Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Microsoft Azure

Scrutiny is a self-hosted web application for monitoring disk health by collecting SMART data from smartd and correlating it with real-world failure rates. It auto-detects connected drives, tracks SMART metrics over time, and provides a focused dashboard with configurable alerts.

Key Features

• Web UI dashboard focused on critical SMART metrics
• Integration with smartd for data collection (no re-invention of SMART parsing)
• Auto-detection of all connected drives
• Historical SMART metric tracking and trend visualization
• Thresholds informed by real-world drive failure data
• Temperature monitoring
• Docker-based deployment with an omnibus image (web + collector) and options for manual install
• Configurable alerting/notifications via Webhooks and other channels
• Hub/Spoke deployment support (separate web, collector, and storage components)

Use Cases

• Centralized monitoring of multiple disks in servers, NAS, or data centers
• Proactive maintenance through alerts when SMART attributes change
• Long-term health trend analysis to inform replacement cycles or capacity planning

Limitations and Considerations

• Scrutiny is a work-in-progress and may have rough edges or incomplete features
• Requires privileged access to host devices to query SMART data (e.g., capability flags for containers)
• Some RAID controllers or USB-docked drives may require manual configuration to expose SMART data

Conclusion

Scrutiny provides a focused, self-contained solution for monitoring disk health via SMART data, with flexible deployment options and alerting to help mitigate data-loss risk.

Uncloud is a lightweight tool for deploying and managing containerised applications across a network of Docker hosts. It forms a secure peer-to-peer cluster without a central control plane, aiming to provide a simple, PaaS-like workflow for running Docker Compose apps on your own infrastructure.

Key Features

• Deploy and scale services across multiple machines using Docker-like CLI commands
• Docker Compose support for defining multi-service applications and volumes
• Decentralised architecture with peer-to-peer state synchronisation (no central control plane/quorum)
• Automatic WireGuard mesh networking with peer discovery and NAT traversal
• Built-in service discovery via an internal DNS server
• Built-in ingress and load balancing across replicas on different machines
• Automatic HTTPS with certificate provisioning and renewal via Caddy and Let’s Encrypt
• Persistent storage support using Docker volumes managed across machines

Use Cases

• Run a small-to-mid-size production app stack on VPSs and bare metal without Kubernetes
• Build a multi-provider, highly available deployment by spreading replicas across regions
• Homelab or SMB platform for repeatable Docker Compose deployments with HTTPS and discovery

Limitations and Considerations

• Project maturity may vary by release; some features mentioned as planned (for example, automatic rollback) may not be fully available

Uncloud fits teams and individuals who want a pragmatic middle ground between single-host Docker and full Kubernetes. It emphasizes low operational overhead while still providing the core primitives needed for reliable multi-host deployments.

Sablier is an open-source service that starts containerized workloads on demand and scales them to zero after periods of inactivity. It exposes an API and integrates with popular reverse proxies to intercept incoming requests, wake sleeping workloads, and (optionally) show a waiting page while the target service starts. (github.com)

Key Features

• Scale-to-zero controller that starts workloads on first request and stops them after idle time.
• Multi-provider support: Docker, Docker Swarm, Podman and Kubernetes providers.
• Integrations with reverse proxies and edge components (Traefik, Caddy, Nginx, Envoy, Istio, Apache APISIX) for request interception and wake-up flows.
• Configurable waiting pages and a "hanging request" strategy to keep clients waiting until the service is ready.
• Deployment options: official Docker images, downloadable binaries, build-from-source, and an official Helm chart for Kubernetes.
• Session and strategy APIs for programmatic control of start/stop behavior and session durations.
• Uses container labels and healthchecks to detect readiness and avoid premature routing.

(github.com)

Use Cases

• Cost and resource optimization for development, QA, or edge devices by running services only when needed.
• Self-hosted "serverless-like" behavior: automatically wake per-request services behind a reverse proxy for internal apps or demos.
• Lightweight orchestration helper for teams that need on-demand workloads without a full managed FaaS platform.

(github.com)

Sablier is focused and practical: it provides the primitives to start/stop container workloads on demand and integrates with the tooling commonly used at the edge and in clusters. It is distributed with multiple installation paths (Docker, binary, Helm) and is intended for self-hosted environments where reducing idle resource usage is desirable. (github.com)

FreedomBox is a personal server platform built to help non-experts run common online services from home while keeping data under their control. It provides a web interface to install, configure, and update a curated set of free software applications on supported hardware.

Key Features

• App dashboard for one-click installation and administration of server applications
• Private file sharing and syncing for personal and family use
• Secure communications with decentralized chat and audio/video calling options
• Built-in VPN server for secure remote access to home services and devices
• Privacy-enhancing proxy capabilities for safer browsing on untrusted networks
• Self-hosted web publishing options such as blogs and wikis
• CalDAV/CardDAV-style synchronization for calendars and contacts
• Home-network media sharing and device backup/NAS-style use

Use Cases

• Replace multiple cloud accounts with a single personal server for files, contacts, and publishing
• Provide secure remote access and private networking for traveling or remote work
• Run family or small-group communications and collaboration services with more control over data

Limitations and Considerations

• Best suited to the set of applications packaged/integrated by the project; unsupported apps may require manual administration outside the web UI
• Performance and available features depend on the chosen hardware and installed applications

FreedomBox is a strong choice for individuals and households that want an approachable, privacy-focused way to host essential internet services. It combines a curated app ecosystem with simplified administration to reduce the complexity of running a home server.