> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.nushackers.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.nushackers.org/hackerschool/hands-on-self-hosting.md).
# Hands On Self-Hosting
## Note: This wiki was made for a workshop in Mar 2026.
*The recording is still being processed, and will be uploaded soon*
Thanks to [DigitalOcean](https://digitalocean.com/) for sponsoring the credits for the workshop!
## Prologue: What is Self Hosting?
> **The act of providing or serving digital content or an online service typically delivered by a business.**
>
> The service or content is generally served locally from your own hardware. Often "self-hosters" use older Enterprise-grade hardware from their home internet connections however they also use other hosting providers hardware. This is still considered self-hosting.
While people who get into self-hosting often use their own hardware, using hosting providers help abstract away the hardware difficulties while getting you 90% of the way there.
### What are some things we can create by self-hosting?
* Hosting a website is one of the lowest barrier of entry. (Nginx)
* Media-streaming services (Jellyfin, Plex)
* File synchronization services (Gitlab, Syncthing, Garage, etc)
* Photo galleries (Immich)
* Databases (Supabase, Convex, Postgres, etc)
* Game-servers (Minecraft, Rust, Factorio)
* You should checkout: [Awesome-Selfhosted](https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted)!
### Why not just pay/get someone to do these for you?
* It’s great for learning! (and fun!)
* Self-custody of your own data (this is limited with VPS)
* Run servers/services that aren’t available as a SaaS
* Get fine-grained control over your service (great for debugging personal projects)
You can learn more here:
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