If you’re running a home lab or hosting small services (like Pi-hole, MiniDLNA, immich, DNS, or a personal Git server), you’ve probably hit this decision point:
➡️ Should I run it in containers, or just install it directly on the host?
After experimenting with both approaches, here’s what I’ve learned:
🐳 Containers (Docker/Podman/K8s)
✅ Easy to snapshot, migrate, and back up
✅ Great isolation between services
✅ Declarative infrastructure with Compose/K8s
✅ Easy to test upgrades or rollbacks
⚠️ Slightly more overhead for networking (especially for DNS/DHCP)
⚠️ Needs some orchestration even for small setups
⚠️ Logging and persistence require good planning
🧱 Bare Metal (Direct Host Install)
✅ Faster to set up (sometimes)
✅ Lower resource usage (marginally)
✅ Slightly better performance
✅ Less abstraction = fewer surprises
⚠️ Harder to replicate or rebuild quickly
⚠️ System dependencies can conflict over time
⚠️ Limited portability
🎯 My personal rule of thumb:
- Containers for apps (e.g., Image gallery, Gitea, Media servers)
- Bare metal for infrastructure-critical tools (e.g., DNS resolver, DHCP, firewall)
That balance gives me both control and flexibility, without introducing too much complexity.
What’s your approach for small-scale self-hosted services? Do you go all-in on containers, stick to native installs, or mix both? Would love to hear how others are building and managing their home labs!