Comparisons
Same fields, same rubric, one recommendation at the end. No fence sitting and no ten-item list where a decision belongs.
Platforms
Coolify vs Dokploy
Both give you Heroku on your own box. Both are young enough that you should plan for a breaking release.
Coolify vs DokployPlatformDocker vs Podman
Most self-hosters should still run Docker. Here is precisely who should not, and what switching costs.
Docker Engine vs PodmanPlatformPortainer vs Komodo
A console you click versus a deploy system driven from git. Which one belongs in front of a stack you care about.
Portainer vs KomodoPlatformProxmox VE vs TrueNAS
Which one goes on bare metal, what HBA passthrough really requires, and what ZFS costs you in RAM.
Proxmox VE vs TrueNAS Community EditionPlatformUnraid vs TrueNAS
The real axis is your drive pile: mismatched disks favor Unraid, matched sets favor ZFS.
Unraid vs TrueNAS Community EditionNetworking
Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager
A GUI you click against a file you can copy. The comparison is really about backup and reproducibility.
Caddy vs Nginx Proxy ManagerNetworkingCaddy vs Traefik
Static config you can read against dynamic discovery from Docker labels, with the v3 syntax trap spelled out.
Caddy vs TraefikNetworkingHeadscale vs wg-easy
Mesh coordination with NAT traversal against one UDP port you forward yourself, plus the case for not self-hosting at all.
Headscale vs wg-easyNetworkingPi-hole vs AdGuard Home
One ships encrypted DNS and per-client policy in the binary. The other needs a second daemon for half of that.
Pi-hole vs AdGuard HomeBackup
Duplicati vs restic
Duplicati is finally stable. The database rebuild is still the reason people leave it.
Duplicati vs resticBackupMinIO vs Garage
This stopped being a fair fight in 2026. MinIO is archived; here is what to do about it.
MinIO vs GarageBackuprestic vs BorgBackup
Borg 2 is still beta and the 1.x move is a repository rewrite. That decides more than the feature list.
restic vs BorgBackupBackuprestic vs Kopia
Kopia has the nicer interface. That is not a reason to pick a backup tool, and here is what is.
restic vs KopiaIdentity
Authelia vs authentik
A 35 MB request gate against a 1 GB identity provider, and the difference between gating a request and logging someone in.
Authelia vs authentikIdentityKeycloak vs authentik
Enterprise-grade protocol coverage against homelab-shaped ergonomics, and the hardest upgrade path in the category.
Keycloak vs authentikIdentityPocket ID vs Authelia
A passkey-only OIDC issuer against a general request gate, decided by what your applications can actually consume.
Pocket ID vs AutheliaMedia
Jellyfin vs Emby
Emby is the option people land on rather than choose. Sometimes landing there is correct.
Jellyfin vs EmbyMediaJellyfin vs Plex
One of these can change its terms after you have moved 12 TB into it. The other cannot.
Jellyfin vs Plex Media ServerBooksKavita vs Calibre-Web
One of these will not start without a metadata.db that Calibre made. Everything else follows from that.
Kavita vs Calibre-WebMediaNavidrome vs Jellyfin for music
The question is not which plays FLAC. It is whether you run a second server for music at all.
Navidrome vs JellyfinPhotos and files
Immich vs Nextcloud for photos
Nextcloud Photos is not in Immich's category. This page says so, then explains when it does not matter.
Immich vs NextcloudPhotosImmich vs PhotoPrism
These are not competitors. One takes photos off your phone; the other searches the folders you already have.
Immich vs PhotoPrismFilesNextcloud vs Seafile
One gives you calendar, contacts and office. The other gives you sync that is genuinely fast and files you cannot read off disk.
Nextcloud vs SeafileFilesSyncthing vs Nextcloud
One of these is not a server product at all. Knowing that before you install it is the whole value of this page.
Syncthing vs NextcloudDocuments
BookStack vs Wiki.js
A maintained PHP wiki against a Node wiki whose next version has been almost ready for four years.
BookStack vs Wiki.jsKnowledgeOutline vs Docmost
Outline needs an identity provider before you can log in. Docmost charges for one. Pick your constraint.
Outline vs DocmostKnowledgePaperless-ngx vs Nextcloud
A document archive with OCR against a file sync platform. Most people who run one should run both.
Paperless-ngx vs NextcloudMonitoring
Beszel vs Netdata
Tiny and deliberately limited against comprehensive and heavy. Both numbers are published; here they are.
Beszel vs NetdataMonitoringNetdata vs Prometheus and Grafana
One agent versus five containers. Most homelabs build the stack and never open the dashboards again.
Netdata vs Prometheus vs GrafanaMonitoringUptime Kuma vs Gatus
Checks in a database with a UI, or checks in a file in git. Everything else follows from that.
Uptime Kuma vs GatusCommunication
mailcow vs Stalwart
A mature multi-container stack against a single Rust binary. Neither one fixes the part that actually fails.
mailcow: dockerized vs StalwartNotificationsntfy vs Gotify
Topic names as passwords and an iOS app, or per-sender tokens and Android only. Pick on phones first.
ntfy vs GotifyDeveloper
Forgejo vs Gitea
Nearly identical software, completely different ownership. Start today and the answer is Forgejo.
Forgejo vs GiteaDeveloperGitea vs GitLab CE
One is a git remote you forget about. The other is a DevOps platform with a documented 8 GB floor.
Gitea vs GitLab CESecurity
CrowdSec vs Fail2ban
Local regexes you own, or a community blocklist and a separate enforcement process. The defaults decide most of it.
CrowdSec vs Fail2banContainer updatesWatchtower vs Diun
One is archived and pulls images at 3am. The other only tells you. That gap decides it.
Watchtower vs DiunFeeds
Productivity
Actual Budget vs Firefly III
Envelope budgeting or double-entry accounting. Pick the mental model first, because the ops load follows it.
Actual Budget vs Firefly IIITasks and kanbanVikunja vs PLANKA
A five-view task manager with CalDAV, against a realtime kanban board that is no longer open source.
Vikunja vs PLANKA