POLL: Regarding self-hosting vs use of external services what is your approach?

Questions
1

POLL: Regarding self-hosting vs use of external services:

  • I prefer one external service only, such as the Proton ecosystem.
  • I only use external services (no self-hosting) but like to use several different services.
  • I use a hybrid approach with some external services and some self-hosting.
  • I only self-host.
0 voters

Hi,

I’m reassessing what to self-host and what external services to use. I’ve been running LAN-only Nextcloud for a while but could enjoy spending less time on maintaining this and other in-home services even though I’ve learned a lot. Have used Proton for email-only for a few yrs, and like it ok, so am tempted to move more to the Proton ecosystem, especially given the Black Friday deal which I’d use to up my plan. A move to an “ecosystem” would probably make my Apple-using significant other happy.

I reviewed some threads on PG ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and then thought a poll might be interesting for the community. My brief notes on those threads follow the poll.

(If not clear, “external services” means services like: Proton, Tuta, Mailbox.org, clouds, Cryptpad, Ente Photos, etc).

Notes from above threads:

Having more than one service can be good.
Self-hosting on your own hardware is better than on a VPS (due to being reliant on a provider who may be able to access your data).
Self-hosting can require a lot of work (for reliability).
Using an E2EE service can offload the burden of setup and maintenance to professional teams.
Will the E2EE service you choose not become evil?
If using an E2EE service, you need to know how to back out of it.
Separate your password manager from 2FA service/app.
Self-host as much as possible rather than shifting trust to providers.
If you need to share things with other people, an E2EE service may be easier.
Using different services can lead to duplication of effort.
Proton is trustworthy enough for the average person w/o a high threat model
If high treat model, diversification may be more important.
Having everything in one big basket can be a single point of failure.
Proton makes exporting easy.
Might make this choice based on app function, ie - want to use Fossify Calendar so use caldav self-hosted, or can’t use the E2EE service app in off-line mode.
Avoid self-hosting services that are harder, ie - email.
Have some things in an E2EE service and some things local (more personal data).
Self-hosting can save money but take up more time.
If self-hosting, start on lower-risk tools first.
Data that cannot be lost may be best not self-hosted if you don’t know what you are doing.
Self-hosting can be a fun hobby in which much is learned.
Some avoid some companies for personal moral reasons.
With an E2EE service you must trust the Admins to not be evil (“keys to the castle” dilemma); must rely on the presence of open code repos, audits and after the fact reporting for trust.
E2EE services may ping home a lot.
Some E2EE services have a good track record.
There may be concern RE how encryption keys are generated, - ie is it verifiable they are only kept on the client?

1 Like
2

Options are limited if you ask me. I am in the camp where I’d prefer and like to self host only if I knew how and can set up an easy to manage home lab for my self hosting needs.

3

I self host everything except email because my ISP blocks port 25. Self hosting is very cost effective for handling large amounts of data and I enjoy it. Among E2EE services there are also a lot of missing services/features that I get to enjoy with privacy by self hosting (eg phonetrack, jellyfin, luanti, facial recognition/photo tagging with Nextcloud memories).

4

I prefer to only use services that (1) have end-to-end encryption and (2) I can easily switch to self-hosting at any time.

Proton is an easy one because I already download all my emails to Thunderbird with Proton Bridge, so I can copy them to a new provider and change my domain’s MX records at any time if I’m done with Proton. But in the meantime it’s way easier to just use Proton, so I don’t need to self-host it. iCloud Drive is another because it is very convenient for syncing my desktop/documents folders to my phone and other computers, and the E2EE is good enough for the mundane things I keep on my desktop anyways, but worst-case scenario moving that task to my NAS would not be a challenge or the end of the world.

Otherwise I self-host as much as possible, but I’m a bit of an extremist since that extends to self-hosting my own IP addresses on BGP and having racks of servers :joy:

I’m still on the lookout for ways for self-hosting to be simpler for other people, but I’m not too happy with the state of things quite yet. TrueNAS may be closest still, but it’s not my favorite thing either.

1 Like
5

I don’t trust myself enough to self-host critical things that I rely on. I prefer outsourcing the complexity and admin load to 3rd party services if I can do so without giving up privacy or (too much) control over my data.

I’m inclined to self-host in areas where:

  1. The consequences of a screw up or data loss are not that high (e.g. self hosting Jellyfin or an LLM or a searxng instance)
  2. Where my self-hosted service isn’t a single point of failure (e.g. I’d self host ente or immich, but I’d never rely on that as my only access to my photos).
  3. Situations where there is no practical way to use a cloud based service in a sufficiently private way (e.g. AI)
  4. I also just find self hosting to be an entertaining learning project, so for me, a lot of it is just about learning, and seeing what I can do.