Other softwareAI models and assistantsLibraries and frameworksOperating systems and desktopMedia and creativeAI coding toolsInfrastructure and DevOpsTerminal and shellBrowsers and extensionsEmail and chatSelf-hosted and home serverNetworking and VPNEditors and IDEsSecurity and passwordsProductivityDatabasesFiles, sync and backupGit and code hostingNotes and knowledgeMonitoring and analyticsSearchFinance
Infrastructure and DevOps
What HN commenters recommend, ranked by distinct recommenders. Under each: what people praise most and the most common caveat, or the strongest quote where there is no summary yet.
- 1.Loved for Docker drop-in, Rootless security · Caveat Compatibility gaps
- 2.Loved for Free tier value, Developer platform · Caveat Global outages
- 3.Loved for Self-hosting, Host isolation · Caveat macOS experience
- 4.Loved for Low cost, Cloudflare alternative · Caveat Feature gaps
- 5.Loved for Homelab foundation, VMware replacement · Caveat Learning curve
- 6.Loved for Low cost, Developer experience · Caveat Debugging
- 7.Loved for Multi-node scaling, Built-in features · Caveat Overkill complexity
- 8.Loved for Price and value, Simplicity · Caveat Price increases
- 9.Loved for Agent sandboxing, VM and containers · Caveat Networking setup
- 10.Loved for Docker Desktop replacement, Speed · Caveat Cost
- 11.Loved for Windows dev environment, Both worlds · Caveat Host OS frustrations
- 12.Loved for Shelley agent, Agent sandboxes · Caveat No outbound firewall
- 13.Loved for Free for OSS, Easy setup · Caveat Outages
- 14.Loved for Agent sandboxing, Architecture emulation · Caveat macOS performance
- 15.Loved for Agent sandboxes, CI runners · Caveat Complex operations
- 16.Loved for Versatile automation, Works with AI agents · Caveat Painful to use
- 17.Loved for Agent sandboxing, Docker replacement · Caveat Work in progress
- 18.Loved for Free hosting, Simple HTML hosting · Caveat No auth
- 19.Loved for Reliability, Cheap tiny projects · Caveat Unpredictable bills
- 20.Loved for Pairs with Workers, Easy coordination · Caveat India routing
- 21.Loved for Docker Desktop alternative, Open source · Caveat No GUI
- 22.Loved for Static site hosting, Free tier · Caveat Confusing dashboard
- 23.Loved for Monolith web apps, Container deploys · Caveat Architecture complexity
- 24.Loved for Ease of use, Free tier · Caveat Pricing
- 25.Loved for Reliability, Easy sync · Caveat Storage value
- 26.Loved for Pairs with Ansible, CI/CD integration · Caveat Provider quality
- 27.Loved for Self-hosted runners, Dynamic pipelines · Caveat Setup effort
- 28.Loved for Model publishing hub, Dataset hosting
- 29.Loved for Near-local feel, No gaming PC · Caveat Latency
- 30.Loved for Agent sandboxing, Personal apps · Caveat Terminal access
- 31.Loved for Ease of use, Side projects · Caveat Security incident
- 32.Loved for Immutable distro dev, Simple rootless isolation · Caveat Limited isolation
- 33.Loved for Agent foundation, Durable reliability · Caveat Long-running updates
- 34.Loved for GPU serverless, Agent sandboxes · Caveat Docker in sandboxes
- 35.Loved for Simpler than AWS, UI and API · Caveat Cost at scale
- 36.Loved for Forgejo/Gitea pairing, Simple design · Caveat Missing features
- 37.Loved for Backup target, Low price · Caveat Basic features
- 38.Every night my laptop and homelab both back up to each other and to B2.
- 39.With Apple Silicon virtualization, having macos and arch and fedora all going at once is amazing.
- 40.fly.io is doing really good work. I've super enjoyed building our product on their platform.
- 41.has "smolvm" microvms with better performance and ergonomics and security than docker, you might want to give it a try. (No affiliation, I just like what they're doing.)
- 42.I've been using PyInfra for a while, albeit just for simple automation (Updating systems, checking certain stats) and I'm a big fan.
- 43.it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines
- 44.If you are looking for serverless compute (aws lambda, cf workers), I know of Scaleway in europe.
- 45.I pay for iCloud for the family because I don't want to be Oncall 24/7/365.
- 46.I think your usecase better fit with Lima -> https://lima-vm.io/ than microvm.
- 47.Still love CircleCI. They're one of the most mature in the space.
- 48.for paid workers I'd reach for WarpBuild or similar most of the time (WarpBuild still runs my deploys/iOS builds)
- 49.For low-volume static sites (which all of mine are) this is free, fast, and convenient.
- 50.Heroku when you just want your app to work forever without having to think about it.
- 51.I use k3s for my home network because it's simple and easy
- 52.Yes, I use Dagger, it's much more than building containers
- 53.Also running bhyve as daily driver with Ubuntu for development purposes. Everything works without issues, perfectly.
- 54.microsandbox by default speak ssh without you needing to have a ssh server in the vm.
- 55.I use linode and have nothing but praises for their service.
- 56.For microvms, take a look at https://smolmachines.com
- 57.p2p GPU rental marketplaces like vast.ai can offer much more economical options.
- 58.A small VPS + LetsEncrypt + Dokku is a fantastic way to run personal side projects/hustles at minimal cost.
- 59.Check out the CRIU patchset (since merged to mainline) which can even resume applications seamlessly across hosts
- 60.I have been using Inngest for over a year now and really like the APIs you guys have created
- 61.nixos-rebuild with `--target-host` is also working well for us however
- 62.Gitlab CI with some remote runners on a VPS that I already have (so I can keep myself on the free tier). Works perfectly.
- 63.I also switched from DigitalOcean and have found UpCloud very good for my purposes.
- 64.I've a number of apps on their App Platform and it works great.
- 65.I love the product and what you are doing -- it's definitely needed and valuable.
- 66.Helm is a great tool, but you absolutely must keep it simple.
- 67.I used to run Win 10 in Parallels on MacOS and it was excellent
- 68.It's my go-to management interface for VMs like this.
- 69.I love OneDrive. I don't know why everyone hates it.