Hey everyone! I’m completely new to self-hosting, but I’ve become convinced of its benefits and would like to get started in the near future. I’m still trying to figure out which hardware and software would be the best fit for my needs, so I’d really appreciate some advice.
What I’m looking for:
- I live in the EU and want to move away from US-based and other non-EU cloud providers, which is one of the main reasons I’m interested in self-hosting.
- I want to de-Google my digital life and replace services like Google Photos, Google Drive, and Google’s contact and calendar syncing with self-hosted alternatives.
- I’d like to automatically back up photos from my phone, sync files, contacts, and calendars, and access everything remotely.
- I want to avoid proprietary operating systems and vendor-specific apps as much as reasonably possible, ideally relying on open-source software.
- (Eventually, I’d also like to consider hosting my own email server, although I’ve heard that this comes with quite a few challenges. This isn’t a priority for now.)
- I don’t want to become a Linux or server administration expert just to keep everything running.
A little more context:
- Users: Just two people.
- Workload: Mainly file storage and syncing, photo backups and management, contacts, and calendars. No video editing, media transcoding, or other particularly demanding tasks.
- Budget: Around €500–800 for the NAS itself, excluding storage drives.
- Hardware preference: I’d prefer a compact, reasonably power-efficient, ready-made NAS rather than building a full PC, mostly due to limited space.
- Technical experience: I’ve been building my own PCs for almost 30 years and consider myself an advanced Windows user. However, my last real Linux experience was with Ubuntu about 20 years ago.
- Internet connection: 250/40 Mbps DSL with a public (dynamic) IPv4 address and a FRITZ!Box 7590 router, which supports WireGuard VPN.
Here are my main questions:
- Which operating system would you recommend? I’ve been looking into TrueNAS Community Edition and OpenMediaVault, but I’m open to other suggestions. Ease of use, stability, and low maintenance are important to me.
- Would a prebuilt NAS be a good choice? I’ve been considering devices like the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus and TerraMaster F4-424 Pro. Can their proprietary operating systems be replaced with something open-source without losing important functionality, such as fan control, power management, or hardware monitoring? Are there particular models known to work especially well with TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault?
- How much hardware performance do I actually need? Given my relatively modest requirements, would something like an Intel N100 already be sufficient, or would it make sense to invest in a more powerful CPU and additional RAM for future flexibility?
- Which software stack would you recommend? I’m currently considering Nextcloud for files, contacts, and calendars, and possibly Immich for photos. I’d prefer solutions with reliable automatic syncing and open-source Android apps.
- What should I consider regarding backups and remote access? I’m planning to use WireGuard for remote access, but I’d be interested in recommendations for a simple, reliable backup strategy as well.
I’m happy to learn new things and follow technical guides, but I’d prefer a system that doesn’t require constant tinkering once it’s set up.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any suggestions or experiences you’re willing to share!
Good instinct asking before buying. One suggestion from watching a lot of people start this: separate the two jobs in your list. Getting photos off the phones automatically and keeping safe copies is one job, and a NAS is good at it.
Browsing and finding photos again is a different job, and it is where self-hosted setups most often disappoint beginners, because the polish of Google Photos search is hard to replicate. Plan the first job on the NAS from day one and treat the second as swappable. Immich is the strongest open-source answer for both, just budget real time for updates.
Since you asked for open source only, a short disclosed aside: I make a paid, closed-source Mac app in this space, and the honest summary is that if any machine in the house is an Apple Silicon Mac, native no-server options for the search side exist, PhotoCore among them.
For the stack you described, Immich on the NAS is the mainstream path.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters CA (SSL) Certificate Authority CGNAT Carrier-Grade NAT DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, automates assignment of IPs when connecting to a network DNS Domain Name Service/System IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol for email ISP Internet Service Provider NAS Network-Attached Storage NAT Network Address Translation NFS Network File System, a Unix-based file-sharing protocol known for performance and efficiency NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol for encrypted file transfer, over SSH SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SSD Solid State Drive mass storage SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access UDP User Datagram Protocol, for real-time communications VPN Virtual Private Network ZFS Solaris/Linux filesystem focusing on data integrity nginx Popular HTTP server
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