r/selfhosted rules, stats, and what to post

This community is for sharing, discussing, discovering, assisting with, getting help for, and critiquing self-hosted alternatives to popular web apps, web services, and online tools. The people here run their own servers and care about owning their stack instead of renting it from someone else. The rules make the scope clear: every post must be about self-hosting, and mobile apps only count if they are companions to a self-hosted backend. It is a help and critique space as much as a showcase, so people post their setups, their questions, and their honest opinions on tools.

The rule that decides most marketing outcomes here is “Spam / Self-Promotion / Affiliate Links”. It says do not promote your own projects too much, follow the Reddit self-promotion guideline, and only mention your service in comments if it is relevant and adds value. It also sets a hard bar: promoted apps must be production ready and have docs, and there are no direct ads for web hosting or VPS. “Low-Effort / Off-Topic” matters because every post must be about self-hosting, and if you ask for help you must explain what you tried and what you are stuck on. “Blog Link Posts” means a blog post is fine, but never as a bare link, you need to explain what the blog is, why it matters, and how it helps users. “Dashboards / Companion Apps / Tools - Wednesday Exceptions” gives you one weekly window for dashboards and tools, with the right flair, even if they are not self-hosted. “New Projects - “New Project Megathread” Exceptions” keeps anything younger than three months inside the current megathread. Finally “Respect / Hate-speech / Bullying / Harassment” sets the tone, attack ideas not people, and zero tolerance for uncivil discussion.

The safest strong post here is a real self-hosting story with substance. If you built something, show how it runs, what problem it solves, and what you learned hosting it yourself, and make sure it is production ready with docs before you mention it. If you write a blog post, add a real explanation of what it covers, why it matters, and how it helps other self-hosters, never just the link. If you want feedback on a help request, describe exactly what you tried and where you got stuck, because the rules ask for that detail. If your thing is a dashboard or a companion tool, save it for Wednesday, flair it correctly, and frame it around how it helps self-hosters. If your project is younger than three months, the current New Project Megathread is the only place for it. In comments, mention your service only when it genuinely answers someone's question and adds value.

The fastest way to get removed is to treat this like an ad channel. Promoting too much, posting an app that is not production ready or lacks docs, or dropping your service into comments where it does not add value all fall under “Spam / Self-Promotion / Affiliate Links”. A bare blog link with no explanation trips “Blog Link Posts”. A dashboard or tool posted on the wrong day, or without the correct flair, falls outside the Wednesday exception. A project younger than three months posted anywhere except the current New Project Megathread breaks “New Projects - “New Project Megathread” Exceptions”. Off-topic posts, low-effort posts, and help requests with no detail about what you tried get caught by “Low-Effort / Off-Topic”. And personal attacks or uncivil arguments get removed under “Respect / Hate-speech / Bullying / Harassment”, which the mods describe as zero tolerance.

The Wednesday exception for dashboards and tools is the part I find most interesting, because it tells you the community wants to see this stuff but only inside a predictable rhythm. I also like that the megathread rule defines project age by first public presence, like a git commit, which is a very honest way to measure it. If your product is not production ready with docs, this room will not carry it, and that is a useful filter before you spend a day writing a post.