5 lightweight services you can host yourself on a Raspberry Pi

If you have an extra Raspberry Pi lying around unused, it’s time to put it to work. While you can go all out and build elaborate contraptions with Pis, here are five lightweight services you can self-host on your spare (or legacy) Pi without spending extra money on accessories.

n8n

Credit: n8n

I admit: I discovered it recently n8nbut it has already revolutionized my workflow. This lightweight automation software can run on just about anything, including a Raspberry Pi.

With n8n you can perform all kinds of automations. It runs similar to To make or Zapierbut can be self-hosted. I currently use n8n to take new members from my Squarespace site who sign up for email marketing and add them to my Kit email list for my small business. I also use n8n at my church to automatically download radio shows from an RSS feed and save them to our computer for play on our radio station.

That’s just the beginning of what the n8n is capable of. One thing I plan to do is integrate it with Squarespace, Etsy, and Home Assistant, so when someone makes a purchase from my small business, the smart lights in my office will flash a certain color. The possibilities of what n8n can do are endless, and it’s definitely worth installing it on your Raspberry Pi.

Credit: n8n

Supported desktop browsers

All

Brand

n8n

n8n is an automation platform designed to simplify your life. From automating your email list to activating Home Assistant through an Etsy sale, the possibilities of n8n are endless. Think of it as Zapier or Make, but self-hosted and free.

Credit: Jordan Gloor/How-To Nerd

While RSS feeds aren’t nearly as mainstream as they used to be, they’re actually a great way to ditch social media and just consume the content you want.

Nearly every web publication on the Internet still has an RSS feed. They are somewhat standard in the publishing industry, and as far as I can remember I haven’t come across a mainstream website without them. With an RSS feed you can easily search a specific tag or an entire site to see the content they have published.

FreshRSS is a self-hosted RSS reader. Simply enter the websites (or the XML RSS feeds if you have them) and FreshRSS will start parsing the articles right in your browser.

The best part about self-hosting FreshRSS on your Pi is the privacy that comes from it. No one else will see what you read, and no other company can measure your browsing habits. You have full control over the experience and data collection.

Credit: FreshRSS

Supported desktop browsers

All

Brand

FreshRSS

FreshRSS is a self-hosted RSS reader and aggregator that allows you to consume the content you want. Designed to be lightweight and run on your own hardware, that old Raspberry Pi sitting in your closet is the perfect candidate to use your new RSS reader.

Website

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek | Samby/Shutterstock

Hosting a website on a Raspberry Pi is actually quite simple. Using a service like Docker, you can easily get WordPress, Ghost, or even a Hugo website up and running in just a few minutes. In fact, I’ve run numerous websites from my Raspberry Pi in the past.

If you expect a lot of traffic to come to the website, then a Raspberry Pi (at least the older one) may not have enough power to adequately handle the traffic. However, if you’re just doing it for a personal blog, diary, or static landing page for your Minecraft server, then a Pi is more than enough.

Recently I had to quickly set up a website for a ministry at our church and I did it with WordPress and Docker in less than 10 minutes using the Docker Compose Template powered by WordPress.

Overall, deploying a website to your Pi is easy and will still work great even on older Pi models.

WireGuard VPN

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek | Farknot architect/Shutterstock

If for any reason you ever need a VPN connection to your home network, do so Thread protector running on a Pi is the perfect solution. WireGuard lets you surf from anywhere in the world as if you were on your home network.

WireGuard has both Android and iOS apps, as well as support for Windows, macOS, and Linux. I’ve been using a VPN connection to my home network on vacation and work trips to monitor servers, reboot systems, or just use my own network for privacy reasons.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to use a VPN at home: WireGuard on your Pi makes it simple.

Credit: WireGuard

Supported desktop browsers

All

Brand

Thread protector

WireGuard is a self-hostable VPN that allows you to tunnel back to your home network. With support for all major smartphone platforms and all major desktop operating systems, WireGuard is versatile, capable and easy to use. You can even run the WireGuard server on a Raspberry Pi.

Joplin

Credit: Joplin

I love Notion, Todoist, Obsidian and all the other productivity tools on the internet. The problem with these tools is that many of them cost money and are all hosted on someone else’s server (although you can host Obsidian yourself).

JoplinHowever, it is more than just a notes and task management app. It’s a full productivity suite similar to Notion, but hosted on your own system.

Hosting your productivity software at home gives you extra peace of mind in terms of security, but also gives you access to all the features without having to pay anyone else. Your Raspberry Pi is already running, so why not use it to manage your tasks and projects?

However, Joplin doesn’t just work as a website. There’s also an app for iPhone and Android, which gives you a native experience for your self-hosted service, something we don’t always see in the open source community.

Credit: Joplin

Supported desktop browsers

All

Brand

Joplin

Joplin is a self-hosted notes, tasks, and project management platform. Designed to run on your own hardware, even a Raspberry Pi, Joplin is fully featured and even comes with native mobile applications for both iPhone and Android. With a robust feature set, you’ll find that Joplin can replace Notion, Obsidian, and many other apps in your productivity stack, all without costing a cent.

Looking for other things to do with your Pi? Instead of a lightweight service, like WireGuard or FreshRSS, consider building a smart mirror or RetroPie emulation station instead. These projects will take a little more time, and you may need to purchase some additional components to complete them. But the satisfaction of having a retro tabletop arcade at the end to show your friends? I would say that is priceless.