Bare metal is cheaper if you already have some old pc components layjng around and they are not bound to my host pc being on. My PC uses a 600W power supply to run while the old laptop running my Jellyfin + pihole server use like 40W.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
150 points (95.2% liked)
Selfhosted
53767 readers
345 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
-
No low-effort posts. This is subjective and will largely be determined by the community member reports.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
KISS
The more complicated the machine the more chances for failure.
Remote management plus bare metal just works, it's very simple, and you get the maximum out of the hardware.
Depending on your use case that could be very important
After many failures, I eventually landed on OMV + Docker. It has a plugin that puts the Docker management into a web UI and for the few simple services I need, it’s very straightforward to maintain. I don’t cloud host because I want complete control of my data and I keep an automatic incremental backup alongside a physically disconnected one that I manually update.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Not knowing about Incus (LXD). It's a life changer. Would never run any service on bare metal again.
Using GenAI to develop my Terraform and Ansible playbooks is magical. Also, use it to document everything in beautiful HTML docs from the outputs. Amazing.
You sure you mean bare metal here? Bare metal means no OS.