ElfHosted Reviews and Details

Questions & Answers

1. What makes ElfHosted unique?

   ElfHosted runs open-source apps for families, so nobody in the household has to look after a server. What sets us apart is how we do it:

   • Families first: we put photos, passwords, recipes, books and movie night ahead of everything else. Apps like Immich, Vaultwarden and Mealie are set up to share with everyone at home, updated for you and backed up every day.
   • You're in control: we've invested heavily in self-service. Your ElfBot dashboard lets you restart, restore and manage your own apps. Sam, our AI helper, reads your app logs, troubleshoots problems, restores backups and can even configure some apps, always asking before changing anything. Or bring your own AI agent to look after your stack.
   • Private, secure and transparent: your apps and data stay yours, Sam only ever sees your own account, our status page is public, and our privacy policy is in plain language.
   • We give back: we sponsor the developers of many of the apps we host, and run free public instances of popular open-source tools for anyone to use.
   • We treat people well: honest pricing, real help when something breaks, and reviews that say so.
   • A community that's looked after: our Discord is professionally run and moderated, with the team on hand around the clock.

2. How would you describe the primary audience of ElfHosted?

   • Households and families who want open-source apps for photos, passwords, recipes, books and movie night, without keeping a computer running at home
   • Media fans who want Plex, Emby or Jellyfin without a home server
   • Tinkerers who'd rather spend their time using apps than maintaining them

3. Why should a person choose ElfHosted over its competitors?

   Because it's built for people who want the apps, not the hosting, and run by people who know those apps inside out.

   • Deep app knowledge: we know these apps and the ecosystem around them well, so setups work properly from day one and problems get fixed by people who understand them
   • Good for the developers too: we have supportive, cooperative relationships with many of the developers behind our apps and sponsor their work, so running your apps with us means the best support for you and for the people who build them
   • Nothing to deploy or configure: choose an app and it's running, updated and backed up, with apps set up to work together and Flex plans you can swap as your needs change
   • Help that knows your setup: Sam reads your logs, troubleshoots and fixes problems with your OK, and the team is on Discord around the clock

   Try it for $1 for 7 days.

4. What's the story behind ElfHosted?

   ElfHosted grew out of a love of self-hosting. For years we've published the Geek Cookbook, a free collection of guides to help people run open-source apps on their own hardware.

   Running apps at home is rewarding, but the upkeep never stops: updates, certificates, backups, and the night something breaks just before movie night. So we set out to solve the maintenance problem once, for everyone. ElfHosted runs the same open-source apps, keeps them updated and backed up, and handles the upkeep behind the scenes, so you can just enjoy your apps.

   We're independently run from New Zealand, and we sponsor the developers of the apps we host, so the projects people rely on keep getting better.

5. Which are the primary technologies used for building ElfHosted?

   Kubernetes, Flux and Helm, running across multiple data centres, with every app packaged and kept updated by our own build pipeline.

6. Who are some of the biggest customers of ElfHosted?

   • Families and households
   • Media enthusiasts
   • Home lab tinkerers