This is the core stack I\u2019m already running. I consider these the essentials for getting a server productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Jellyfin: This is my go-to for multimedia files. It\u2019s a fantastic, free-software media system that organizes and streams all my tutorials, movies, and music to any device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* qBittorrent: My torrent client of choice. It runs 24\/7 and shares its download folder directly with Jellyfin, so new media is available almost instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* MeTube: I run this alongside qBittorrent. It\u2019s perfect for pulling down videos from sites like YouTube to archive them locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Bitmagnet: I don\u2019t run this all the time, but it\u2019s an incredibly powerful tool when I need to index and search torrents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Romm: This app is just amazing. I have a bunch of old games I\u2019d like to back up, and Romm lets me do that and play them from anywhere by running an emulator right in the browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Syncthing: An absolute must-have. This keeps all my personal photos and videos synchronized from my phone and laptop directly to the server. It\u2019s my private, encrypted, \u201cno-cloud\u201d photo backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Passbolt: To keep all my server-related passwords secure and encrypted. You get a lot of passwords and keys with a setup like this; this is the only way to manage them sanely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Cloudflared: This is how I make this website and other services available online with my own domain name. It creates a secure tunnel, so I don\u2019t have to open a single port on my router.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Cockpit WS: I don\u2019t run this continuously because giving it admin mode feels insecure for my liking. But it\u2019s great to have if you\u2019re in a rush and can\u2019t figure out some file permissions from the command line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you have a foundation, here are the apps I\u2019d add to truly supercharge your server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the single biggest upgrade for any media setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* What it is: A suite of apps that fully automates your media pipeline. I\u2019m already using qBittorrent and Jellyfin, but I was still manually finding everything. The \u201cArr\u201d stack does the hunting for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Radarr (for movies) & Sonarr (for TV shows): You tell them what you want. They monitor for it, and as soon as a high-quality version appears, they tell qBittorrent to download it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Prowlarr: This manages all your torrent indexer sites and syncs them to Sonarr and Radarr automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Why You\u2019ll Love It: You\u2019ll never manually search for media again. Your Jellyfin library just\u2026 grows. It\u2019s the \u201cset it and forget it\u201d dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a quality-of-life upgrade for your entire network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* What it is: A network-wide ad and tracker blocker. Forget browser plugins\u2014this runs on your server, and you just point your router\u2019s DNS to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It blocks ads on every device on your network. Your phone, your smart TV, your laptop\u2026 everything. It also blocks malware domains and trackers, which is a great privacy and security boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Why You\u2019ll Love It: The first time you browse the web on your phone without a single ad, you\u2019ll wonder how you lived without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This cleans up all your internal bookmarks and makes you feel like a pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* What it is: An easy-to-use reverse proxy. I\u2019m already using Cloudflared for external access, but I was getting tired of remembering http:\/\/192.168.1.50:8096 for Jellyfin and http:\/\/192.168.1.50:8080 for qBittorrent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NPM lets you create friendly, internal \u201cdomains.\u201d Now, I just type http:\/\/jellyfin.local or http:\/\/torrent.local in my browser. It handles all the port routing and can even add SSL certificates to your internal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Why You\u2019ll Love It: It\u2019s the perfect companion to Cloudflared. It makes your internal network feel just as polished as your public-facing one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is your \u201cI messed up\u201d insurance policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* What it is: A true backup application. I love Syncthing, but I had to learn the hard way that sync is NOT a backup. If you accidentally delete a file, Syncthing faithfully deletes it from the server, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duplicati creates versioned, encrypted, and deduplicated backups of your most critical data (like your apps dataset or your Passbolt database) and sends them to an off-site location (like Backblaze B2, Google Drive, or even a friend\u2019s NAS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Why You\u2019ll Love It: This is the app you hope you never need, but you\u2019ll be so thankful for it when you do. It\u2019s the difference between a minor hassle and a total catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ultimate \u201crabbit hole\u201d for a server that\u2019s already on 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* What it is: The most powerful, open-source smart home hub on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your TrueNAS server is the perfect \u201cbrain\u201d for your smart home. Home Assistant integrates with thousands of devices (lights, switches, thermostats, TVs) and lets you build powerful automations, all 100% locally without relying on \u201cthe cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Why You\u2019ll Love It: It\u2019s a hobby in itself. If you have even one smart plug, this is the way to take back control and make your home truly smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Uptime Kuma: A beautiful dashboard that monitors your other apps. It\u2019ll send you an alert if your website or Jellyfin ever goes down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* PhotoPrism (or Immich): If you want a full, self-hosted Google Photos replacement with AI search and facial recognition, this is it. It\u2019s a great next step after setting up Syncthing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Vaultwarden: A lightweight server for Bitwarden. Since I\u2019m already using Passbolt for server secrets, this is a fantastic option for managing personal and family passwords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* Nextcloud: A full-blown, self-hosted Google Drive replacement. It handles files, contacts, calendars, and even<\/em> document editing. It\u2019s a beast, but it\u2019s a capable one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Foundation: The \u201cMust-Have\u201d Apps This is the core stack I\u2019m already running. I consider these the essentials for getting a server productive. Media & Downloads: * Jellyfin: This is my go-to for multimedia files. It\u2019s a fantastic, free-software media system that organizes and streams all my tutorials, movies, and music to any device. * […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.claudiasteward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}