These 6 self-hosted tools replaced my favorite paid subsc…

Managing photos, passwords, and workflows without paying a dime.

Subscription services are everywhere these days. In fact, what seems to be disappearing is free trials. Every year, if you use photo storage, password managers, budgeting apps, and automation tools, you're likely to pay a few hundred dollars in subscription fees. This was one reason I started self-hosting, starting with a Google Drive replacement. It's been about a year since I started using self-hosted tools, and the six I am exploring could replace some of your most-used paid subscriptions.

The first impression I had when I used Immich was that it felt very familiar. Its timeline view after uploading images is extremely similar to Google's interface. You can easily scroll through years of memories because the photos are arranged by date, and Immich automatically generates thumbnails for all uploads. However, the reason I stuck with it as my Google Photos replacement was its mobile backup experience.

Like Google Photos, Immich offers automatic photo uploads from its iOS and Android apps. This means that, without manual action, my server stays updated all the time. What's more impressive are the features that Immich adds after importing your library. A few of my favorites are: My experience using Immich is that it is faster than Google Photos. The only limit to your storage is your hardware, not a recurring charge.

And deployment using a Docker Compose stack is quite straightforward. Immich is a self-hosted solution that allows you back up, organize, and manage your photos on your own server. It allows you to browse your photos and videos with ease and does not sacrifice privacy.  Hosted password managers are very convenient, and that is exactly why I used them a lot in the past. However, even though they served an important purpose, they required an additional subscription.

With Vaultwarden, I still use the official Bitwarden apps and browser extensions, but I run the server-side of the setup myself. This is the best way to ensure I do not lose the polished client experience of the service. I still get the following features: Vaultwarden is lightweight enough that I can comfortably run it on an old computer I repurposed as a home server, and it will even work on a Raspberry Pi.

Once I was done with the initial setup packaged as a small Docker container, it kept running without any further attention. Vaultwarden is a lightweight, self-hosted password manager compatible with Bitwarden clients, designed to run efficiently on low-resource servers. Because you host the server, you'll lose access to your vault if the server fails, and you don't keep external backups. If you’ve ever tried to run a personal media server, Plex is probably the first recommendation you’ll get.

It’s a great service, but several features I love can’t be accessed without Plex Pass. Jellyfin doesn't split features into free and paid tiers; it’s entirely free and open source. During setup, you only need to point it to your media library. Afterward, you’ll get a streaming interface that’s similar to the paid platforms you’re already used to. Jellyfin organizes your library with artwork and descriptions, and also sources episode descriptions of shows from online databases and presents you with automatic and up-to-date information.

Even if you’re doing local streaming on Plex, it now forces you to sign in with an account. This is a requirement that Jellyfin avoids, and it’s one of the reasons I started using it. It takes just a few minutes to self-host and has well-maintained Docker images. Jellyfin is a free-and-open-source media-server system that lets you self-host your movies, music, TV shows, photos and more and stream them to any device without subscriptions or third-party tracking.

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is one of the biggest names in budgeting software, but just like several other tools in this niche, subscription prices have steadily increased over the years. Actual Budget's approach is similar to YNAB, following a zero-based budgeting philosophy and assigning a category to every dollar. However, for personal finance, it doesn't require an ongoing fee. You only need to start assigning money across spending categories after importing your accounts and transactions.

The fact that a self-hosted Actual Budget instance ensures personal finance data remains on a server you own and control is one of its biggest advantages. Once you complete the installation using Docker, you can access the interface on any browser connected to your network. Actual Budget is an open-source, local-first personal finance tool with synchronization to show changes between devices.  Zapier is one of the most useful automation platforms that I have used.

The one significant downside is that it's quite expensive when your workflows start to increase, as pricing scales with the number of tasks executed each month. n8n allows you to run your workflows yourself. In the interface, each step of your workflow is represented by a node. You don't need to write full scripts before connecting services, processing data, triggering actions, and building multistep automations.

I turn to n8n mainly for these use cases: With n8n, I create conditional logic and branching workflows that are quite pricey on hosted platforms, and there is an official Docker image that makes self-hosting and deployment straightforward. However, n8n now uses a Sustainable Use License, so it is not fully open-source. GitHub is the default destination to host repositories for most developers. But for total control over infrastructure, a team may run its own Git platform.

Forgejo and Gitea are two projects that fulfill this need. Both of these tools provide the following features: Forgejo is a community fork of Gitea, and both tools give a very similar user experience. They are great options for small and large teams that need to avoid per-user pricing tiers. They offer a workflow that most developers are already familiar with, and because they have lightweight Docker containers, deployment on modest hardware is possible.

Forgejo is a self-hosted, lightweight software forge that is easily maintained and run by an inclusive community. Self-hosting was the geeky option. It was something the average computer user wouldn't contemplate. However, Docker has made it a much more straightforward process than it used to be, and typically, within a few minutes, most of these services can be up and running. Between these six tools, I am saving close to $200 yearly, and this doesn't account for the extra costs I would incur as my Zapier workflows grow.

But these tools are not just saving you money; they are giving control back to you. Self-hosting allows you to truly own your data, use it as you will, and decide what stays private and what doesn't.

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This report covers the latest developments in android. The information presented highlights key changes and updates that are relevant to those following this topic.

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