My discontent with big tech platforms has been growing for years, but it was only when Istarted self-hosting that I began to feel like I had some sort of exit ramp in terms of my reliance on companies like Google.
There's still a lot I have to learn, and I will need to invest in better hardware before I can make any major moves. However, I already feel a greater sense of ease with each self-hosted service I switch to...
5 things I wish I knew before going all-in on self-hosting
Hosting your own services isn't all fun and games
I don't have to worry about bait-and-switch monetization
I still haven't forgiven Google
One of my biggest frustrations when it comes to big tech platforms is the way that services are monetized. Many platforms start out free, only to introduce monetization once adoption is high enough.
I don't have a problem with paid software, but I do have a problem with the way companies bait and switch free users to get them to pay for apps and platforms.
Google's changes to its storage quotas for free users, which locked me into a Google One subscription to preserve my Google Photos syncing, still annoy me years later.
In addition, I've also noticed many free apps getting worse, cutting back features, and making ads more intrusive as a way to push users to premium subscriptions.
However, withself-hosted software, since you're in charge of the hardware infrastructure, you can usually access all the features for free, and your storage quota is determined by your own disk space.
Some developers do monetize their software, but this is usually for people who want a hosted service or cloud features. In these cases, I never feel like any of these services is trying to squeeze me for cash or mislead me.
My data remains my own
My privacy stays intact
Big tech companies will make you pay to use their services, while also mining your data for their financial gain. Nowhere is this more noticeable than when it comes to generative AI, with models trained on user data.
However, with my self-hosted services, my data is not being uploaded to servers other than my own. I don't have to worry about my data being used for targeted advertising, AI training, or other forms of data gathering and monetization.
This is why I'm comfortable creating a family tree on a self-hosted platform, but I avoid genealogy websites. When it comes to document storage, I've also become more skeptical about what I upload to cloud services.
Abandoned projects can still find new life
Fewer worries about abandonware
Not all self-hosted software is open-source, but most of these apps are. This means that when a project is retired, others are free to create forks of it that can become successors to the original.
For example, Paperless-ngx is actually the successor to the original Paperless and Paperless-ng projects. Meanwhile, SearXNG is a fork of and successor to Searx.
This contrasts with proprietary apps from big tech companies. When those apps are abandoned, they usually stay dead. I find it particularly frustrating when software that works is retired just so that a company can push users to adopt their latest product instead. Google has done this plenty of times, and Microsoft is guilty of it too.
There is one drawback, though...
Big tech has more stable servers
While I trust my self-hosted apps more than those from big tech in terms of privacy and staying away from dodgy monetization, there is one area where big tech platforms excel: reliability.
While cloud service outages have made headlines in recent weeks, the infrastructure of big tech companies tends to be more reliable than that of the average self-hoster. For example, my self-hosted containers have crashed more consistently than there has been any outage of a major platform I use.
The software from big tech companies also tends to be more stable. When it comes to self-hosted software, you have to keep an eye out for breaking changes in updates. There's also no tech support to help you when things go wrong. Though it's worth mentioning that some developers and communities for self-hosted apps are very helpful.
That's why, when it comes to self-hosting, you need to ensure multiple backups of your services and data on different devices to protect yourself from data loss.
5 things I wish I had known before setting up my first self-hosted Nextcloud instance
Free alternatives come at a cost
My distrust of big tech is what keeps me invested in self-hosting
While I understandwhy people don't self-host, hosting software on my own servers has given me more peace of mind and a sense of control when it comes to my unease with big tech platforms.
I'll always have to rely on these companies to some extent, especially for services such as email. But it has been liberating to switch to apps and services that I feel I can trust more and that won't pull the rug out from under me.
