I run services at home, but I'm not sure which label fits. Self-hoster? Homelabber? Both communities overlap, but the goals are different. And I'm somewhere in between.

The Difference

Both groups run services on their own hardware. The overlap is obvious. But I think the goals diverge.

Homelabbers want a lab. They experiment with enterprise-grade setups at home. Think multi-node Kubernetes clusters, VLANs, Proxmox, enterprise networking gear, and complex monitoring stacks. The point is learning by replicating what companies run in production.

Self-hosters want control over their data and services. They pick tools that work without constant maintenance. A Raspberry Pi running Docker Compose. Simple reverse proxy. Services that just run. The point is having your own stuff without the headaches.

Where I Stand

I work at a company with large-scale Kubernetes infrastructure.

Recreating that at home isn't appealing. I deal with containerized deployments, service meshes, and automation during work hours. Why spend my weekend doing the same thing?

My goal aligns more with self-hosting. I want my services running without babysitting them. But here's the catch: I bring work knowledge home. Sometimes my solutions are more complex than what most self-hosters need.

Example: Walheim

Walheim is a project I built to deploy Docker Compose services with a kubectl-like experience. (source code)

Most self-hosters use Portainer or just SSH and run docker-compose up. That works fine. But I wanted something closer to the Kubernetes workflow I use at work, without actually running Kubernetes.

Is this overkill for home use? Probably. But it scratches an itch.

The Middle Ground

I'm not trying to replicate enterprise architecture. I'm not running a 10-node K3s cluster (though I've thought about it). But I'm also not satisfied with the simplest possible setup.

What I want:

• Services that work reliably
• Tooling that fits my mental model from work
• Learning something different from my day job
• No maintenance overhead

Why This Matters

If you work in infrastructure, you might feel the same tension. You know how to build complex systems, but do you want to maintain them at home?

The answer isn't one-size-fits-all. Self-hosters might say I'm overcomplicating. Homelabbers might say I'm not going far enough. Both are probably right.

Final Thoughts

Labels don't matter much. I run services at home. Some are simple, some are unnecessarily complex. I learn things, break things, and occasionally fix them.

If you're somewhere in between too, that's fine. Pick what works for your time, hardware, and interest level.