Post #1821639
2026-04-30 19:49 UTC
Replies (10)
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@brass75@twit.social 2026-04-30 19:56
@pathunstrom if I am responsible for the machine - security, DNS, software, etc. - I am self hosting. Doesn't matter where the machine is or whether I own it or rent it.
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@Ash_Crow@mastodon.social 2026-04-30 19:56
@pathunstrom I would definitely include a VPS, considering you're the one doing both the hosted software and the server OS maintenance work.
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@luna@pony.social 2026-04-30 19:56
@pathunstrom i run some of my websites from a rented digitalocean droplet, it's just a linux box and i'm responsible for keeping it patched and configuring my webserver software of choice and so on i consider this to be self-hosting at least in a spiritual "i'm the one doing 90% of the work" sense even though i don't own the physical hardware it's running on
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@miss_rodent@girlcock.club 2026-04-30 19:59
@pathunstrom I'd say it doesn't need to be hardware you own personally - but that who *does* own the hardware matters? I've "self-hosted" things on hardware that is owned by friends/family/partners, I'd be less confident saying I am 'self hosting' something that has to go through, like, amazon. Just because the power dynamic shifts, in that case, from 'people I can talk to and deal with directly' to 'giant evil megacorp I have no effective options to deal with if they do something'.
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@oreolek@icosahedron.website 2026-04-30 19:59
@pathunstrom white ipv4 address is a rarity on residential internet
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@janl@narrativ.es 2026-04-30 20:00
@pathunstrom none of us are self hosting until all of us are self hosting. No wait.
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@borntyping@hachyderm.io 2026-04-30 20:07
@pathunstrom Agree - I think the important part of self-hosting is that you have full control of the software you're running. "self-hosting" and "homelab" seem to remain useful as distinct terms for that reason.
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@richter@calamity.world 2026-04-30 20:10
@pathunstrom Consider something like a colocation service, where you own the hardware, but it's kept in a space you do not control. Is that still self hosted?
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@jaredwhite@indieweb.social 2026-04-30 20:14
@pathunstrom Yeah, I believe the difference comes down to the word "hosting". You can self-host on a VPS in the cloud, or you can self-host on "bare metal" (aka server hardware you might directly access in a data center), or you can self-host "on-prem" meaning that you fully control the physical location where the hardware is operating. That's my understanding anyway.
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@freja@freja.zone 2026-05-01 00:32
@pathunstrom i think the line goes when you can't fully control the software anymore, for example if you could pack up your server software and relocate it to a new place independently i would count it as self hosting. i've moved an existing nextcloud install from a hetzner vps to my own hardware without problems, for example. but e.g. if they set up the software for you and you can't fully access all parts of it like this, it's more towards "no" for me