This Week in Self-Hosted (18 April 2025)

Weekly Highlights

Happy Friday! E-mail readers of this newsletter will notice a new (old) format this week – I've removed some of the visual updates added a few months ago to decrease the size of the newsletter. This should prevent certain clients from truncating content in the back half.

Aside from that, there's not much in the way of commentary this week as I've spent most of my time working through two major updates I'll be announcing sometime next week, so stay tuned and enjoy the content below!

Happy selfh.st/ing!

In the News

VMware ESXi 8.0U3e Now Has a Free Version How to Get It

Broadcom brought back a VMware ESXi 8 free version now that you can download VMware ESXi 8.0U3 without subscribing

ServeTheHomeEric Smith

2 million homes strong - State of the Open Home 2025

We celebrate the biggest moments of 2025, the community, and look forward to what’s next.

Home AssistantPaulus Schoutsen

Synology could bring “certified drive” requirements to more NAS devices

German press release suggests expansion of the company’s “integrated ecosystem.”…

Ars TechnicaKevin Purdy

More From selfh.st

Self-Hosting Guide to Alternatives: Google Analytics

Self-hosted alternatives for the popular web analytics platform

selfh.stEthan Sholly

Optimal Plex Settings for Privacy-Conscious Users

Update these settings to limit the data Plex collects about your account, content, and streaming habits

selfh.stEthan Sholly

Community Content

The HortusFox ecosystem 🧬 | Daniel Brendel | Blog

During the last months and years the HortusFox ecosystem grew t…

Indie Software Developer & Project FounderDaniel Brendel

SearXNG — Privacy-focused metasearch engine for your homelab

SearXNG is a privacy-focused metasearch engine that aggregates results from various search engines. Learn how to set it up and configure it for optimal privacy and performance.

Akash RajpurohitAkash Rajpurohit

SSO for SSH - Which tool to use? | IDPea

You want to add extra security and/or Single Sign-On to your SSH server(s), but how? Here is a short summary of the most common solutions

IDPeaLars Scheibling

Umami for free?

‘How do I use Vercel to host Umami?’

Jakub Wolynkomap[name:Jakub Wołynko photo:images/me.png]

Content Spotlight: Papra

Meet Papra, a self-hosted document management and archival platform. Built as a simpler alternative to existing apps like Paperless-ngx, Papra provides a minimal and easy-to-use/navigate interface for uploading, tagging, and retrieving documents, receipts, and other important information. Features include support for organizations and users, search, themes, tags, e-mail ingestion, content extraction, and multi-language support.

Papra can be easily installed via Docker and doesn't require any additional containers for deployment.

Links: Source Code, Website, Documentation

Videos and Podcasts

• Home Assistant Voice + Ollama = Snarky AI?! | DB Tech
• Broadcom just made VMware ESXi FREE again?! | 2GuysTek
• I Rebuilt My Home Server — Quieter, Faster, and Ready for 2025 | Techno Tim
• VMware ESXi Free Once again with 8.0U3e! See how to Download it! | VirtualizationHowTo
• XCP-ng Server Setup Guide | Lawrence Systems

Command Line Corner: ls -la

Use ls -la to list all files – including hidden – in a directory:

$ ls -l
  docker-compose.yml
  example.config
$ ls -la
  docker-compose.yml
  .env
  example.config

Related News and Content

NAS RAID Levels Explained: Which Level Is Right For You

Combine NAS and RAID levels to explore several options for storing data, easily connected to your network.

Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud BackupPat Patterson

Reolink joins Works with Home Assistant

Offering the program’s first certified cameras and doorbells.

Home AssistantMiranda Bishop

Share Your Content

I'm always looking for new and existing self-hosted content to share in Self-Host Weekly. Reach out using the button below if you'd like to have your own content featured or have a suggestion for content types you'd like to see featured in future newsletters.