My Homelab in 2025
I've been running a homelab for a few years now, and the setup has evolved quite a bit over that time. Here's where things stand heading into the end of 2025.
Hardware
The main server is an old PC I repurposed a couple of years ago — nothing fancy, but it runs fine for what I need. I've added a couple of hard drives for storage and it sits in a cupboard under the stairs running 24/7.
I also have a Raspberry Pi 4 that handles a few lightweight tasks. It's quiet, low power, and reliable enough for things that don't need much grunt.
What I'm Running
Proxmox sits at the base and runs everything as VMs or LXC containers. I wouldn't go back to bare metal now — being able to snapshot before making changes is invaluable.
Nextcloud handles file sync and calendar/contacts. It replaced Dropbox and Google Calendar for me entirely.
Vaultwarden is my Bitwarden-compatible password manager. Infinitely better than keeping a spreadsheet, and I don't trust any SaaS product with my passwords.
Jellyfin serves up our media. The kids use it more than anything else on the homelab.
Pi-hole runs on the Raspberry Pi and handles DNS-level ad blocking for the whole network. It's one of those things I'd miss enormously if it broke.
Uptime Kuma monitors all of the above and emails me if something goes down.
The Honest Truth About Homelabbing
It's a hobby. I don't save huge amounts of money running this — the electricity, hardware, and time I spend fiddling with things probably equals or exceeds the cost of just paying for the SaaS versions of most of this stuff.
But I enjoy it. I learn things. And there's a real satisfaction in owning your own data and understanding exactly where it lives.
If you're thinking about getting into homelabbing, the Raspberry Pi + Pi-hole is the best entry point. Low cost, low risk, immediately useful.