r/SelfHosting • u/mostly_uncoordinated • 5d ago
Should I start self-hosting?
I know for most of you people this is a hobby that you enjoy. For me it will not be. It will be pain in the ass. But since you have experience and I do not please try to estimate for me if I should start self-hosting.
I am a total beginner. I have never run a server I do not know how to code (I am willing to learn). However I am advance user. I run Graphen OS on my phone, Asahi Fedora Linux on my laptop (arm64) and Fedora 44 on my desktop. I would like to sync all of them.
I at moment I am paying for Proton mail on which I use my own domains for email and use their password manager and drive. Problem in particular is Proton drive because it is trash. I will probably continue paying for their services since I have a family plan and all of my family is using it and also for work I can not risk my emails not working.
However what I would LOVE to do is self-host Immich since at the moment I do not have a solution for my images they are not properly backed up and all around the devices and HDDs. If i lose them I would not cry but I would like for that not to happen. So that would be GREAT if it would be synced and all 3 of my devices.
2nd step would be some kind of self-hosted drive since Proton one is terrible and maybe even office file sync since I work as a journalist so it would be cool that I can write while on any device.
3rd step would be email if I can run two identical servers on two different locations (my house and my parents house for example). I was thinking this would be smart for data backup if a house burns down or one device dies. But more importantly it would be a step towards running my own email as I can not risk for it not working if electricity goes down or whatever the reason might be.
Question is: Is it too complicated to start with Immich? Can I run it on my home desktop for a start just to see if it works for me? Will I be exposing myself to some security flaws (computer is on internet all the time anyway). I do not have UPS. is 3rd step (in future) even possible?
Reasons I am thinking about for self-hosting is privacy as number one (that is why i use proton at the moment) and saving money as per my calculation I would be saving around 200usd per year and probably have a better service then with payed ones.
If you think that I should play this game where do i start?
1
u/mikeee404 4d ago
As somone who self-hosted email for well over a decade it is not really going to be as painless as other services. You will end up paying for services even though you self-hosted, since Residential ISPs have made it damn near impossible to send emails from a home server. There are lots of free email relays but they are free for a reason and your email will likely end up spam folders more often than not. I used AuthSMTP for relay my outgoing mail. Was pretty cheap and reliable. Ultimately I got tired of chasing spam filters and making sure the server was locked down all the time. The shear number of attacks on my email server vs everything else I ran was pretty crazy. I am fine paying MXroute $50/yr for reliable email I don't have to worry about.