Awesome Dashboards

Topic

Self-hosted dashboards

Self-hosted dashboards run on a server you control, usually a home NAS, a small VPS or a Raspberry Pi, most often inside Docker. What separates them is how much you configure by hand versus how much the dashboard works out on its own.

Dashy sits at the manual end: one YAML file holds every section, link and widget, with a UI editor layered over that same file for anyone who would rather not write it by hand. Homarr removes the YAML file entirely in favor of dragging tiles into place, and adds its own login system rather than relying only on a reverse proxy for access control. Compass goes further still, finding the services already running in Docker, Kubernetes or Tailscale on its own, so there is less to write down in the first place.

None of this is plug-and-play the way a hosted account is. Whichever one you pick, you are responsible for running the container, keeping it updated, and deciding how, or whether, to expose it outside your own network. The trade-off for that upkeep is depth: a self-hosted dashboard can show live status for exactly the services you already run, in a way a hosted board with a fixed widget catalog cannot.

4 entries

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On the list

  1. Dashy

    Self-hosted app launcher with live status checks, dozens of widgets, and a YAML config.

    Type
    Self-hosted
    Price
    Free and open source
    Code
    Open source, MIT
    Runs on
    Docker, Raspberry Pi, Linux, macOS and more

    Checked

    Read the write-up dashy.to

  4. MyKK

    Single HTML file start page with drag-drop widgets, offline storage and optional cloud sync.

    Type
    Self-hosted
    Price
    Free plan, paid upgrades
    Code
    Open source, MIT
    Runs on
    Web, Chrome, Edge, Safari

    Checked

    Read the write-up mykk.us

Questions people ask

How can I create my own dashboard for free?

Run an open source self-hosted dashboard on hardware you already own, a spare machine, a small VPS or a Raspberry Pi, usually inside Docker. The software itself costs nothing; the only real expense is whatever you already pay to host it.

How can I build my own dashboard?

Pick a self-hosted project, install it with Docker, and either write a config file or use its own editor to add the services and widgets you want. How much of that is manual versus automatic depends on the specific project.