If you run anything at home, from one Raspberry Pi to a rack of Proxmox nodes, the biggest yearly snapshot of what self-hosters actually use closes this weekend.
The facts
- What: the 2026 Self-Host User Survey by Ethan Sholly of selfh.st, the site behind the Self-Host Weekly newsletter.
- Deadline: entries close at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 31, 2026 (selfh.st).
- Length: up to 45 questions, including a new section on AI this year.
- Results: published in early November.
- Turnout so far: it passed 5,000 responses by October 23 (Self-Host Weekly, Oct 23). For comparison, the 2025 results came from 4,000+ responses.
- The survey runs on the privacy-first, open-source survey platform Formbricks, which is also this year’s sponsor.
Why it matters for safe updates
The results show which apps people really run, how they deploy them (Docker, Proxmox, bare metal) and how they keep them updated. That shapes which projects get attention and help. Your answers about update habits, backups and auto-updates make the picture more honest.
Take it in 10 minutes
- Open the survey before Saturday night.
- Have your rough stack in mind: host OS, container tool, reverse proxy, how you update (manual, Watchtower, Renovate, or notify-only).
- Skip any question you don’t want to answer.
We’ll cover the results when they’re out. Meanwhile, check the current verdicts for the apps you run before you update them this weekend.