Self-hosting started out for me as a curiosity—just something to tinker with in my free time. But over the years, it’s become much more than that. Running my own infrastructure gives me the freedom to explore, learn, and solve problems on my own terms. There’s a certain satisfaction that comes from knowing exactly how something works because I built it myself—web server, email, DNS, backups—every piece of the puzzle.

It also aligns with how I think about technology in general. I don’t like black boxes. I’d rather dig in, break something (usually on a test VM), and figure it out. I like knowing that my data is mine—not floating around on some third-party server subject to policy changes I’ll never see coming. With self-hosting, I know what’s running, how it’s secured, and where everything lives.

Honestly, it’s just fun. I get to play with things most people only hear about in tech blogs—reverse proxies, tunnels, virtualization, backups, uptime monitoring. And when something goes wrong? That’s part of the experience. I’ve learned more troubleshooting a broken config at midnight than I ever did reading manuals.

There’s something incredibly rewarding about seeing a system you built from the ground up running smoothly. It’s not always perfect—there are late nights, frustrating errors, and plenty of trial and error—but that’s part of what makes it worthwhile. Every service I get running, every improvement I make, is a reminder that I’m not just consuming technology—I’m shaping it to fit my needs. That sense of control and progress is what keeps me coming back, always looking for the next challenge to take on.