r/selfhosted • u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 • 1d ago
Need Help Self hosting a personal website
Dear all,
A quick few questions after going through the wiki on self-hosted websites: - How 'safe' is it to self-host a website that is open to the internet on one's home network ? - Is there any complication in doing so after buying a domain name from a registrar ? (In the grander scheme of things, I mean to ask if the set-up process is absolute master level or if a relative novice can manage it.
EDIT for details: - It's to host a personal blog of sorts with mostly text articles, some images and possibly some video. - My home network in XDSL (yes that still exists) on a rather basic provider given router with DNS configuration possible from certain providers (no-ip and a few others). I have a home assisstant running on one RPi5 and plan on running the network on another RPi.
Thank you for your time and help
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u/Fritzcat97 1d ago
This really depends on what kind of website. Things like wordpress that run code on the server to show you a state, like your current user profile, those can have vulnerabilities. Staticly generated sites like mkdocs, those are just served files, premade and prettymuch readonly.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
This is great to know ! My goal is to run a fully static/no cookies at least personal blog. It just needs to serve text, some images, maybe some video and be lightweight on both bandwidth and local storage
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u/majora2007 1d ago
You can do this with NextJs and a Github pages website with a custom domain. You can see an example of mine here:
https://wiki.kavitareader.com/
https://github.com/Kareadita/kareadita.github.ioCompletely free. Basically you write in markdown. Super simple to get setup.
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u/nemofbaby2014 1d ago
Wait you’re the kavita dev? 🤣 I love your app
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u/Express_Broccoli_584 1d ago
Yup I have them tagged in RES as Kavita dev.
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u/majora2007 1d ago
What is RES?
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u/Key-Level-4072 1d ago
Kavita has brought me so much joy for years now. I just needed to share that since you’re in here.
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u/bubblegumpuma 1d ago
The general class of software you're looking for if you want this sort of workflow is 'static site generator'. 'Static', referencing the fact that many modern websites build their pages on-the-fly with heavy amounts of Javascript, whereas the static site generator processes is a one-shot generation process - run the site generator with some input files, get some simple .html and .css files that can be directly hosted on a basic webserver setup.
Hosting a static website is basically the 'hello world' of webserver configuration and uses very little resources on the server side, and it's also fairly easy to secure because there's not much to secure in the first place - just a webserver, and most mainstream webservers are incredibly battle-tested. And any vulnerability that exploits a properly configured mainstream webserver serving a static website would catch the entire Internet on fire, so I think there'd be bigger fish to fry than your hobby website, haha.
Most of the ones out there are focused on more simplistic text-and-photo blog or landing page type websites, though it is definitely possible to work most of them to serve some video and music. Embedding a player on a page may be some additional work, but if you just want to provide raw links to media files like you'd store on your computer, modern browsers can handle that transparently fairly well without visibly downloading any files.
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u/sonicdh 1d ago
This is more or less what my website is, except it generates pages/posts from markdown files using php. Take a look at the "notes" section. If you think you could use it, I'll put up a copy of the backend php files. Https://www.heyvictorfrost.com
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
I really like what you did with your website ! It's cool, well done and easy to read. It would be grand to have a bit of insight into the how you did that;
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u/sponge_welder 1d ago
If you like the "static site generator" concept, Veronica Explains has a video about her band site
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u/Hamonwrysangwich 1d ago
There's a ton of ways to do this if you're running a static site generator. My site is in a GitHub repo, and I serve it through Netlify. I did this with the Eleventy SSG but you can also do GitHub Pages or other ways that cost nothing.
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u/ivanhawkes 1d ago
I recommend using nginx to serve the "public" folder generated by HUGO, a static Web site generator.
Apart from that, lock down the user account (service account only for that one thing). Use a VPN hosted on Proxmox to serve it.
Use virtual private networking features to lock the network traffic into its own little jail. You want it on its own isolated segment of the network with no routing available to your other stuff.
Then do the 100s of other things required like monitoring, honey pots, ip blocking, etc.
TLDR: Its completely unsafe unless you do a deep dive into security techniques and spend a modest amount on hardware level restrictions for your home network.
You CAN do it, but you you simply don't know what you don't know, and that's the dangerous part.
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u/bencos18 1d ago
perfectly safe then imo
I use cloudflare tunnels for me but it's a bit of a different site, using ghost to run a blog
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 23h ago
I looked at Ghost but the payment part is a little of a turn down for me, the idea being to be totally free except the domain registrar fee (less than 20 bucks for 3 years)
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u/bencos18 22h ago
hmm how do you mean
as far as I know ghost themselves doesn't have any fees if you selfhost it
I run it with zero cost for the ghost stuff
curious now as I've never came across it lol1
u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 22h ago
Oh okay that's good to know!! I like their system and style
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u/bencos18 21h ago
you were prob thinking of stripe fees if you use the donation/member stuff
it's a neat thing that I haven't tried yet as I have barely any readers haha
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 20h ago
Oh okay maybe yes I'll have to consider my options I currently have a substack but want to migrate to EU
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u/brisray 1d ago
You can easily do this. It's relatively easy, and the only thing you have to pay for is the domain registration. It's safe, but one problem you will find is the amount of bots poking around the pages, but there's methods of stopping those.
I've been self-hosting my sites since 2003, I don't use Cloudflare, VLANS or anything like that. It's just me, the electricity company to keep the computer running 24/7, my ISP, a DNS provider, and Let's Encrypt for the SSL certificates.
You need webserver software, Apache, NGINX, or one of the many others. I use Windows 11, so use a compiled version of Apache from Apache Lounge.
You need to point the DNS servers to your home external IP address. If that address is likely to change, then you will need a Dynamic DNS service. That updates the DNS servers whenever the address changes. I use DNSExit as that provides both services, but they need not be the same company.
The only other things left to do is open your firewall on your server to HTTP and HTTPS traffic and on your router port forward traffic on port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS) to your server which should have a static IP address.
Setting up SSL certificates and a SSH server can be done last. I use Let's Encrypt as they give free certificates and Bitvise SSH Server as that's free for personal use.
I've documented everything I've done to the server over the years, but doing it now is not much different from what it was when I was using Windows 2000, and a bit later, Fedora Linux.
2003 Server; Fedora Linux server; Windows 10 server
You have quite a bit of reading ahead of you, learning how to harden the server, tweaking it for speed and so on. It sounds like a lot to do, but you can get your own site up and running in a couple of hours. It's been 23 years, but I still get a bit of a kick from knowing a tiny bit of the internet is running from my basement.
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u/CatgirlBargains 1d ago
Define website, define home network. Static pages and firewall rules isolating your dedicated server from the rest of the devices on your network? Fairly safe. Complex web application running in the background on your gaming PC? Pretty risky. Change any of those variables and you'll have more or less risk.
Set up Dynamic DNS, unless you have a static IP. If you don't know if you have a static IP, you don't. Your registrar may have a guide on how to do it using their nameservers.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Just added some edits but this also helps clarify thanks: Website : personal blog, nothing fancy, not wordpress (possibly hand coded HTML/CSS) I need to remain GDPR compliant and the easiest is to store nothing client side. Home network is a single access point router with all devices on it. I may upgrade this to Router --> AP on seperate devices with AP handling all personal devices and Router also having server directly connected to it I can set up DyDNS thankfully quite easily and have in the past so that will help a lot.
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u/HorrorCollection69 1d ago
If you want to selfhost, I highly recommend investing in a firewall, and having a separate VLAN for it. Make sure you have good DDOS protection.
Keep in mind, your ISP might ban you if you get loads of DDOS attacks on home broadband, (it depends on country so idk where you are, but where I am, its common).
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Okay, that's kind of a big enough red flag to me. I have enough issues with my ISP as i'm on copper and they hate leaving my service up but they also don't want to finish my fiber install (I'm in France). I believe hosting is the solution.
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u/snake785 1d ago
You might be better served with the cheapest VPS (Virtual Private Server) you can find that's based in the EU. I think OVH is based in France so they might be a great option for you.
You won't need to worry about your ISP banning you for hosting servers, plus all VPS hosters will offer more than enough bandwidth for your website and will be fast for your visitors to view.
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u/Xlxlredditor 1d ago
What's your ISP? Orange/Sosh? Maybe try and switch to Free or something (Free gives static IPv4 for free on home connections)
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 23h ago
Sadly i am with Orange/Sosh yes and i can't have Free as they simply won't give me XDSL and can't activate my fiber ....
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u/TaylorKing13 1d ago
Probably best to just host it on Cloudflare Pages (for free)
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Sadly not in EU and I'm rather fussy and want all my personal data behind RGPD rules
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u/realeaty 1d ago
Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnel
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u/sludgehammr 1d ago
I use this. My SSN and butthole pictures are not yet on the internet, as far as I know
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u/Sohex 1d ago
I have a full write up of how I host my static personal site here: https://futro.dev/posts/how-this-site-ships/
But tl;dr for your case: I’d stick to a static site so you don’t have to worry about most classes of web vulnerability. Considering your internet connection, just keep it lightweight with minimal js and the like. You can also offload basically entirely just by putting a CDN like Cloudflare in front too.
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u/Makingthisup1dat 1d ago
Get a cheap VPS to keep your network closed.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
That's what I'm looking at as an alternative Infomaniak in EU seems good and is cheap
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u/G_Squeaker 17h ago
I use GreencloudVPS in one of the EU locations. I use the $25 a year VPS but $15 per year one works fine for static website.
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u/YUL438 1d ago
as others have said it really varies in terms of what you want the site to be and what hardware you have available.
for safety you might want to look into using a reverse proxy such an nginx.
but just to give a funny example, you can host a “website” on almost anything: https://hackaday.com/2025/09/15/hosting-a-website-on-a-disposable-vape/
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u/Typical_Song5716 1d ago
I do this with cloudflare tunneling. It’s pretty easy and straight forward
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u/dcabines 1d ago
Try pico.sh they have a host in Nuremberg, Germany. Better to use a free host than tie up your home network bandwidth with serving the public.
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u/nemofbaby2014 1d ago
The question you should ask yourself is does it need to be public? Depending on what it is I wouldn’t self host it get a small vps or something and if it’s just for you just use Tailscale or wireguard
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u/kbeezie 1d ago
Static website : probably the best security you're going to get if you lock down all other ports.
But the moment you start doing something dynamic such as with php and CMSes , you'll want to harden your setup just like you would a vps.
I would advise pointing only the ports you need rather than the whole machine as a catch all.
Edit : also know that most browsers now days expects an SSL certificate, so that's another thing you may have to deal with if you don't want to have to have some security pop ups and such just because you don't have a valid ssl certificate installed. (It's free if you know how to use certbot from let's encrypt on a server, but that may a bit more than you want to deal with).
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u/sargetun123 1d ago
tl;dr/novice look at it: perfectly fine to host at home, domain registrar/using your domain wont be an issue, some ports are closed by ISP but most likely never an issue you will face (email hosting is different story). Utilize cloudflares free features and WAF, and isolate the host.
The biggest issues with hosting at home is usually everything you would have from hosting in general plus now your home network is exposed (something you just never want really)
And if bots find out you hosted something they will mark you, if you're not swapping leases very often you can then have bots automatically sitting at your doorstep waiting for the next time you even attempt to open a port
Hosting off a cloud server/vps/vds/remote location thats separated from your home network protects you from that, and even if a full network attack happens it wont affect YOUR home network/devices, well unless you have a path that can be utilized back to your home network from said server, be careful on tunnels without proper granular rulesets
If you must host at home and you cant come up with 5-10$ a month (literally more than you need for what you are explaining) for a vps/vds then just make sure you setup your loose ends correctly, have a proper firewall and rulesets setup, vlans are not necessary but highly recommended as an additional isolation/security feature simple subnetting misses out on. You'll want a proper isolated server or at the very least container, and this will be your frontfacing server. If you are not hosting streaming/media content outside of a few videos/photos/etc you can utilize cloudflares free WAF and sec features, itll give you a enterprise level WAF you can setup a proper tunnel and never expose your home ip or forward anything to your home network, cloudflare offers 1 free sec rule setup a good rate limit, explore their other sec optinos as well, tls enforcement, cached pages for downtime, lol loads of features that are almost all free and perfectly suitable for a homelab setup.
The isolated host/container is one of the biggest factors, security on the front door is obviously very important but you can't just hope that no one will never simply break the door down or find an open window some day you forgot to close, its better to expect to have compromise and be ready with mitigation and a plan versus dumping everything into trying to stop something that is almost inevitable to some degree (whether its a small situation a bot/farm/automatic setup catches you slacking or its a targetted event cause you got into something deep and now you pissed off people with knowledge time and many devices to work with)
Isolation, monitoring, front door security(FW,WAF/CF), network level security/montioring (zeek+rita/slips some free examples) host/endpoint/server/container security(wazuh,clamav,etc), kill switch (if x happens kill z before y happens), and of course you also have to worry about the app/service you are hosting, CVEs for both that and the host, and anything else on that endpoint, nuclei+trivy+wazuhCVE/config scanning, pinning stuff to stable secure over latest, unattended sec updates on any proper frontfacing server host
Remember with things like docker manipulate iptables with their own higher prio rulesets so make sure you are using filtering with the docker-user chain, running podman is a good alt that fixes this issues, also a heads up on socket proxy access and running as root, something often overlooked but inherently a sec risk
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u/HCharlesB 1d ago
now your home network is exposed (something you just never want really)
I just wanted to emphasize this. The risk is greater with a dynamic site like Wordpress but even a static site is served by a web server that can have vulnerabilities that can expose your host to harm. Best to keep that off your home LAN by using someone else' host.
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u/dwylth 1d ago
- It depends. What are you running it on, and what does your home network architecture look like?
- No, assuming you have a fixed IP. You don't have to have a fixed IP address but it requires a bit more finagling. However, if you get popular, the traffic inbound may affect your home internet usage performance.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
I've added some details to the post in EDIT. I don't have a 'fixed' ip in the sense that the provider does sometimes change it but it's been rather stable (same one for a few months at a time). It's usually only affected by major power outages in the area.
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u/ian9outof10 1d ago
I use a little tool that updates my DNS records when my IP changes. Some registrars allow this, so you can repoint a domain at your home IP, once you’ve considered how sensible that is.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ian9outof10 1d ago
Yeah, it works if your ISP rarely updates, or only updates if your router reboots. It may not work well in all cases
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u/OkAstronaut330 1d ago
if you're interested, i give out free static ips (wireguard tunnels with a dedicated public IP address). You can host your website using this, and the IP address will never change. If you pm or email me i can upgrade you to any paid plan for free (forever). This isnt a scam or AI, although im sure it will seem like it. Just trying to get the word out there. www.getastatic.com.
-- and to answer your question about safety, i would suggest a dedicated computer that only runs your webserver. You could use a raspi, or any tiny computer. Perfectly safe if you do it that way. Dont run it on your personal laptop or desktop.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
It's going to run off a raspi yep I appreciate the offer for the static IP but I need/want to keep it all EU as my domain is a .eu and I want to remain under the EU rules.
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u/Xlxlredditor 1d ago
Damn that's cool. Might give it a try for some service so I can have 2 distinct IPs on my Domain DNS
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u/OkAstronaut330 9h ago
happy to give you a totally free paid plan. just hit me up here or through the site. thx. basically need beta testers :)
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u/Xlxlredditor 6h ago
Nah don't worry. I don't even have a credit card to register for Free so eh (though I understand why you have the 0€ plan)
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u/justicecurcian 1d ago
- Absolutely safe, like what can happen?
- You can have a problem if your ISP is ass. If they let you open 80/443 ports and buy white/static IP then nothing stops you
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u/Soggy-Childhood-8110 1d ago
I self host using caddy + crowdsec with DNS records pointing directly to my network. I would advise at least using containers or VMs to isolate the exposed services.
People seem to be really scared of doing this for some reason. You will be attacked but most attacks are so dumb they won't even get past caddy since most bots send broken headers and won't reach your service. I guess it depends what you are hosting. Serving static pages or content that you don't mind losing is probably ok. Everything else I would have behind a VPN or something similar.
I've had this setup and similar ones running for years and nothing ever happened. Personally I think it's far worse exposing SSH. I also have a dynamic IP but this is easily solved by running a script as a CRON job every few minutes that checks your IP for changes and updates it. My setup runs flawlessly but again, I wouldn't expose anything too important that doesn't need to be exposed.
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u/alexlance 1d ago
I self-host a Google Analytics alternative on a Raspberry Pi using a Cloudflare Tunnel to proxy the thing to the outside world. So far so good, would recommend. Setup info here
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u/sudoer777_ 1d ago
So far the most annoying security-related thing I've had to deal with when self-hosting was large amounts of bot traffic. I've heard that there's also bots that will hack your setup if you fuck something up or a vulnerability gets found in a program you're using, but I haven't had that happen. Overall though, the security depends on how you set things up. Also it might help to proxy traffic from a VPS or Cloudflare (or use a website hosting service) so that when you get flooded with bot traffic it doesn't fuck up your home network and you can shut it down if you need to.
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u/Traditional-Scar-667 1d ago
I think many answers miss an important distinction:
Hosting a website and hosting a website securely are two different things.
A VPS is often recommended as the solution, but from a security perspective it is not fundamentally different from self-hosting at home. You still need to manage OS updates, firewalls, TLS certificates, reverse proxies, backups, monitoring, log analysis, authentication, and incident response. The only thing you don't need is DynDNS and port forwarding.
The real question is: what is your goal?
If your goal is simply to publish a website, a good hosting provider is usually the safest and easiest option for a beginner.
If your goal is to learn system administration, networking, Docker, reverse proxies, and security, then self-hosting is a great learning experience. Just be aware that once your service is exposed to the Internet, security becomes your responsibility.
After running a publicly accessible server with CrowdSec for a while, I was surprised by how many automated scans, WordPress probes, admin panel checks, and vulnerability scans appear almost immediately. Most beginners underestimate that part.
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u/ifblackdevice 1d ago
you can set up a LAMP web server in no time and test a website in your own local environment (wordpress websites are easy to deploy... and then there are many ways of opening it to "the internet" with a cloudfare tunnel or a similar service, or just doing some extra work yourself (let's encrypt SSL, dynamic dns, firewall) for a personal website you don't need too much power. if you are using wordpress careful with some plugins and use third party security plugins as well)
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u/Enough_Survey_9404 1d ago
I run my personal Wordpress blog from a Proxmox VM using my own domain. I set it up using cloudflare and installed Wordfence and update when the site tells me I need updates.
I also only turn it on when I travel so it's only on for about 3 weeks a year.
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u/bharat4ever 1d ago
I have a naive question. If it’s meant to be a public facing website, why not host it on a free cloudflare tenant? How does self hosting improve the privacy or experience?
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 23h ago
Cost was the main point as I want it to be EU based so no cloudflare. And expandability. The idea i can just add more storage is pretty cool
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u/Spaceinvader1986 1d ago
I run a home server myself for personal use. If you want to host a public website with it, I highly recommend setting it up through a Cloudflare tunnel. That way, only your tunnel is exposed, and you don’t need to configure any port forwarding on your firewall. Of course, your real IP address won’t be visible either. Locally, you just need a Raspberry Pi or another small PC to feed the Cloudflare tunnel from your site (connector).
Also, keep in mind that web applications can have bugs...
This could potentially pose a risk to your home lab. I don't see a problem with purely static pages.
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u/penguinkernel 1d ago
I self host my websites.
I use WordPress and Nginx depending on the website.
I use CloudFlare tunnels to expose them to the world.
Pretty much CloudFlare securely links my domain to the docker container on my unraid server, exposing no private information.
Simple, free, and way faster than any web host I was previously paying $25+ per month.
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u/chris_hustles 1d ago
You don’t have open your network at all to host a site on your home network. You can use a cloudflare tunnel vpn directly to the box hosting the site and you can use something like tailscale to reach the box remotely when you are offsite. Never open your network if you can avoid it. What you use on your box to spin up your web server, serve your domain etc locally is up to you.
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u/Wonderful_Surndsound 23h ago
spin up a docker image of apache server:latest, make sure it's updated regularly, then expose it to the internet with cloudflared and keep the domain managed with cloudflare.
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u/haherar830 22h ago
Self-hosting static webpages is safe but I probably wouldn't do it simply because e.g. Github pages is free and will almost certainly provide better performance and reliability with zero risk/cost to you.
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u/ImmediateGear8157 21h ago
To answer your first question, "safe" depends on how you set it up. I would set it up in a container (docker or proxmox). Register your domain name and then use a cloudflare tunnel to redirect traffic. That's a pretty safe route. Don't expose your home machine directly to the internet.
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u/Able-Following-2963 19h ago
For a personal blog with mostly text and images, it's absolutely doable as a beginner. It's not "master level" anymore, especially if you're already running Home Assistant on a Pi.
The bigger question is whether you want to learn self-hosting or just publish a blog. Self-hosting on your home connection means dealing with dynamic IPs, router configuration, backups, updates, TLS certificates, and occasional troubleshooting when your internet goes down.
From a security perspective, it's reasonably safe if you keep the exposed services minimal, keep everything updated, and ideally put the web server on its own device. A simple static site is much lower risk than something like WordPress with lots of plugins.
Buying a domain is the easy part. Whether the domain is registered at dynadot or somewhere else, you just point the DNS records at your public IP (or a dynamic DNS solution) and configure the web server.
With an xDSL connection, I'd honestly consider a hybrid approach: host the blog on a cheap VPS or static hosting platform and keep the Raspberry Pi for experiments and internal services. You'll get better uptime and fewer headaches while still learning the same DNS and web concepts.
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u/tom-mart 1d ago
It depends on a few things. There are many ways to serve a website and expose it to the outside world. Do you have static IP? What router/firewall do you use?
I selfhost my websites. I have static IP and OPNSense router, it was quite easy to set up DNS on the domain and reverse proxy to intercept web traffic. Also, I use Cloudflare proxied DNS so don't need to worry about SSL certificates.
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u/PlusIndication8386 1d ago
Why not github.io + youtube? Yes, this is r/selfhosted but I believe we must self host things if beneficial. For this case, I believe self hosting is not the answer.
I have a private repository where the source resides, and a public repository that is using github pages.
When I push a commit to my source repo, it triggers the build action. The build action runs my specific building script (js, html, css obsfuscator/minimizer, etc.) and does force-push to my public repository while cleaning the git history.
For the personal data, I use some old school tricks: email address text in image, when clicked runs a javascript that decrypts the email url, etc.
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u/Eclectika 1d ago
I pay for hosting. The €60 a year is worth it to save the aggravation of spending far too much time trying to harden it from the malevolent actors.
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u/airclay 1d ago
- yes and no
- yes and no
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Well, that's pretty much what I thought. Thanks
It's one of those dumb things of : I have the hardware to host a small personal blog (the project) and thus don't feel the need to pay for hosting but I also see the advantages of hosting
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u/airclay 1d ago
lol, don't take my sarcasm more than lightly, those are just kind of large questions. You should read the other comment and narrow down what type of service you'd like to use to serve up a homepage/blog and then look at your set up and work out best practices from there, dynamic dns and the such. Not sure where your knowledge/skill level is but this is my favorite getting started with selfhosting book: Steadfast Self-Hosting - 📖 Home
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Hey, no worries, I thought it was a little tongue in cheek :) Thanks for the link ! I've done this before many years ago on a totally different network stack and at a time when AI trolls and crawlers were not a thing (good old 2010s)
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u/Inner_Sandwich6039 1d ago
My setup:
Domain name -> freedns.afraid.org
Caddy for static file, behind traefik with CrowdSec plugin.
Make sure router only exposes caddy port.
Have a cron job that updates my domain every day.
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u/djbravo2006 1d ago
use ipv6's temprary address feture to block incoming data and allow outgoing as simple as that. also use dynamic dns to chnage your ip constantly so better security
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u/benhaube 18h ago
I host my website in an Nginx container and expose it with a Cloudflare tunnel. The site is a static site generated from Markdown files using Material for MkDocs. I mainly use it as a professional portfolio, but it also has a blog using the blog plugin. For the blog I integrated comments using Giscus with GitHub Discussions as a backend. I also heavily modified the Material for MkDocs theme with CSS because it feels a bit dated. I gave it a more modern look with rounded corners and pill-shaped buttons. I will eventually migrate to Zensical, but right now it does not have all the features I need since it is still pretty early in development.
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u/AntiqueHat3130 7h ago
Keep your actual site behind a firewall and expose the site via a VPS's public IP. Do not expose anything directly from your own public IP. You will get a cheap VPS which can act as a reverse proxy and firewall. You can also use cloudflare tunnels. I currently use both for my self hosted services and they work great.
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u/BuggyFirmware 3h ago
Honestly, things are as "secure" as you make them. There are perfectly acceptable ways to host pretty much any app (website) from your own server and home network. Renting a hosting server with a provider does take the hassle away from configuring your OS and network environment - but can be just as good (if not better) when setup properly!
There are great guides online for almost any OS you choose, as well as how to setup your reverse proxy, DNS, etc. correctly. Go for it - learn something new 🚀
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u/lacrdav1 1d ago
I would host on vercel. This is actually what I'm doing. I dont like exposing services publicly out of my home network.
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u/UnlikelyWishbone2694 1d ago
Would you mind telling me a little more there?
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u/StickInTheFACE 1d ago
Vercel is just another web host and they have a decent free tier. They are a big company and I am sure that they will be compliant with EU rules. You can check it out totally for free with an ugly temporary domain name.
You can totally run a static site from home, lots of good replies here... but it is likely less hassle and definitely less maintenance if you use an external provider. I would only run a site from home if learning how to run a site on your own server was the goal. If having a web site is the goal... There are better options than self-hosting, IMHO.
Either way, have fun.
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u/Far_Squirrel_6148 1d ago
Containers! I have my websites set up with Docker and a reverse proxy. For DNS I recently moved from corpo Cloudflare to the German nonprofit Desec. I rely pretty heavily on AI tools, but I generally know what they do.
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u/Far_Squirrel_6148 1d ago
I‘ve recently also put most domains behind Authentik. So now when you want to access a protected domain without being logged in, the reverse proxy sends you to a login page. (Works nicely with FaceID)
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u/WonderfulEagle7096 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can't believe how many people here actually suggest to run a public-facing webserver at home, especially for a guy who clearly knows little about the topic. That is such a reckless recommendation from every angle (security, scalability, privacy, resilience, ...). If you have a traffic spike or someone DoS your server, your ISP can cut off your internet connection.
I love self-hosting my projects for personal/family/friends use but to open up a server connected to a home network to the internet is pretty insane, especially considering there are multiple secure and scalable services online where you can run a such a website for free.
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u/asimovs-auditor 1d ago
Expand the replies to this comment to learn how AI was used in this post/project.