What can the 'average Joe' start hosting, that will change their life?

jaackf@lemmy.world to Selfhosted@lemmy.world – 995 points –

I'm already hosting pihole, but i know there's so much great stuff out there! I want to find some useful things that I can get my hands on. Thanks!

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And it's so nice having zero dependence on the cloud. If the internet drops out, everything still works, including the mobile app.

Not necessarily, I have devices that are cloud dependent. Locally in NZ there aren't a lot of options, all smart plugs are cloud dependent. Also things like weather integrations will stop working.

It's up to you to make it cloudless, but Home Assistant is the only solution I know of out there that even allows this possibility. I refuse to use anything in my home that requires a third party app or cloud connection (aside from initial pairing so I can flash it with ESPHome or some other local-only firmware). Admittedly it complicates things, but the payoff is so worth it.

I use Home Assistant as well, but Apple HomeKit (and the new Matter protocol) can also be cloudless I think.

Yup, HomeKit can 100% work without internet. It’s a requirement of being HomeKit certified. I block internet access to all my HomeKit devices and they work just fine.

There should be plenty of zigbee stuff in the market, right? Ikea and Phillips stuff are mostly zigbee and can work with homeassistant + zigbee dongle (zha). Some tuya switch and smart plugs are zigbee too and can pair directly to homeassistant + zha without using a cloud account.

Locally in NZ we only have Hue which is very expensive. Aliexpress has options but is a bit hit and miss quality.

If you can buy stuff from aliexpress, then look for tuya devices with explicit zigbee support as they usually can work with ZHA. Avoid tuya wifi devices if you can.

Theres plenty of Tasmota based plugs out there. Cloudfree.shop would probably ship to you.

Unfortunately not. I mostly get my stuff from Aliexpress; I've found some good Zigbee plugs there.

New Zealand is awesome, but not if you want to have many online shopping options :)

Look for z-wave or zigbee plugs. You'll need to buy a hub, but unless NZ has banned the protocol, it should get you smart switches, outlets, thermostats and more.