You've bookmarked seventeen Reddit threads, three awesome-selfhosted tabs, and a YouTube playlist called "homelab 2024." Every time you need a self-hosted password manager you start from scratch — was it Vaultwarden or Bitwarden-compatible? Does anyone still recommend Gogs? You don't need another app tonight. You need a map.
Self-Hosting-Guide by Mike Royal is that map. ~21k GitHub stars, one enormous markdown document, and a table of contents that reads like the index of everything homelab people argue about in Discord. Containers, WireGuard, LLMs, Home Assistant, monitoring, media servers, paste bins, gardening software — it's not a single deployable app. It's the curated reference you keep open while you figure out what to deploy next.
What it actually is
This is a living documentation project, not Docker Compose you spin up on port 8080. Clone the repo, read it on GitHub, or export the markdown to PDF from VS Code if you want something offline on a tablet. No install step. No admin password. Just links, explanations, and category groupings maintained in the open.
Tools catalog. The heart of the guide is a massive "Tools for Self-Hosting" section — containers, CI/CD, web servers, LLMs, automation, databases, remote access, VPN, DNS, monitoring, dashboards, media, smart home, bookmarks, wikis, gaming, and dozens more. Each subsection lists projects with short context. Many overlap with awesome-selfhosted, but Mike Royal's guide goes wider — hardware picks, operating systems, file systems, books, podcasts, YouTube channels, subreddits.
Deep-dive chapters. Beyond the catalog: dedicated sections on WireGuard (PiVPN, pfSense, OpenWRT, Home Assistant setups), Nextcloud, Raspberry Pi, Grafana, Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, networking, open-source security, home automation, mesh networks. Less "here's a link" and more "here's how this piece of the stack fits together."
Actively maintained. The README invites issues and PRs when something's missing. Last commits keep rolling — useful in a space where projects rename, fork, and die monthly. Star the repo and watch releases if you want a pulse on when sections grow.
Self-Hosting-Guide vs our individual app posts
We've written deep dives on specific tools — n8n, Immich, Pangolin, Coolify, forty-plus others. This guide doesn't replace those. It sits above them.
Think of it like:
- Self-Hosting-Guide — "what exists in the monitoring category and what should I read first?"
- Our blog posts — "should I actually run Uptime Kuma on a Canadian VPS, and what does day-to-day look like?"
- Proxmox Helper-Scripts — "paste this one-liner and get Immich running in an LXC"
Use the guide to discover and compare. Use install scripts or our posts when you're ready to commit RAM and a subdomain.
Why keep a local copy?
Planning before spending. Map your stack on paper (or markdown) before provisioning a VPS. The guide's category layout surfaces gaps — you've got photos and backups covered but nothing for log aggregation. That's how you end up reading our SigNoz post instead of guessing.
No algorithm, no paywall. GitHub markdown doesn't serve ads or rank tools by affiliate commission. Still verify anything critical — links rot, projects fork, stars lie — but it's a neutral starting point.
Team onboarding. Hand a new hire or client IT contact the repo link instead of seventeen Slack bookmarks. "Here's how we think about self-hosted categories" in one URL.
Offline reference. Export to PDF before a flight or a datacenter visit with spotty Wi-Fi. Handy when you're standing in front of a rack wondering which WireGuard tutorial you meant to save.
What "running" it takes
Nothing, technically. Practical workflow:
git clone https://github.com/mikeroyal/Self-Hosting-Guide.git
# open README.md in your editor, or browse on GitHubBookmark the table of contents. Star the repo. Open issues when you find dead links or missing tools — that's how it stays current.
If you want PDF: VS Code with the Markdown PDF extension, per the README's own note. No server, no ports, no TLS cert. The "self-hosted" angle is meta — the guide helps you self-host everything else.
License isn't always SPDX-clear on the repo metadata; treat content as open reference material and check individual linked projects for their own licenses before deploying them commercially.
Who it's for (and who should skip it)
Good fit: homelab beginners overwhelmed by choice, sysadmins planning a client migration off SaaS, agency devs building a recommended stack list, anyone who keeps re-googling "self hosted alternative to X."
Maybe skip it: you already run one app and don't plan to add more — you don't need a 20-chapter encyclopedia. You want copy-paste install commands only — jump to Proxmox Helper-Scripts or our app-specific posts instead. You hate markdown on GitHub — the format won't change for you.
From the map to a Canadian box
The guide tells you what to run. We help you run it on infrastructure in Canada — Docker hosts, dedicated Proxmox nodes, TLS, backups, sane firewall rules.
Tell us what you're planning from the guide — we'll translate the shopping list into a VPS size that won't fall over when Immich and Jellyfin share the same Saturday night.
