers safely, reading release notes, backing up state, automating carefully, and rolling back.
Immich vs Google Photos: Which Photo Backup Setup Should You Trust?
Compare provider-operated Google Photos with self-managed Immich, then test phone uploads, metadata exports, and independent recovery before replacing the family library or deleting originals.
Syncthing vs Nextcloud vs Cloud Storage: Stop Using the Wrong Sync Tool
Syncthing, Nextcloud, and managed cloud drives solve different problems. Pick by sync model, sharing needs, trust, admin time, and backup plan.
Docker Compose for Normal People: Run Home Services Without Container Chaos
A plain-English Docker Compose guide for running home services with understandable folders, volumes, ports, environment files, updates, and backups.
What Not to Self-Host in 2026: A Practical Risk List for Homelabs
A realistic self-hosting risk guide covering email, passwords, identity, family-critical data, public dashboards, backups, and safer alternatives.
Move from Plex to Jellyfin Without Losing Your Rollback Path
Move from Plex to Jellyfin with a read-only parallel run, exact inventory steps, client acceptance checks, and restore and rollback gates before cutover.
One Shared Database Server or One Database Per App?
Choose shared or per-app databases by engine compatibility, maintenance needs and failure boundaries. Separate application credentials in either design, and account for shared downtime and post-cutover writes before consolidating.