Hi everyone, I posted about my Safebox project earlier, but now I’d like to hear your thoughts on something a bit broader. I’ve been noticing a pattern in self-hosting communities, and I’m curious if others see it too.
Whenever someone asks for a more beginner-friendly solution, something with a UI, automated setup, or fewer manual configs, there’s often a response like: “If you can’t configure Docker, reverse proxies, and Yaml files, you shouldn’t be self-hosting.”
Sometimes it feels like a portion of the community views complexity as a badge of honour. Don’t get me wrong, I love the technical side of self-hosting. I enjoy tinkering, breaking things, fixing them, learning along the way. That’s how most of us got into it.
But if we want more people to own their data, escape Big Tech, and embrace open-source alternatives, shouldn’t we welcome solutions that lower the entry barrier?
There’s room for:
- people who want full control and custom setups
- people who want semi-manual but guided
- people who want it to work with minimal friction
Just like not every Linux user compiles from source, but they’re still Linux users.
Where do you stand? Should self-hosting stay DIY only or is there value in easier, more accessible ways to self-host?
Safebox aims to make self-hosting more approachable without sacrificing data ownership, so I genuinely want your honest take before releasing it more widely.
Some technical highlights of the project, for those interested:
Safebox runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, supports both x86 and ARM64 (including Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, and others), and handles domain/subdomain setup, Let’s Encrypt certificates, DNS configuration, reverse proxy (nginx), and also offers WireGuard-based remote access.
The project is currently in beta, and we’d really appreciate feedback from anyone interested in testing it, whether it’s about usability, stability, features, design, or honestly anything at all. You can find all the info about beta testing on our Discord channel.
If you’d like to try it out, check the Github repo: https://github.com/safeboxnetwork/framework-scheduler
Website: https://safebox.network/
Discord: https://discord.gg/aBP8bz6N8J
Thanks in advance to anyone who gives it a look or shares their thoughts.
I’m happy to answer — I am one of the developers of Safebox. First question: the store. It’s not finished yet, but if you visit our original gitea site (https://git.format.hu/safebox/default-applications-tree) and check the template examples, you’ll see that any application that can run in Docker can be added. I will soon move this repository to GitHub so it can be freely forked and you can add your own. You can already try adding one on an earlier (uglier) interface that we experimented with: http://<the IP address or hostname of your Safebox>:8080/manage_old.html. Click Settings, and the first menu item is the option to add another repository.
Second question: remote access is not subscription-based, and it does not require VPN. If you have a public IP address, install Safebox there, register a domain name somewhere (point it to your IP address as an A record, wildcard is also possible), and the proxy service will work. (But be aware: Safebox will also be accessible on port 8080, and there is no authentication protection for now!)
Third question: I wasn’t very familiar with Podman when I started working on this (I only had to learn it for the RedHat exam…)