Hey everyone. I really want to replace Google photos with some sort of self-hosted solution. However, I am getting overwhelmed.
The first thing that came up when I did a little bit of research is buying a NAS. However, I just noticed these devices are so expensive with really weak specs. Feel like I am getting ripped off. Also, I heard that it can be slow? Is that true?
Anyway, I was told it is better to just buy a Resperry pi. However, these things are expensive for the specs. Would a used Intel NUC be better? Can you use any mini pc for that?
I have seen some crazy powerful (compared to the pi) cheap used Ryzen mini PCs, can those be turned into servers?
You could put your photos onto Nextcloud seamlessly from your phone - same as Google does it for you - but you’re in control of your data. Nextcloud is self-hostable or you could get storage space from a reputable supplier. I use Hetzner storage share - £5.50/month (roughly) for 1TB. It’s up to you, you can host other stuff using Nextcloud too- notes, calendars, ebooks etc.
I’ve been doing it now for about a year and it’s interesting and fun. I think free open source software is a go to too. Whichever way you decide to go, good luck.