Self-Hosting on a Raspberry Pi: What Works and How to Set It Up

A Raspberry Pi is one of the cheapest ways to start self-hosting: it is small, silent, uses only a few watts and runs a full Linux system. It is also easy to overload or make unreliable with the wrong setup.

This guide covers what a Pi handles well, the hardware choices that matter for stability, and a clean setup with Docker that you can expand over time.

What a Raspberry Pi is good at

A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 comfortably runs a handful of lightweight services at once:

Service type	Examples	Works well?
Network-wide ad blocking / DNS	Pi-hole, AdGuard Home	✅ Excellent — the classic Pi project
Home automation	Home Assistant	✅ Very popular on Pi
Monitoring	Uptime Kuma, simple dashboards	✅
VPN / remote access	WireGuard, Tailscale	✅
Password manager	Vaultwarden	✅ Lightweight
Small web apps and bots	Static sites, Discord/Telegram bots, small APIs	✅
File sync for one household	Syncthing, small Nextcloud	⚠️ OK with an SSD, slower with many users
Media streaming	Jellyfin	⚠️ Fine when clients play files directly; weak at video transcoding
Heavy databases, CI builds, many containers	Large PostgreSQL, build servers	❌ Use a mini PC or VPS
Local AI models	LLMs	❌ Only very small models, slowly — see running a local LLM

Hardware that makes it reliable

Model and memory

A Raspberry Pi 5 (or a Pi 4) with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM is the sensible choice for self-hosting several services. Older models and the 1–2 GB variants work for a single lightweight service such as Pi-hole.

Storage: avoid running everything from an SD card

SD cards are the most common cause of a "dead" Pi. Constant small writes from logs and databases wear them out, and power cuts can corrupt them. Options, from best to acceptable:

1. NVMe SSD via an M.2 HAT on the Pi 5 — fastest and most reliable.
2. USB 3 SSD — a big improvement over SD and works on the Pi 4 and 5. Both can boot directly from USB.
3. High-endurance SD card from a reputable brand — acceptable for light use, with backups.

Power and cooling

• Use the official power supply for your model. Underpowered supplies cause random crashes and corrupted storage; the Pi 5 in particular needs a 5V/5A USB-C supply for full USB power.
• Add active cooling (the official active cooler or a case with a fan). A throttling Pi slows down under sustained load.
• Optionally, a small UPS or a UPS HAT protects against corruption from power cuts.

Network

Use Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi for anything others depend on, like DNS. Give the Pi a fixed IP via a DHCP reservation in your router, so its address never changes.

Step 1: Install the operating system

1. Download Raspberry Pi Imager on your computer.
2. Choose your Pi model and Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) — no desktop, more resources for your services.
3. In the customization settings, set a hostname, create a user with a strong password, enable SSH and add your public key (see SSH keys explained).
4. Write it to the SD card or SSD, connect the Pi to your network and power it on.

Connect from your computer:

ssh youruser@pi.local      # or use the IP address

Update everything:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

Step 2: Basic hardening

Even on a home network, apply the essentials from our VPS security checklist: key-only SSH, a firewall and automatic security updates.

sudo apt install ufw unattended-upgrades -y
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp   # SSH from your LAN only
sudo ufw enable
sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades

Adjust 192.168.1.0/24 to your home network's range.

Step 3: Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in, then check:

docker run --rm hello-world
docker compose version

Check that images support ARM. The Pi uses a 64-bit ARM processor (arm64 / aarch64). Most popular images publish ARM versions, but some do not — look for linux/arm64 on the image's page. An "exec format error" means you pulled an image built only for x86.

Step 4: Deploy your first services

Create a folder for your stack:

mkdir -p ~/stack && cd ~/stack

compose.yaml with an uptime monitor and a password manager as examples:

services:
  uptime-kuma:
    image: louislam/uptime-kuma:1
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3001:3001"
    volumes:
      - ./uptime-kuma:/app/data

  vaultwarden:
    image: vaultwarden/server:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8081:80"
    volumes:
      - ./vaultwarden:/data

docker compose up -d

Open http://pi.local:3001 for Uptime Kuma. Note that Vaultwarden requires HTTPS for most clients — put it behind a reverse proxy with a certificate before using it (see Caddy as a reverse proxy), or reach it through Tailscale's HTTPS feature.

If you are new to Compose, read Docker Compose for beginners first.

Step 5: Access it securely from anywhere

The safest way to reach home services remotely is not to open ports on your router. Instead, use a mesh VPN:

• Tailscale (built on WireGuard) installs in a minute and connects your phone and laptop to the Pi over an encrypted network, without port forwarding:

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up

• WireGuard directly, if you prefer to run everything yourself (this needs one UDP port forwarded on your router).

Only expose a service publicly if it really needs to be public, and then put it behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS and strong authentication.

Step 6: Backups and maintenance

• Back up the service folders (~/stack/*) and your compose.yaml regularly, ideally to another machine — see how to back up Docker volumes.
• Update containers monthly: docker compose pull && docker compose up -d.
• Watch temperature and storage:

vcgencmd measure_temp
df -h

• Reduce SD card writes if you still use one: limit log sizes in Docker by adding to /etc/docker/daemon.json:

{
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": { "max-size": "10m", "max-file": "3" }
}

Then restart Docker with sudo systemctl restart docker.

Raspberry Pi vs mini PC vs VPS

	Raspberry Pi	Used mini PC	VPS
Upfront cost	Low	Low to medium	None
Monthly cost	Electricity only (a few watts)	Electricity (more watts)	Subscription
Performance	Modest	Much higher (x86, more RAM)	Varies by plan
Software compatibility	ARM images only	Everything x86	Everything
Public hosting	Depends on home internet	Depends on home internet	Static IP, data center uptime
Data stays at home	✅	✅	❌

A Pi is ideal for always-on household services. If you outgrow it, a small used mini PC is often the next step; for public websites, a VPS is usually more reliable than a home connection.

FAQ

Which Raspberry Pi should I buy for self-hosting?

A Raspberry Pi 5 with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM, plus an SSD, the official power supply and active cooling.

Can a Raspberry Pi run 24/7?

Yes. With good power, cooling and an SSD instead of an SD card, Pis run for years continuously.

Can I host a public website on a Raspberry Pi?

You can, but home connections may have dynamic IPs, limited upload speed and provider restrictions. A tunnel service or a cheap VPS is usually more practical for public sites.

Further reading

• Raspberry Pi documentation
• Docker install script
• Related: Docker vs virtual machines