Hello everyone!

I recently switched my Android phone to a custom ROM, and while setting things up, I wanted push notifications without relying on Google. That’s how I discovered UnifiedPush.

Really liking the concept, I decided to rent a small VPS (1 vCPU, 2GB RAM) and started hosting NTFY. So far, it’s been working great. Over time, I’ve added a few more services like FreshRSS and Audiobookshelf.

All of this is just for personal use, so the resource usage is minimal (the whole setup only uses around 500MB of RAM). I really enjoy how much value you can get out of such a small machine.

That brings me to my question:

What other lightweight, self-hostable tools would you recommend? I’m especially interested in small, resource-efficient services that you’ve personally found useful.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

  • BinaryUnit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 days ago

    Low-footprint services are are great I have been using Shaarli for bookmarks for quite a while it never failed me, and is very easy on server resources ~50Mb of RAM

  • yardratianSoma@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    2 days ago

    glance averages around 20MB of RAM per day on my home server. Others have mentioned syncthing, which is also very light on resources, and super useful.

  • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    I’m thinking about finding an alternative to ntfy. The maintainers are increasingly vibe coding it.

  • Paddle0681@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    I found https://github.com/TwiN/gatus recently and its been a welcomed alternative to UptimeKuma (I have many hosts I monitor, so having a configuration file makes it far easier).

    I run a Prometheus server at work, for doing ICMP latency checks, thats all I need at home. Gatus is super simple for my needs.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Possibly underrated: CopyParty. Its an entire fileserver in a little over 1 MB. You can host it on anything that runs python and the client can be anything with a browser. It’s unbelievably simple and efficient. If I knew self hosting was this easy I would have started sooner.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      There’s also an image for Copyparty if you’re already hosting stuff as containers. It’s super handy.

  • rem26_art@fedia.io
    0·
    3 days ago

    If you have a need for Calendar or To-dos, Radicale is a nice CalDAV/CardDAV server that’s pretty tiny. For me its sitting there at idle using 35MB of RAM.

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Radicale - I ditched Nextcloud for it as no-one needed to see a calendar, it’s on their phone…

    I also use it to sync a calendar for Home Assistant too

    And it effectively backs up my Contacts too.

  • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    I used to use Nextcloud and put files in there instead of Google Drive. That’s ok, but turns out, way more than I need. I use Nephele with the Owlfiles app now. It’s less resource intensive. Also, I can manage actual folders on my server. I have a simlink to my Jellyfin media folder and manage it from there.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzBEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol for encrypted file transfer, over SSH
    SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
    XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (‘Jabber’) for open instant messaging

    2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.

    [Thread #182 for this comm, first seen 21st Mar 2026, 16:50] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

    • tofu_oligarch@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      No, so far I just hope nothing breaks :) will take a look!

      With so many recommendations in this thread, Forgejo must be great. I’ve used it with Codeberg, but self-hosting seems a lot better (especially if they introduce federation at some point).

      Thanks!