The Rack · 40 paid apps answered
Can I self-host ___?
— it's calledOne prompt to get ready. One prompt per app.
Every prompt assumes nothing is installed. Not even git.
The Rack
Every entry: what you'd stop paying, what you'd run instead, and how much of your evening it costs to get there.
- Photos & media
- Files & docs
- Notes & wikis
- Passwords & security
- Analytics
- Automation & dev
- Monitoring
- Comms & scheduling
- Marketing & content
- Work & PM
- Design & whiteboard
- Reading & bookmarks
- Money & home
- AI tools
Category pages open with the first cohort — these are the shelves, not links yet.
1Password1password.comVaultwarden — A Bitwarden-compatible password server small…$5.99/mo$71.88/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Adobe Acrobatadobe.comStirling-PDF — Sixty-odd PDF tools in one container, running…$24.99/mo$299.88/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4ChatGPTchatgpt.comLibreChat — One chat window in front of Anthropic, OpenAI…$20/mo$240/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Dropboxdropbox.comNextcloud — Files, calendars and contacts on hardware you…$11.99/mo$143.88/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Google Oneone.google.comImmich — Your camera roll uploads itself to a server y…$9.99/mo$119.88/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Home Assistant Cloudnabucasa.comHome Assistant — Open source home automation on hardware you o…$6.50/mo$78/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Miromiro.comExcalidraw — A hand-drawn-style whiteboard that runs as on…$8/mo$96/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Calendlycalendly.comCal.com — Send someone a link, they pick a slot, the in…$12/mo$144/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Cronitorcronitor.ioHealthchecks — A dead-man's switch for every cron job you ow…$2/mo$24/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4DocuSigndocusign.comDocuSeal — Send a PDF for signature and get it back sign…$15/mo$180/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Evernoteevernote.comTrilium — A personal knowledge base with a note tree, r…$24.99/mo$299.88/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Feedlyfeedly.comFreshRSS — A feed reader in one container, with your sub…$6.99/mo$83.88/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Ghost(Pro)ghost.orgGhost — The same publishing platform Ghost(Pro) hosts…$18/mo$216/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Intercomintercom.comChatwoot — A website chat widget feeding a shared agent…$195/mo$2,340/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Mailchimpmailchimp.comlistmonk — Your mailing list, your campaigns and your cl…$20/mo$240/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Matomo Cloudmatomo.orgMatomo — The full Google-Analytics-shaped suite on you…$42/mo$504/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Notionnotion.comDocmost — Spaces, nested pages and an editor two people…$120/mo$1,440/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Obsidian Syncobsidian.mdObsidian LiveSync — Your Obsidian vault syncs through a CouchDB y…$5/mo$60/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Plausibleplausible.ioPlausible CE — The same privacy-first analytics dashboard th…$14/mo$168/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Raindrop.ioraindrop.ioLinkwarden — Bookmarks that keep their own copy of the pag…$3/mo$36/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Slackslack.comMattermost — Channels, threads and file sharing for a team…$87.50/mo$1,050/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Typeformtypeform.comFormbricks — Link surveys and in-product feedback on your…$129/mo$1,548/yrONGOING OPS— setup effort 4 of 4Umami Cloudumami.isUmami — Pageviews, referrers and custom events on a h…$20/mo$240/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4UptimeRobotuptimerobot.comUptime Kuma — Uptime monitoring and status pages from one c…$10/mo$120/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Vercelvercel.comCoolify — A deploy button and a build pipeline for the…$20/mo$240/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4YNABynab.comActual Budget — Zero-based envelope budgeting in one containe…$14.99/mo$179.88/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Zapierzapier.comActivepieces — Trigger-and-action automation with a visual b…$29.99/mo$359.88/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Zoomzoom.comJitsi Meet — Video meetings on your own hostname, with no…$84.95/mo$1,019.40/yrONE WEEKEND— setup effort 3 of 4Airtableairtable.comGrist — A spreadsheet with a real database underneath…$100/mo$1,200/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Asanaasana.comOpenProject — Classic project management with work packages…$67.45/mo$809.40/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Bitlybitly.comShlink — Your own short-link domain, with visit counts…$10/mo$120/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Bufferbuffer.comPostiz — One calendar for every social account, on you…$10/mo$120/yrONGOING OPS— setup effort 4 of 4Grafana Cloudgrafana.comGrafana OSS — Dashboards and alert rules over data you alre…$19/mo$228/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Instapaperinstapaper.comwallabag — Saves the readable article, not the link, and…$5.99/mo$71.88/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4Linktreelinktr.eeLinkStack — Your own link-in-bio page, with an admin pane…$15/mo$180/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Paprika Recipe Managerpaprikaapp.comMealie — Your recipe box, meal plans and shopping list…no list priceONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Pinboardpinboard.inlinkding — A tag-first bookmark manager in one container…$1.83/mo$21.96/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Spotify Premiumspotify.comNavidrome — A music server for the files you already own,…$12.99/mo$155.88/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Todoisttodoist.comVikunja — One container holding every task, project and…$7/mo$84/yrONE COMMAND— setup effort 1 of 4Trellotrello.comWeKan — Trello-shaped boards with swimlanes, checklis…$30/mo$360/yrONE EVENING— setup effort 2 of 4
Rank is editorial, and the basis is written down on /methodology. Prices are vendor list prices in USD; the plan and the seat assumption behind each figure are on the app's own page.
Paying for something that belongs here? Send it in — the data, the prompts, and the harness are all open.
A sample of the rack, itemized: monthly list price per app, and what runs in its place
The Rack — itemized
5 of 40 apps · USD, monthly
- 1Password$5.99/moruns as Vaultwarden on your server
- Adobe Acrobat$24.99/moruns as Stirling-PDF on your server
- ChatGPT$20/moruns as LibreChat on your server
- Dropbox$11.99/moruns as Nextcloud on your server
- Google One$9.99/moruns as Immich on your server
Total: not summed — you'd replace them one at a time.
list prices · assumptions on each app's page