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It all started recently when some of the services I use began getting ridiculously expensive (like all subscriptions these days). On top of that, some of them — no need to name names — have a business model that is, to put it mildly, rather predatory:
You pay for a service that should be "premium," and in the end you're forced to watch ads or, even worse, you have to pay extra to unlock content within the platform itself.
That alone is enough reason to be deeply frustrated with these services. Other factors, like price hikes, only add fuel to the fire.
I used to pay for Apple's cloud storage service, iCloud, because it was convenient for my use case — keeping my files synced across devices and backed up to the cloud. I was initially paying around R$ 50.00 for 2TB of storage. All good so far — until Apple announced a 34% price increase across all plans.
The new price (for the 2TB plan) is now: R$ 67.00 — outrageous for what they deliver. Same storage, higher price. And obviously the trend only goes one way, because prices will keep going up over time. Not to mention that the file management is awful and Apple's platform doesn't give us enough control over our own files.
A light at the end of the tunnel
I started looking for alternatives, and that's when I came across a very interesting concept: Home Lab (HL). Literally translated as "Lab at Home," it refers to the practice (or hobby) of setting up a local server so that you can manage your own data and applications — not necessarily at home, of course. You can build smaller-scale servers to serve a small business, an office, and so on.
I was fascinated by the idea of building my own server and hosting whatever services I want, while significantly cutting down on subscription costs and having 100% privacy over my data.
Well… the thing is, after that initial excitement, I started falling down an endless rabbit hole — too many terms, too many options, too many applications. Another thing worth noting is that it's not particularly beginner-friendly if you don't have solid technical knowledge of: Networking, Servers, Hardware, Docker, etc. Even though there are options nowadays that lower that initial barrier.
Action plan
The first step to building a local server is having a basic understanding of servers and Docker Containers. I won't go into too much detail here to avoid stretching this article out, but you can look it up online — I'll leave some options in the references section.
What is Docker?
Docker is a platform for virtualizing operating systems (OS) and applications. In other words, you can create a container (like a box) that holds the essential parts needed for an OS or application to run independently.
We also need some hardware (HW) for the server — and this is where things start to get really interesting.
Since we're building a Home Lab, we don't necessarily need ultra-powerful machines or an AWS-level server.
- Remember that old laptop gathering dust?
- Or that Samsung smartphone your mom's about to throw away because it kept freezing?
Well, both of those can work perfectly fine as our server hardware.
Beyond those options, there are also HW units specifically designed for HL or NAS (Network Attached Storage), such as:
Synology Disk Station, source: Synology
The model above is from a very well-known (and expensive) brand in this space called Synology. As I said, these are hardware units specialized for building smaller-scale servers — essentially regular PCs with a few extras. Since we're not looking to drain our bank account (at least not yet), let's go with a simple, affordable, and still efficient solution:
It's a modest machine, but more than enough to get started — and it's exactly what I'm using. In my case, I didn't have any old machine lying around, so I had to buy one. I found a great deal on Mercado Livre.
Let's list the main specs first:
- Machine: Dell OptiPlex Micro 7050
- Processor: Intel Core i5 — 6th Generation
- RAM: 8GB
- NVMe SSD: 250GB (for the OS)
- 2.5" HDD: 1TB (Storage)
The idea is to keep storage separate from the system drive. That's why I went with an HDD (Hard-Disk Drive) — since it's used purely for storage, it doesn't make sense to pay more for an SSD when we won't be doing frequent reads/writes on that drive.
The Software
Since we're setting up a server, we need an OS built for that purpose. And in my opinion, nothing beats a Linux Server distribution for this. In this case, I'll be using a system specialized for home labs that runs on top of Linux, called Zima OS. There are plenty of other options too, like: Umbrel, Tipi, TrueNAS, etc.
Installation is pretty straightforward — we need to create a bootable drive, install the OS, format the SSD, and complete the setup. What's great is that these modern systems make that whole initial process a lot easier. Check out the terminal output below, right after the server installation:
Server status screen, source: ZimaOS
Now all you have to do is access the IP address and start using your services for real.
Applications
As mentioned earlier, the system is 100% based on Docker containers — meaning every application you install is actually running as a Docker service with an exposed connection port, accessible from any device on the same network.
Because we're using a system like ZimaOS, this process is simplified: just open the app store, pick what you want, and install it. It's interesting to note that many of these apps are open source, and you can even deploy your own apps from a local Docker image or via Docker Hub.
As you can see in the image above, the system provides a dashboard with useful hardware information — things like CPU and RAM usage, power consumption in kWh, and other status details.
From this point on, a whole new journey begins: configuring and refining the applications you want to run. For example, using the Immich app to manage your media library — Google Photos style — but with everything running on your local network with full privacy.
It's a remarkable amount of power to have at your fingertips when you step into the world of Self-Hosting. The possibilities are endless, and beyond the already-mentioned savings on subscriptions, here are a few more:
- Local media streaming (series, movies, etc.);
- File storage and management;
- Ad blocking across all devices on the network;
- Text and image editing software;
- LLM services;
- Application monitoring;
A bit on pricing and a look at the future
Here are the costs for each of the components I purchased, so you can get a rough idea if you're considering a similar setup:
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| Dell OptiPlex 7050 | R$ 1170.00 |
| NVMe SSD 250 GB | R$ 280.00 |
| 2.5" HDD 1TB | R$ 310.00 |
| Total | R$ 1760.00 |
I had set a maximum budget of R$ 2,000.00 — and managed to come in under it. It's possible to spend even less, but I chose to invest in quality components for long-term reliability.
The plan now is to implement automatic file synchronization between my devices, replicating the kind of behavior iCloud and similar services offer.
Beyond automatic backups and file management, I also plan to run an LLM service for some experiments and to build a privacy-guaranteed AI workflow — using, for example, Ollama to orchestrate the models.
Anyway, this is quite a journey and I'm just at the beginning of it, but I've already gotten solid results that make all the effort and study more than worthwhile — not just for the savings, but also for the hands-on experience and the knowledge you gain about network configuration and all the technology surrounding the systems we use every day without really understanding how they work.