Every year the selfh.st team runs a community-wide survey to capture a snapshot of what self-hosters are actually deploying, how they're running it, and what problems they're trying to solve. The 2026 edition opened on 7 October and closes at 9pm ET on Saturday 31 October 2026. If you care about where this space is heading, go fill it out before the deadline.

Survey data like this is genuinely useful. It tells developers which platforms to prioritize, helps newcomers figure out what the community has already road-tested, and gives everyone a clearer picture of real-world self-hosting, not just what's trending on Reddit this week.

💡 Why This Survey Matters

Most self-hosting content is driven by whoever shouts loudest. A well-run annual survey cuts through that noise. Last year's edition drew just over 4,000 responses, and this year's passed 2,000 within two days of opening. When thousands of people answer the same questions, patterns emerge that no single blog post or forum thread can capture.

Past surveys have surfaced useful signal around things like: which container runtimes people actually use in production, how many folks run bare-metal versus virtualized, and which app categories are growing fastest. That kind of aggregate data helps the whole ecosystem, including tool maintainers who use it to make roadmap decisions.

🧰 What the Survey Typically Covers

The exact question set changes each year, so check the live survey at selfh.st/survey/2026-open/ for the full list. This year's edition runs to 45 potential questions, including a new section on AI. Past editions have asked about:

  • Hardware setup: Raspberry Pi, repurposed desktops, dedicated servers, VPS, or a mix
  • Virtualization and container platforms: Proxmox, Docker, Podman, bare-metal, LXC
  • Operating system preferences: Debian, Ubuntu, NixOS, Unraid, TrueNAS, and others
  • App categories you're running: media, home automation, productivity, security, AI
  • Networking approach: Tailscale, WireGuard, Cloudflare Tunnel, reverse proxies
  • Experience level and how long you've been self-hosting
  • Pain points and what you wish were easier

Even if your setup is modest, your answers are worth submitting. The survey is only as representative as the people who actually respond, and the "just a Raspberry Pi with a few containers" crowd is just as important to count as the 40-drive NAS builders.

📊 How the Data Gets Used

selfh.st publishes a breakdown of results once the survey closes, and this year's results are expected in early November 2026. That report is worth bookmarking. It gives you a fast way to benchmark your own setup against the broader community and spot tools or approaches you might not have considered.

For developers and project maintainers, published survey data is often referenced when deciding which platforms to officially support, which installation methods to document first, and where to focus community-facing effort. Your response has a downstream effect beyond just being a data point.

🛡️ A Note on Privacy

Before filling out any community survey, it's reasonable to check what data is collected and how it's stored. Visit the survey page directly and review any privacy or data handling notes provided by the selfh.st team. Standard best practice: don't enter anything you wouldn't want associated with your online presence, and use a throwaway email if one is requested and you'd prefer to stay anonymous.

🔧 Getting the Most Out of Survey Season

While you're thinking about your setup in order to answer the survey questions, it's a good time to do a quick audit. A few things worth reviewing:

  • Are all your containers running on current image tags, or have some drifted behind?
  • Do you have a working backup and have you tested a restore recently?
  • Are any services still exposed on default ports with default credentials?
  • Is anything running that you set up once and forgot about?

Survey questions have a way of surfacing things you've been meaning to fix. Treat it as a useful prompt, not just a form to get through.

📅 Don't Wait on This

Community surveys have a fixed window, and selfh.st closes submissions at 9pm ET on Saturday 31 October 2026. Results are expected in early November. Sharing the link with other self-hosters in your circle, Discord servers, or local tech groups helps produce a more representative sample, which means better data for everyone when results are published.

Head to selfh.st/survey/2026-open/ and submit your responses. It takes a few minutes and the published results are worth having in your back pocket for the rest of the year.

✅ Wrap Up

The 2026 selfh.st Self-Host User Survey is open until 9pm ET on Saturday 31 October 2026, and it's one of the best annual snapshots of what the community is actually running. Fill it out, share it, and look for the results report once it drops. Community-driven data only works if the community shows up to provide it.

Originally published at codewithromi.com.