pihole
Why Docker for Pi-hole? Pi-hole's traditional setup assumes a dedicated Raspberry Pi running its own OS. For homelabbers already running containerized infrastructure, this wastes hardware and complicates management. Docker lets you run Pi-hole alongside your other services on existing hardware—I run it on my T5810 workstation with
jellyfin
Jellyfin vs Plex in 2026: What's Actually Changed You're running a homelab with 50+ TB of media and need to decide between Jellyfin and Plex—but the landscape has shifted significantly since 2024. This post covers the real trade-offs in 2026 when choosing your self-hosted media
authentik
Why Your Homelab Needs a Real Identity Provider You've got a dozen services scattered across your lab—Proxmox, Gitea, Paperless, Immich, your internal wiki. Each one has its own login form, its own password database, probably stored in plaintext in a Docker environment variable somewhere. You're
tailscale
Why Tailscale Changes How You Access Your Homelab You're running a homelab with Proxmox, Docker stacks, and a NAS, but you're tired of managing firewall rules, port forwards, and remembering which machine is at 192.168.1.50 when you're away from home. Tailscale
wireguard
Why WireGuard on Your Homelab Matters You need remote access to your homelab without exposing services directly to the internet or managing complex OpenVPN configurations. WireGuard gives you a modern, auditable VPN kernel module (just ~4000 lines of code) that's dramatically faster than OpenVPN, with simpler key management
uptime-kuma
The Problem: You Need Visibility Into Your Homelab Without Sending Data to SaaS You've got services scattered across your homelab—Plex, Home Assistant, a media server, maybe a Kubernetes node. When something goes down at 2 AM, you either find out from a frustrated family member or you&
zfs
Why ZFS on Proxmox VE Matters for Storage-Heavy Homelab Deployments Proxmox VE doesn't mandate ZFS, but running production VMs on thin LVM pools or ext4 will cost you dearly when a disk fails or you need instant VM snapshots—ZFS eliminates that gamble by bundling RAID, checksums, and
nextcloud
The Problem: You Want Private Cloud Storage Without Monthly Bills You're tired of subscription services for cloud storage, and you've got spare hardware sitting in your rack. A self-hosted Nextcloud deployment on your own Ubuntu server gives you full control over your files, zero vendor lock-in,
docker
Docker for Homelab — Complete Setup Guide for Self-Hosters You need Docker running reliably in your homelab, but you're tired of cobbled-together install scripts and want a setup that actually survives reboots. This guide is for self-hosters running bare metal or VMs who want production-grade container orchestration without Kubernetes