Are you still paying for all of your online services? Well, it’s time to kick some paid services to the curb and start self-hosting. Here are five self-hosted services that aren’t just free, but they’re actually better than their paid alternatives.
Immich
It’s Google Photos, but local
Years ago, I was all in on the Google Photos bandwagon. Google had promised free photo storage at reduced quality, and I was totally fine with that as a backup method. It wasn’t ideal, but it was something.
These days, all photos uploaded to Google Photos take up storage space on your Google account, which can take away form being able to receive email at some point since Gmail shares the same pool.
Instead of relying on Google to keep your precious memories safe, Immich is the best alternative. It’s completely free and self-hostable, delivering a Google Photos-like experience without the tie to Google itself.
Immich offers full machine learning and AI tagging for your uploaded pictures, and is specifically designed to utilize local models for privacy sake.
One thing that I would say, however, is that you should definitely be backing up your Immich instance off-site. Google Photos is a true backup as it’s distributed and backed up.
If you only keep your Immich library local to your home network, then there’s no real backup. If you lose your NAS or have hardware failures, your photos would be gone as well. So, utilize something like BackBlaze B2 as a remote backup target to keep everything safe.
Audiobookshelf
Audible has nothing on this platform
Over the past year and a half, I have become a big audiobook fan. The problem is, Audible is just really expensive and doesn’t have the best experience, in my opinion. That’s why I’m so glad I found Audiobookshelf.
Think of Audiobookshelf as the Plex of audiobooks. I know that Plex technically supports audiobooks, but it’s never been a great experience for me. So, that’s why I’m glad Audiobookshelf exists.
A lot of audiobook publishers sell their audiobooks DRM-free, which means they can easily be played in whatever audiobook player you want to use. There is also a pretty large library of free and DRM-free audiobooks out there to simply download from places like The Internet Archive and Creative Commons.
However you acquire your audiobooks, Audiobookshelf makes it easy to play them back wherever you are on any device, and it has become my go-to Audible replacement.
Wallabag
Your read-it-later client has never looked better
If you’ve never used a read-it-later client, then it’s time you start. Essentially, a read-it-later client is a way better bookmark manager.
Instead of building out a huge list of bookmarks in folders inside of your browser, using something like Wallabag allows you to categorize, classify, and organize articles that you want to read later.
Often, read-it-later clients, like Wallabag, even include reader mode views which strips most website’s formatting and allows you to read an article more like a book. Not only that, but tools like Wallabag even can download articles for offline reading, something that traditional bookmark managers simply can’t do.
Another great feature of Wallabag is the fact that it has mobile clients for all platforms, and also spits out an RSS feed that works with just about every RSS reader out there. So, you can use Wallabag to collect all of your bookmarks, and then send them into your favorite RSS reader to consume the content.
There exist paid tools, like Readwise, which can also do this same thing. However, I always prefer to self-host my own tool whenever possible. So, instead of Readwise, just use Wallabag. You’ll own the content front to back, and it provides a great experience.
5 Pocket Alternatives That Can Replace the Now-Defunct “Read It Later” Service
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Plex or Jellyfin
Cut that streaming bill this summer
I can already hear the comments, “Plex is a paid service!” But it’s not, Plex only charges for streaming outside your local network. However, for this roundup, I wanted to make sure to include both Plex and Jellyfin.
Basically, stop paying for streaming services and just self-host your own Netflix. My wife and I did this years ago, and it has legitimately saved us thousands of dollars in that time.
Years ago, I had a massive movie and TV show collection on DVD and Blu-ray. Over the years that collection has dwindled a lot specifically because of running my own Plex server. Once I rip a movie or show to the server, I have no need for the physical media anymore.
It’s also easy to find great deals on old movies or TV shows at thrift stores and garage sales, making it simple to expand your library for cheap.
If you’ve never sat down and added up how much your streaming bill is, you should. If all you have is the ad-free versions of Disney Duo Premium, Netflix Premium, and and Apple TV+, then you’ll be spending $60 per month, which adds up to $720 per year.
So, cut the streaming bill this summer and self-host your favorite movies and TV shows.
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- Brand
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Plex
- Free trial
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Free version available
With Plex, you can keep a single, unified Watchlist for any movie or TV show you hear about, on any service—even theater releases! You can finally stop hopping between watchlists on all your other streaming services, and add it all on Plex instead.
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- OS
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Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, Fire TV, Roku OS, WebOS, Xbox,
- Price
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Free
Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.
Postiz
There’s no need to pay for social media scheduling tools anymore
As a content creator and influencer (I hate that term), I have long looked for a way to schedule social media posts without signing up and paying for a service. Yes, most platforms have a native way to schedule content, but visiting half a dozen scheduling pages and going through different flows to schedule the same post is tedious. That’s why I’m so happy I found Postiz.
At first glance, Postiz looks like it’s a paid-for social media scheduling tool—and it is. However, Postiz is open source and allows you to fully self-host its tool on your own hardware, which is exactly what I’ve done.
Self-hosting Postiz is pretty simple, with the only difficult part being actually supplying your own API keys. Most platforms, including Facebook, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and many others provide these API keys for free. Some platforms, like X, charge per API call.
So, instead of paying for a service like Buffer, Later, or Sprout Social, just self-host Postiz and save the cash.
Sometimes the best services are the ones you don’t pay for
Don’t get me wrong, some services are definitely worth paying for. It’s just not every service is worth it.
These are services that I personally no longer pay for because I’ve gone the self-hosting route, and I’m so glad that I did.