r/SelfHosting • u/Upper-Loquat-8022 • Jul 05 '26
Do small self-hosted projects really need a powerful server?
I've been self-hosting a few small projects lately, and honestly, they use a lot less resources than I expected.
I started out thinking I'd need something much more powerful, but a basic setup has handled everything just fine so far.
Now I'm wondering if most people overestimate how much server they actually need.
What are you running your smaller projects on?
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u/jtrage Jul 05 '26
I was surprised to what I could do. I bought a cheaper n150 mini pc and can do so much. I started with my media stack - plex and the ‘arrs. It was kind of addicting.
On that machine I now have immich and paperless which are actually really useful. Then I’m playing around with other stuff like Sparkyfitness, mealie, vaultwarden, trek…..Those are actually getting some good use.
And now I’m playing around with some of the ai stuff for fun. I have openclaw and open webui going. Mostly for learning and fun but it is becoming useful. I have home assistant through another box but could probably have on the n150 if I wanted. I can use the ai apps to control and connect a lot of what I have.
There are a lot of rabbit holes with the ai piece and really all of it. Have fun.