(This is a repost of this reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1fbv41n/what_are_the_things_that_makes_a_selfhostable/, I wanna ask this here just in case folks in this community also have some thoughts about it)
What are the things that makes a selfhostable app/project project good? Maybe another way to phrase this question is, what are the things that makes a project easier to self-host?
I have been developing an application that focuses on being easy to selfhost. I have been looking around for existing and already good project such as paperless-ngx, Immich, etc.
From what I gather the most important thing are:
- Good docs, this is probably the most important. The developer must document how to self-host
- Less runtime dependency–I’m not sure about this one, but the less it depends on other services the better
- Optional OIDC–I’m even less sure about this one, and I’m also not sure about implementing this feature on my own app as it’s difficult to develop. It seems that after reading this subreddit/community, I concluded that lots of people here prefer to separate identity/user pool and app service. This means running a separate service for authentication and authorization.
What do you think? Another question is, are there any more good project that can be used as a good example of selfhostable app?
Thank you
Some redditors responded on the post:
- easy to install, try, and configure with sane defaults
- availabiity of image on dockerhub
- screenshots
- good GUI
I also came across this comment from Hacker News lately, and I think about it a lot
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40523806
This is what self-hosted software should be. An app, self-contained, (essentially) a single file with minimal dependencies.
Not something so complex that it requires docker. Not something that requires you to install a separate database. Not something that depends on redis and other external services.
I’ve turned down many self-hosted options due to the complexity of the setup and maintenance.
Do you agree with this?
For me, it’s screenshots.
I can’t even count how many self-hosted or open source projects I’ve wanted to check out, and the project page is just text.
If I don’t know exactly what I’m getting into in the first 10 seconds, I’m onto something else, especially when it’s something heavily based on UI/UX with frequent interaction.
EDIT: Also, I’m a fan of docker apps to run off my Synology NAS, but it better come with step-by-step instructions, or I won’t bother. There are some good resources for detailed instructions for various self-hosted/NAS/docker related content, but it’s nice when a project actually has this in their documentation.
10000% this.
Tell me what it does, and SHOW me what it does.
Because guessing what the hell your thing looks like and behaves like is going to get me to bounce pretty much immediately because you’ve now made it where I have to figure out how to deploy your shit if I want to know. And, uh, generally, if you have no screenshots, you have no good documentation and thus it’s going to suuuuck.