Personal and Home Servers are unique operating systems (OSes) that provide a streamlined way of deploying apps and services over a network. Unlike a barebone Linux server where you have to do your own setup, these home server OSes provide a balance between ease of use and flexibility, making them a great starting point for users to start their home server. In this article, I will go through the top five Personal and Home Server OSes that you can install today.
Why Is Home Server OS Better Than Linux
At its core, home server OSes are purpose-built systems that allow you to easily install third-party self-hosted apps on your home server. While most of these OSes use Linux underneath, they also come with some advantages compared to your typical minimal distro.
First, home server OSes are usually designed and optimized for low-powered devices such as the Raspberry Pi. As a result, these systems often consume less power compared to an old repurposed workstation. Considering that a home server runs 24/7, this allows you to save on electricity costs over time.
Second, home server OSes come with tools such as Docker and Ansible that make it easy to run third-party server apps. Some systems even provide a dashboard screen that removes the need to interact with the command line. This, in turn, makes home server OSes a lot more user friendly than a regular server Linux distro.
Lastly, most home server OSes often test the server apps that they offer on their built-in stores. Unlike a regular minimal Linux distro, this gives you the assurance that anything you deploy on your home server will run without any major issues.
FYI: looking to reuse your old workstation boxes? Check out of the some best lightweight Linux distros that can run on old machines.
1. Umbrel
Umbrel is a Debian-based home server OS with a deep focus on decentralized apps and cryptocurrencies. While it’s designed for System-On-A-Chip (SoC) devices like the Raspberry Pi, the developers also provide an ISO for bare metal and hypervisor installations.
One thing that I like about Umbrel is its user-friendly approach to everything. Umbrel has one of the most streamlined onboarding processes I’ve encountered on a home server OS. It’s incredibly easy to use and setting it up doesn’t require any technical know-how with Linux.
Umbrel provides a large selection of third-party SaaS apps that range from a cloud office suite to a full Bitcoin node. The system also makes it straightforward to install and configure these applications through its Umbrel Store. For example, I can easily deploy a NextCloud instance by just clicking a single button on Umbrel’s dashboard.
One pain point that I encountered while using Umbrel is that it doesn’t have a convenient way of accessing the system’s command line. This can make the OS harder to troubleshoot for more critical issues down the line. Further, running Umbrel on an SoC requires an external hard drive, increasing the cost of maintaining the OS in the long run.
Good to know: the Raspberry Pi is also good for daily tasks. Learn how a fellow writer turned his Pi into a productivity powerhouse.
2. CasaOS
CasaOS is a lightweight home server OS for x86 and ARM-based devices. Unlike Umbrel, it’s an overlay system that sits on top of an existing Linux installation. This means you can run CasaOS on almost any Linux-based system and get the same experience every time.
CasaOS comes with a built-in store that simplifies the installation of its SaaS apps. Similar to Umbrel, it has a “one-click” install process and configuring these apps are also as simple as right clicking them on the dashboard. For instance, I was able to install NextCloud on CasaOS by clicking its icon on the app store.
That said, one downside of CasaOS is that it doesn’t have a lot of prebuilt apps on its app store. While the system can install and run custom Docker images, this can be an issue if you want a “turnkey” solution for your home server. Personally, I still like CasaOS’ custom containers feature since it allows me to run my niche Docker apps without going into the command line.
Another drawback of CasaOS is that it’s not possible to access the settings of its underlying distro from the system’s dashboard. This makes it tricky to change any system config outside of CasaOS, making it a little difficult to troubleshoot issues that happen on the OS level.
3. StartOS
StartOS is a sleek and minimalist home server OS based on Debian Linux. Advertising itself as a platform for “sovereign computing,” StartOS provides a variety of apps that handle decentralized finance, self-hosted communications, and self-publishing.
Just like with the previous two systems, StartOS adopts a “store-like” interface to present its available SaaS apps. Installing these programs are as easy as it could get, only requiring you to click the “Marketplace” category and selecting the program that you want to deploy.
Having said that, StartOS has the smallest selection of SaaS apps that you can get for a home server OS. As of version 0.3.5, I only found 28 apps available in its official marketplace. While all of these services are very high quality, it might leave some users wanting for more.
One feature that I found appealing in StartOS is its highly utilitarian interface. It does a great job of presenting all of its system options, making configuring and troubleshooting a breeze. For instance, I can even manage the Root CA for my StartOS instance allowing me to use HTTPS even in local networks.
Aside from its small app marketplace, StartOS also has a couple of drawbacks. Firstly, StartOS currently doesn’t support 64-bit ARM processors. This means that the system will not run on 64-bit only SoCs such as the Raspberry Pi 5.
Secondly, StartOS is also a bit difficult to install on x86 hardware. It requires a minimum of 64 GB of disk space and 4 GB of system memory. This can be a massive hurdle for users that want to deploy a low-cost and low-profile home server.
On a side note: looking for more flexibility and power on your server? Check out our picks on the top server-focused Linux distros today.
4. Yunohost
Yunohost is a powerful all-in-one home server OS designed for individual users running on either low-powered hardware or virtualized systems. Started in 2012, Yunohost aims to “democratize self-hosting” by providing an easy-to-use interface for deploying and configuring common SaaS apps.
Out of all the home server OSes that I’ve tried, Yunohost ships with the most SaaS apps available on its marketplace. Currently, the system offers over 400 individual services that you can immediately install on your server. These range from simple media management tools to entire productivity platforms.
Similar to StartOS, Yunohost also provides a simple interface that presents every setting available to the server. Compared to Umbrel and CasaOS, this makes the system easier to troubleshoot especially for newer admins. For example, I was able to easily manage multiple domains, create backups, and check for potential issues using Yunohost’s built-in diagnosis tool.
To top it off, Yunohost is available on almost all Linux-based platforms. You can install it on an SoC such as the Raspberry Pi, an old x86 workstation, and even in a Debian-based VPS through its conversion script. This makes Yunohost one of the most adaptable home server OS that you can get today.
Having said that, one important caveat when running Yunohost is that it doesn’t use containers when deploying its SaaS apps. Instead, it relies on the host’s filesystem and UNIX permissions to ensure that there’s no conflict between packages and dependencies.
The biggest downside of this approach is that Yunohost doesn’t isolate its different services. While this reduces the overhead of the system, it also makes the OS more vulnerable to system-wide exploits. Further, this containerless approach also it makes it tricky to configure the SaaS apps outside of its pre-defined config inside Yunohost.
5. HomelabOS
HomelabOS is a lightweight script that uses Docker and Ansible to convert a regular Ubuntu LTS system into a feature-packed home server OS. It comes with around 100 self-hostable SaaS containers, ranging from basic RSS readers such as FreshRSS to an entire Twitter clone like Pleroma.
That said, HomelabOS is designed for the Linux power user. It doesn’t come with its own dashboard UI and it expects you to use the command line to manage the entire system. This includes everything from configuring HomelabOS’ settings to installing and deploying its packages.
One strength of this approach, however, is it enables HomelabOS to seamlessly integrate its components to your base system. This allows you to use the tools that are already available on your host OS to manage HomelabOS’ services. For example, I can run systemctl status organizr.service to check how my HomelabOS dashboard is running.
Another big feature of HomelabOS is it can deploy a remote VPS to act a “reverse proxy” for your local home server. This makes it easy to run services at home while still being able to access them when you’re on-the-go.
Nonetheless, HomelabOS is not a perfect solution for everyone. Apart from requiring good terminal knowledge, HomelabOS needs a valid DNS record to run properly. It’s possible to bypass this issue by modifying your “/etc/hosts” file but doing that can lead to potential issues for your services.
Learning some of the best systems that you can install on your home server is the first step in exploring what self-hosting can do for you. Dive head first into this deep and wonderful world by creating your own Google Drive by deploying ownCloud today.
Image credit: Vadim Sherbakov via Unsplash. All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red.
Be the first to comment! Get the discussion going.