The apps I'd install next to build confidence

By Raviteja KNTSUpdated July 9, 2026

You've got Excalidraw running and you understand roughly how. The best thing you can do now is repeat the pattern a few times on low-stakes apps, until making a folder, writing a compose file, and opening a port feels like nothing. Here are the ones I'd reach for.

None of these hold anything you can't rebuild in a few minutes, which is the point. Feel free to break them, wipe them, and reinstall them. That's how the muscle memory forms, and it's far more relaxed to learn on a bookmarks app than on your photo library.

Homepage, a front door for everything

Once you have more than two apps, typing IP-and-port every time gets old. Homepage is a single dashboard that links to all your apps, and it can even show little live stats from them. It becomes the one bookmark you keep. Setting it up also gives you good practice with config files.

Memos, for quick notes

Memos is a fast, no-nonsense place to jot things, like a private, self-hosted version of those quick-note apps. It's genuinely useful day to day, and small enough that it's a relaxing install. Good candidate for your second or third app.

Linkwarden, for bookmarks worth keeping

Linkwarden saves links and, importantly, a copy of the page, so a bookmark still works even if the site later dies. If you're the kind of person with 400 open tabs "to read later", this one earns its place quickly.

FreshRSS, to follow sites directly

FreshRSS is a reader for blogs and news feeds, so you follow sites straight instead of hoping an algorithm shows them to you. It's a slightly bigger install than the others, which makes it a good step up once the simple ones feel easy.

Uptime Kuma, to monitor your other apps

Uptime Kuma watches your other apps and tells you the moment one falls over. Make it a habit: every new app you add, add a monitor for it. We'll install this one together below, because it's the ideal second install.

How to install anything from here

Here's the part that makes you independent. So far the compose files have been provided for you; out in the wild, projects publish their own. Look for a "Docker" or "Installation" section in a project's README or docs, and there it is, a compose block ready to copy.

Let's do one for real, and Uptime Kuma is the perfect second install because it's also your first app that keeps data:

mkdir -p ~/apps/uptime-kuma && cd ~/apps/uptime-kuma
nano docker-compose.yml

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

docker compose up -d, open server-ip:3001, create your account, and add a monitor pointing at Excalidraw. Notice the ./data line quietly doing the job the storage lesson explained: your monitors survive any update or rebuild.

Every other app on this page, and most apps anywhere, is those same moves:

1. Make the app its own folder: mkdir -p ~/apps/the-app && cd ~/apps/the-app.
2. Copy the project's compose block into a docker-compose.yml there.
3. Read the image, ports, and volumes lines so you know what you're running, which port it wants, and where its data will live. If the data volume isn't a folder next to the file, change it to the ./data style so backups stay easy.
4. If the left side port is already taken by another app, change it to a free one.
5. docker compose up -d, open server-ip:port, done. Add it to Homepage and give it an Uptime Kuma monitor while you're there.

And when an app doesn't earn its keep, removing it is just as clean: docker compose down inside its folder, then delete the folder. That's the whole uninstall. No leftovers, no registry ghosts, which is half the charm of running everything this way.

You'll find plenty more candidates, with links and details, in the self-host apps directory. Install two or three, live with them for a week, and you'll notice the installs stop feeling like a tutorial and start feeling routine.

And that's exactly the moment to get serious about safety. Because the next apps you'll want, photos, passwords, are the ones you cannot afford to lose, and there's one thing to set up first: backups.