Easy Self-Hosting Platforms

I've noticed this as well and I really think there's a market for a simple self-hosted cloud server. Many people aren't comfortable with managing a server and all the tech aspects that come with it. What I envision is a bring-your-own server solution that provides recommended specs (or buy from the company as a funding source) and similar to the app store you can download containerized app, let's say from docker, with 0 technical knowledge. Just a nice UI and all the function

You should check out YunoHost, it's like Sandstorm, better maintained and 90% there imo.

Several projects are trying to achieve this: freedombox, yunohost, cozy cloud, sandstorm.io, ...

pikapods is the closest thing ive seen to that so far. the server is managed by someone else so you just have to sign up and choose what apps you want, unlike yunohost or cloudron where you need to setup up your own server firsthttps://www.pikapods.com

Well, you can use a managed version, both Sandstorm and Cloudron can be subscribed to as online services. I also think there's a lot of opportunity for families and small groups. Most people I am close with would not run their own server, but perhaps would use mine if I offered it.

Look into the Freedombox project. They are building something better. It aims to provide a personal server for everyone.

Seems to be an intersting idea. I wish there was a way to achieve the same effect with your own "personal cloud" server, instead of relying on a startup's infrastructure.

libreoffice can be online. owncloud n nextcloud have it.seriously why so much 3rd party hosted stuff? why lastpass not keepass? why medium not ghost or some static generator or even wordpress? why pandora not airsonic or funkwhale? why fastmail not miab or plain postfix/dovecot/roundcube?i can't help but feel you're exchanging one leash for another.

Past tense need not be used. You are not forced to give all your data to others, even today.It's just less than trivial to get it running yourself.Reminds me I need to check in on https://Sandstorm.io and see how they're doing. I've tried to install it a couple of times and bounced off of it a couple times, not always due to things that are their fault (i.e., they do sensible things with DNS but my managed

Running your own instance is not difficult. I recommend installing Yunohost.org on a $5/month VPS or some hardware you have laying around such as a single board computer. Installing apps from the Yunohost catalog is like installing from an app store. You can try different apps like Akkoma, Mastodon, Calckey, and others until you find the one you like. Then Yunohost makes maintenance and upgrade easy thank to the community of people maintaining the scripts that do everything behind the scene