Best Self-hosted Backup Apps

Most people don't think about backups until it's too late - a failed drive, an accidental delete, a ransomware attack. By then, the damage is done. Cloud backup services solve part of the problem, but they come with monthly fees that add up fast, storage caps that always seem too small, and the nagging feeling that your most personal files are sitting on a stranger's server. Self-hosting your backups fixes all of that. Your data stays on hardware you own, in a location you control, with no one else having access. The apps in this category range from simple automated tools that quietly back up your laptop each night, to powerful solutions that handle versioned snapshots, encrypted off-site replication, and full NAS synchronisation across an entire homelab. Most are lightweight enough to run on a Raspberry Pi or an old desktop, and once they're configured, they just run in the background without you needing to think about them. It's the kind of peace of mind that a £10/month cloud subscription never quite delivers.