Start here
The six core guides every beginner homelabber should read first, in order.
What Is a Home Server? A Beginner's Guide to Self-Hosting
What a home server actually is, what it's good for, and what it costs to get started — before you buy anything.
Read the guide →Proxmox vs TrueNAS vs Unraid: Which Home Server OS Should You Choose?
A head-to-head comparison of the three most popular home server operating systems, matched to real use cases.
Read the guide →Best Mini PCs for a Beginner Homelab (Under $200)
What to actually look for in a first homelab box, plus specific mini PC picks and buying pitfalls to avoid.
Read the guide →Jellyfin vs Plex: Which Self-Hosted Media Server Is Right for You?
Free and open source vs. polished and paid — which media server actually fits how you watch things.
Read the guide →Immich vs Google Photos: Should You Ditch the Cloud?
What you gain, what you give up, and how to migrate your photo library to a self-hosted alternative.
Read the guide →Home Assistant for Beginners: Your First Smart Home Automation
Install Home Assistant, connect your first device, and build one real automation from scratch.
Read the guide →Why self-host?
Cloud photo storage, media streaming, and file sync subscriptions quietly add up to hundreds of dollars a year — and hand your data to a third party in the process. A home server running on a $100–$200 mini PC can replace most of that: your own photo library with Immich, your own media server with Jellyfin, your own file sync with Nextcloud or Syncthing, and network-wide ad blocking with Pi-hole. HomeLab Starter exists to make that first step approachable, without assuming you already know what a hypervisor or a container is.