Forkcast Self-Hosted #6: n8n,open-webui,immich,uptime-kuma,Stirling-PDF,unsloth,memos

Episode Summary#

Episode 6 covers 30 self-hosted open-source projects including n8n workflow automation with 199K stars, Open WebUI for local LLM interfaces, Immich photo management, Uptime Kuma monitoring, and Stirling-PDF. Also featured are Unsloth ML training, Memos note-taking, Coolify PaaS, Gitea Git hosting, Appwrite BaaS, and 20 more self-hosted tools spanning DevOps, AI, and consumer apps.

Repositories Covered#

n8n#

Most workflow automation tools are cloud-locked, expensive, or lack native AI capabilities. You need to connect disparate services without writing glue code. 400+ integrations, native AI agents, visual workflow builder, self-hostable. 22,611 commits, 59.9k forks. MCP server and client support. TypeScript. Self-hosted with Docker.

open-webui#

Running local LLMs via Ollama or OpenAI-compatible APIs gives you no decent web interface. The terminal is limiting for non-technical users and team collaboration. 148k stars, 17,819 commits. Supports Ollama, OpenAI API, MCP. RAG built in. Self-hosted Python app with Docker. Multi-user support, conversation history, web search integration.

immich#

Google Photos owns your memories and can change terms or pricing anytime. You need a self-hosted alternative that matches the performance and features. 110k stars, 10,694 commits, 6.4k forks. Flutter mobile app, SvelteKit web, NestJS backend. Machine learning for face recognition and object detection. AGPL-3.0. Docker Compose deployment.

uptime-kuma#

Uptime monitoring services cost $10-50/month per tier and you never know if they’re actually checking your services. You need something you control. 89.8k stars, 7,204 commits, 8.2k forks. Monitors HTTP, TCP, DNS, Docker, Steam. Beautiful responsive dashboard. Push-based monitoring, status pages, notifications to 90+ services. MIT license. Docker

Stirling-PDF#

Every PDF tool online wants your file uploaded to their servers. SmallPDF charges $12/month. You need a self-hosted solution that keeps your documents local. 88.8k stars, 5,683 commits, 8k forks. 50+ PDF operations: merge, split, convert, compress, OCR, watermark, encrypt. Java-based, Docker deployment. Open-core model. No file leaves your server.

unsloth#

Fine-tuning LLMs requires complex CUDA setups, scattered configs, and deep ML expertise. Most developers can’t easily train custom models locally. 69.5k stars, 6,629 commits. Local UI for training and running models. Supports Kimi K3, Gemma 4, Qwen3.6, DeepSeek-V4. Desktop app with GPU acceleration. Apache-2.0 + AGPL-3.0 dual license.

memos#

Note-taking apps are bloated, cloud-dependent, or locked into proprietary formats. You want quick capture that stays on your infrastructure. 62k stars, 4,657 commits, 4.6k forks. Markdown-native, SQLite backend, Go + React. Self-hosted with Docker. MIT license. REST API, webhook support, multi-user. Lightweight and fast.

coolify#

Vercel and Heroku lock you into their infrastructure and pricing. You want to deploy apps on your own servers with the same ease of use. 60.1k stars, 16,265 commits, 5.2k forks. 280+ one-click services. Laravel + Svelte. Apache-2.0. Deploy static sites, databases, full-stack apps. SSH-based deployment, auto SSL, Docker management.

gitea#

GitHub and GitLab are powerful but hosted on someone else’s servers. You need a self-hosted Git platform that doesn’t eat RAM like GitLab. 57.2k stars, 21,308 commits, 7k forks. Written in Go, extremely lightweight. GitHub Actions compatible CI/CD, package registry, code review, wiki. MIT license. SQLite or MySQL/PostgreSQL.

appwrite#

Firebase is Google-locked, expensive at scale, and you don’t own your backend. You need a self-hosted BaaS with all the features. 56.8k stars. Auth, databases, storage, serverless functions, messaging, realtime. Self-hosted Docker. React, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin SDKs. MIT license. 25+ integrations.

ClickHouse#

Traditional databases buckle under analytical queries on billions of rows. You need columnar storage that processes terabytes in seconds. 49k stars. Real-time OLAP database. Processes billions of rows per second. Columnar storage, compression, vectorized execution. SQL interface. Cloud-native, distributed. Apache-2.0.

nanobot#

Most AI agent frameworks are bloated, require cloud APIs, and don’t run locally. You need a lightweight agent that works with local models. 46.6k stars, 3,810 commits, 8.2k forks. Python with WebUI. MCP support, multi-agent workflows, memory, tools. Works with Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs. MIT license. Docker deployment.

siyuan#

Notion and Obsidian are either cloud-locked or lack the block-based linking you need for a true second brain. You want full local control. 45.6k stars. Block-level references, knowledge graph, SQL-like query. Electron + Go backend. WebDAV/S3 sync. Local-first, all data in workspace folder. AGPL-3.0. Docker self-hosting available.

jan#

ChatGPT requires internet and sends your conversations to OpenAI’s servers. You want a local AI assistant that never phones home. 43.8k stars. Desktop app via Tauri. Runs GGUF models locally via llama.cpp. Supports multiple model formats. Extensions system. OpenAI-compatible API server. AGPL-3.0.

appsmith#

Building internal tools requires frontend expertise and weeks of boilerplate. You need a self-hosted platform that turns databases into apps instantly. 40.6k stars. 25+ database integrations. Drag-and-drop builder, JavaScript bindings, API connectors. Self-hosted Docker. MIT license. Enterprise features in open core.

photoprism#

Google Photos scans your memories and uses them for advertising. You want AI-powered photo management without the surveillance. 40k stars. TensorFlow-based face recognition and object detection. GeoLink for map browsing. RAW support, HEIF, AV1. Go backend, React frontend. GPL-3.0. Docker deployment.

reactive-resume#

Resume builders charge monthly fees, track your data, and lock you into their templates. You want full control over your resume data. 40k stars. Real-time collaborative editing, multiple templates, PDF export. React + TanStack Start. Self-hosted with Docker. Better-Auth integration. AGPL-3.0.

ToolJet#

Enterprise low-code platforms cost thousands per month and vendor-lock your data. You need an open-source alternative that supports AI workflows. 38.3k stars. 25+ database integrations, REST/GraphQL APIs, JS Transformer. AI agent builder. Self-hosted Docker. MIT license. Kubernetes support.

glance#

You check 10+ websites daily for updates. RSS readers are cluttered, and there’s no clean way to aggregate everything at a glance. 25k stars. RSS, YouTube, Reddit, monitoring widgets. YAML config. Go binary, zero dependencies. Customizable responsive dashboard. MIT license. Docker or single binary.

langfuse#

LLM applications are black boxes. You can’t tell which prompts work, where tokens are wasted, or why costs spike. You need observability for AI. 12k stars. Traces, evals, prompt management, cost analytics. OpenTelemetry native. Self-hosted Docker. YC W23. TypeScript/Python SDKs. Works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google. MIT license.

signoz#

Datadog costs $23/host/month and bills surprise you. You need open-source observability that doesn’t charge per host or per GB. 20k stars. Metrics, traces, logs in one platform. OpenTelemetry native. ClickHouse backend. Self-hosted Docker. Apache-2.0. Prometheus-compatible. Alerting and dashboards.

beszel#

Server monitoring tools are either heavyweight (Prometheus + Grafana stack) or cloud-only. You need something that fits on a Raspberry Pi. 8k stars. Hub-and-agent architecture. Docker stats, historical data, alerts. Single binary, SQLite. Go backend, SvelteKit frontend. MIT license. Under 10MB memory footprint.

dockge#

Portainer is complex for simple Docker Compose workflows. You want a lightweight manager that focuses on compose stacks without the enterprise bloat. 15k stars. Reactive compose.yaml editor. Real-time container logs. Import from running stacks. Node.js + Vue. MIT license. By the creator of Uptime Kuma.

docuseal#

DocuSign charges $10-40/month per user for digital signatures. You need a self-hosted alternative that handles the full signing workflow. 12k stars. Create templates, send for signing, track status. Webhooks, API, email delivery. Ruby on Rails. Docker deployment. AGPL-3.0. Multi-tenant support.

linkwarden#

Browser bookmarks sync but don’t preserve content. Pocket shut down. You need a self-hosted system that saves and preserves web content forever. 10k stars. Full-text archive, PDF snapshots, annotations. Collaborative collections. Next.js + PostgreSQL. Docker deployment. REST API. AGPL-3.0.

ConvertX#

Every online file converter has ads, limits, and uploads your files to third-party servers. You need a local converter that handles everything. 10k stars. 1000+ format conversions. Image, video, audio, document, archive formats. Next.js + FFmpeg + ImageMagick. Docker deployment. MIT license. No file size limits.

khoj#

AI chatbots don’t know about your personal notes, documents, or browsing history. You need a second brain that gives AI access to your knowledge. 25k stars. RAG over your documents, web search, scheduled automations. Supports Claude, GPT, Ollama. Django backend. Docker self-hosting. AGPL-3.0. Web and desktop clients.

navidrome#

Spotify and Apple Music don’t let you play your own music collection. You want a self-hosted streaming service for your personal library. 15k stars. Subsonic/Airsonic compatible API. Multi-user, transcoding, Last.fm integration. Go binary, SQLite. Extremely lightweight. GPL-3.0. Docker or standalone binary.

maxun#

Web scraping requires writing code, managing proxies, and handling CAPTCHAs. You need a no-code platform that automates data extraction. 12k stars. Visual workflow builder for scraping. AI-powered data extraction. Proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving. Playwright-based. Self-hosted Docker. MIT license. REST API.

Watch#

• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENDING_UPLOAD
• Cover: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PENDING_UPLOAD/hqdefault.jpg

Notes#

Transcript and notes will be added from Forkcast output artifacts.