localhosting: selfhosting to the min

Selfhosting is having a moment, and it’s exciting. Selfhostable FOSS alternatives of insanely high quality are all over the place, giving you a ton of options to be in control of your data. Of course selfhosting can also be complicated, cumbersome and – depending on your skill set and the resources you are ready to put in – sometimes simply not worth the effort. But maybe it’s not an all-or-nothing decision: Sometimes localhosting might be an option. I’m very sure I’m not the only one doing it, but I am surprised to read so little about it.

Localhosting is a minimalstic form of selfhosting, in which a service is provided via a regular PC and only at certain times. The service is not available via the internet but only from the host exclusively, or optionally in a local network.

The goal is to enhance control over personal data, while at the same time reusing hardware resources that are already “in house”. Localhosting does not require running the host PC 24/7. Instead, the idea is to use it only for services, where downtimes and unavailability outside of home are acceptable. In return, localhosted services require a less complex setup and are therefore easier to operate.

Use Cases

Localhosting might be a good fit for use cases where there is only a single user (or multiple users that share the same host machine / home network) and in which there is little to no reason to access the service from anywhere else than home. It’s an unacceptable choice for pretty much anything else, like use cases that are based on incoming webhooks, anything messaging or social network related, websites, or in general services that are provided for somebody else but the main user. Granted, it’s very niche.

Desktop apps with extra steps

Localhosted services are web applications tuned down to classical desktop programs. Developers write a lot of web apps these days. There are so many good selfhostable web apps out there, that it would be a shame to not use them just because it doesn’t feel like setting up and maintaining a dedicated server is worth it. That’s a localhosting moment. The special use case of being the single user and not needing 24/7 availability, makes a hosted web app “desktop app”-able.

Sometimes it’s good enough

Personally I localhost planka, a kanban tool that I use as my backup brain and planning tool. I’m a fan of using computers over phones for pretty much anything other than phone calls. I do not have any of this data available whenever I don’t have my laptop with me, and so far (3 years in) it has worked out perfectly fine, and probably has even been for the best (screentime-wise).

For a relative I have set up an immich instance on an almost unused laptop of theirs, such that they can easily back up their photos from their phone to their laptop, and organize it there. They are okay with having to start the laptop and then pressing the sync button in the app. They are okay with having to do it manually every now and then, and they understand the implications of not doing it. They prefer this to the black magic of the cloud, where they do not understand where their private pictures are stored and who has access to them.

Localhosting means giving up some convenience. localhosting is not only one step back, but rather 5 steps back and 3 one-legged jumps with closed eyes to the side. (Maybe there is some corny lesson here about taking a step back being a good thing, I don’t know.) localhosting is pragmatic, sketchy, dirty. But in certain use cases, for a certain kind of data you want to have control over, and for a certain type of user, it’s good enough.

It’s up to you to decide for each individual aspect of your life, for which you may or may not want to use software. You, as an expert, have the choice – many others don’t, at least not to that extent. Which brings me to the idea that initially motivated this blog post.

We have come this far in software, it would be a pity to be unable to install it. And now I am not talking about you, the selfhoster, the developer, the administrator. I am talking about your partner, parent, sibling, relative, friend or whoever is not an IT expert, and who does not want to know what a reverse proxy is and that “it’s basically just docker compose up -d”. They don’t have the option to selfhost and are therefore excluded from using some software alternatives.

What options do they have?

• Sometimes there exists an alternative hosted service that is based on open source software.
• Sometimes they know a person that can selfhost an open source alternative – Still need to trust that person though.
• Sometimes there is a desktop app of the open source alternative, that needs no server component and can easily be installed – Jackpot!
• Use pen and paper and do things manually – Very often good enough too.

Let’s assume there are people who would like to keep some of their data off the clouds, are ready to give up some comfort for it, but are not tech-savvy enough to properly selfhost: This group of people (our target persona in the following) could benefit from tools and an ecosystem that enable localhosting for them. That would add one more option for people to be in control of their own data.

I don’t know yet what localhostinger[.org] will become, but I can think of a few paths, some of which I am going to pitch here.

The app store idea

A user would download and install the localhostinger app on their computer, which would also set up docker or podman. The app store repository would contain the compose files and a configuration with default values intended for localhosting. With it, users could browse all localhostable software, and install a local planka, immich or mealie instance on their own computers, with no or only minimal configuration required. The app would come along with a knowledge base that explains what localhosting is and what the user is able to do with it – especially all the caveats and potential losses of comfort.

The installer-per-app idea

In this case, localhostinger would be more of a developer tool than a user-facing app store. An open source repo could publish an additonal binary (which would be built by localhostinger inside the repo’s CI/CD release pipeline), that would contain the installer for docker/podman and a little management GUI just for this app – so in the case of planka, the binary would install a planka application in the operating system, and add a management icon to the tray, which provides additional options and the management GUI.

This might be the most difficult idea to get started with, because it requires to be integrated deeply into other repositories right from the start – they need to publish an executable that contains somebody elses software.

The integrated guide + knowledge base idea

localhostinger.org would be more of a knowledge base with a directory of software, that considers itself localhostable. Each tool has a space in this knowledge base, where it can provide short guides about installation and further remarks about what the app can and cannot do when being localhosted. The guides would follow templates specific to localhosting, such that the app maintainers only need to fill in the gaps. The website could also provide an API that renders out these guides, such that they are also usable directly on the tools’ documentation (“Install on localhost” would be another option in the docs).

This knowledge base could additionally contain information about non-localhostinger apps (like desktop apps) – it would be a general resource for all things locally installed.

The vibecoded-app-for-specific-use-cases-installer idea

A bit far fetched, but maybe with vibecoding it becomes more common for people to create specific apps for themselves or a few friends or famility members, that are very specific to whatever they might need at the moment. These apps could include a manifest file, that if passed to the localhostinger installer, makes it easier for users to install it on their computers.

The users should have as little roadblocks and trouble as possible, on their way to localhost a tool. At the same time, the short journey there should also be informative and somewhat educational. It won’t be enough to write a pretty GUI that calls docker compose up -d and then leaves the user to it. Instead the user must be aware of what a localhost installation means: No access outside of home, no magic cloud backups, less integrations with external systems, and so on.

localhostinger should use podman instead of docker, as the compose spec is largely compatible and podman can run rootless and daemonless.

The whole setup of an app must be as transparent as possible (e.g. where is the volume mounted on the machine).

localhostinger apps should always offer an exit strategy, like a data export or migration guides to other systems/formats. The user should never be locked in.

Just as some people prefer to manage their life on pieces of paper, in their heads or not at all, there might be a crowd that would like to use software for certain tasks, but doesn’t want to put any of the sensible things “into the cloud”. At the same time it seems to me that it has become more difficult to find classical desktop apps – it’s not that the existing ones have gone away, it seems that there is less movement. But the mere point is: If there is a piece of free and open source software, it should be usable by everybody. Maybe the target audience is too much of a niche, and maybe there are too few apps or use cases for which it makes sense, but maybe that doesn’t even matter and it’s just a fun little sideproject.