Hi everyone, I posted about my Safebox project earlier, but now I’d like to hear your thoughts on something a bit broader. I’ve been noticing a pattern in self-hosting communities, and I’m curious if others see it too.

Whenever someone asks for a more beginner-friendly solution, something with a UI, automated setup, or fewer manual configs, there’s often a response like: “If you can’t configure Docker, reverse proxies, and Yaml files, you shouldn’t be self-hosting.”

Sometimes it feels like a portion of the community views complexity as a badge of honour. Don’t get me wrong, I love the technical side of self-hosting. I enjoy tinkering, breaking things, fixing them, learning along the way. That’s how most of us got into it.

But if we want more people to own their data, escape Big Tech, and embrace open-source alternatives, shouldn’t we welcome solutions that lower the entry barrier?

There’s room for:

  • people who want full control and custom setups
  • people who want semi-manual but guided
  • people who want it to work with minimal friction

Just like not every Linux user compiles from source, but they’re still Linux users.

Where do you stand? Should self-hosting stay DIY only or is there value in easier, more accessible ways to self-host?

Safebox aims to make self-hosting more approachable without sacrificing data ownership, so I genuinely want your honest take before releasing it more widely.

Some technical highlights of the project, for those interested:

Safebox runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, supports both x86 and ARM64 (including Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, and others), and handles domain/subdomain setup, Let’s Encrypt certificates, DNS configuration, reverse proxy (nginx), and also offers WireGuard-based remote access.

The project is currently in beta, and we’d really appreciate feedback from anyone interested in testing it, whether it’s about usability, stability, features, design, or honestly anything at all. You can find all the info about beta testing on our Discord channel.

If you’d like to try it out, check the Github repo: https://github.com/safeboxnetwork/framework-scheduler

Website: https://safebox.network/

Discord: https://discord.gg/aBP8bz6N8J

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives it a look or shares their thoughts.

  • drebora@lemmy.mlOP
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Thanks your detailed feedback, I’ll try to go through all your points.

    When we said Docker, we meant the desktop version, basically so anyone can try Safebox on their own desktop and check out the early product. We also added an auto docker install for server setups a few days ago.

    You’re right about the docs, they’re still in the works, and proper documentation will be released soon.

    That other post you mentioned got a bit too heated, so the mods took it down. Definitely wasn’t our intention to stir up tension, and it wasn’t about not liking the answer or linking it to the product. Right now we’re mainly looking for early feedback and for people curious enough to help test things out.

    Thanks for explaining your point of view and your suggestions. It means a lot for us in this early state, and looking forward of any future feedback of your about the actual product.