Do you have any advice or suggestions about it?
- Hardware (what should be enough for a local PC, or VPS…)
- Software (OS [Debian, Yunohost, other…], “containerization” (Docker, virtual machines?), dashboard, management, backups, VPN tunneling…)
- “Utilities” to host (Lemmy, Peertube, Matrix, Mastodon, Actual Budget, Jellyfin, Forgejo, Invidious/Piped, local Pi-Hole, email, dedicated videogame servers like for Minecraft, SearXNG, personal file storage like Drive, AI [in the future, when I can afford a rig that can run a local model decently]…)
I’m aware it’s a lot of stuff to take on, so, do you have any advice on where to start? (how to find a cheap PC to experiment with, if not get a VPS, what to test on it, what “utilities” to try self-hosting first…)


Sooo… do I just do with known email providers (proton, tuta, the webmail my domain provider allows me to have)?
Seems like email is the biggest issue to self host lol
Proton will so smtp if you’re on one of the paying plans. You can get your own domain setup to use with it. This is what I do. I just had to contact them to get it setup, they ask a few questions about usage, which I just said was self hosting stuff and sending occasional emails.
@talentedkiwi @TotallyWorthLife
Why not selfhost your mail ? Spin up https://github.com/docker-mailserver/docker-mailserver, add roundcube webmail, and relay your outbound through something like https://www.smtp2go.com/ to avoid delivery headaches.
Maybe some day, don’t break what isn’t broken (for now).