The one subscription I keep even though I self-host everything else

I'm an avid self-hoster. There are very few services that I use that I don't self-host. However, there's one service that I will happily continue to pay for and never even try to self-host, and what it is might surprise you.

Self-hosting saves me money and is a fun hobby

I like being in control of the services I use.

What started out as just self-hosting my own media server several years ago has turned into a straight-up obsession. Across all my virtual machines and servers I'm approaching 100 Docker containers deployed, five virtual machines, five individual machines for servers or storage, and even more networking infrastructure than I ever expected to have at home.

I never expected this hobby to go so far, but I absolutely love it. I've been able to use my homelab to ditch Audible for my own self-hosted alternative , I self-host my own websites, so I don't have to spend money on hosting, and I self-host my own Minecraft servers .

Self-hosting has become more than just a hobby though, it's truly a way that I save money every month. By self-hosting so many things, I've been able to cancel many, many subscriptions. Just the Minecraft servers alone saves me dozens of dollars a month, especially as I spin up and down several servers depending on the mood I'm in.

I self-host almost every service I use on a daily basis

It has become more than a hobby at this point.

I already mentioned three things that I self-host, but that's only the start. I also self-host my own photo backup library , a network video recorder for my smart home cameras, and a massive 60TB storage server that I can use as a backup target for my computers, and many other services.

Every single day, I'm using Plex , my backup server, Home Assistant , Pi-hole, GitLab, LiteLLM and Open-webUI , my home security setup, and more. Those are just the services that I routinely access every single day. Then, when you add in services like my game servers, WordPress websites, and other automation tools like n8n, it starts to become understandable just how indispensable my homelab has become in my life.

Whenever I start using a new service, the first thought I have is, "Could I self-host this?" It's a real problem (or solution, depending on how you look at it). There are very few services that I still willingly pay for these days, but there is one that I just can't bring myself to cancel: Apple Music.

Music streaming is one thing I simply refuse to self-host and will happily continue to pay for

There's just too much music out there to try and self-host it.

Movies and TV shows are easy for me to self-host. The library of movies and TV shows that I watch isn't that large, and sourcing the media isn't hard. Audiobooks are quite the same. I have a pretty narrow field of audiobooks that I listen to, and they're easy enough to get my hands on.

Music, on the other hand, is so off the wall that I could never keep on top of a music library. My wife and I take several road trips a year, and I can't tell you how many times we've been in the mood for a song I hadn't thought of in at least 20 years, and we're able to pull it up on Apple Music . We'll change genres, albums, artists, you name it, all within a span of 10 minutes on the road.

Then there's the ever-expanding albums from artists. I'd go broke buying each new album that my favorite artists release, and sometimes I only like one or two songs on an album.

I know that Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming providers don't pay artists nearly as much as buying directly, and I wish I could support them. But, my Apple Music subscription has paid for itself 10-fold with me not having to purchase music to then rip into my library.

Apple Music (or any music streaming subscription, really) is the one service that I will happily pay for. I just couldn't replicate the experience myself.

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While I can't replace Apple Music with a self-hosted subscription, there are plenty of other services I've canceled for hosting myself. I named several above, but don't forget to check out my favorite Docker containers every homelabber should run .