- cross-posted to:
- BuyFromEU
- cross-posted to:
- BuyFromEU
if youve ever been put off by the thoughts of having to install self-hosted web apps or manage a cloud VPS or a DIY server at home, then pikapods might be worth checking out
they make it very easy to get up and running. just sign up (they give you 5 euro free credit to get started), install the apps you want, then you will be charged a certain amount depending on how many apps youre using
theres about 90 apps to choose from but some notable ones would be Immich for photos, Joplin for note-taking, Blinko for something more like Google Keep or Pinterest, FreshRSS for managing RSS feeds, Wallabag for saving articles to read later, Navidrome for running your own music server, Nextcloud as an alternative to Google Drive or OneDrive
im running wallabag and freshRSS myself and theres not much to comment on really, they were both very straight forward to set up!
it just depends on how much resources the app needs. some need more CPU cores, RAM, or storage than others.
the main selling point with PikaPods is having them manage app installs and the server for you, so youre paying a bit more for that convenience but there are other options that would work out cheaper if you dont mind doing a bit more of the work yourself.
the Zimaboard for example, is a small and cheap SBC similar to something like a Raspberry Pi that has ports to attach an SSD or HDD drive. it comes preinstalled with CasaOS which is a simplified Linux OS that makes it easy to set up drives and it has a similar 1-click install app store to PikaPods.
theres other options like renting servers online from the likes of Hetzner or Netcup and then installing CasaOS yourself, or there are other things that manage app installs like YunoHost or Cloudron. theres almost too many options in a way!
i started out years ago with Synology NAS, which was very expensive up front but also very easy to set up and they have a good selection of web apps that they make themselves with mobile apps that are decent enough. i used that for years and then just gradually learned more about self-hosting over the years, so thats not a bad route to take either if youre interested.
just a FYI, Synology is based in Taiwan, and the Zimaboard company is based in Hong Kong/China. i havnt done much research into EU alternatives yet
Thanks so much for the very informative answer! I had heard of some of these things, and it’s great to hear of some more and also some real world experience and comparison.