--- title: I ditched my Raspberry Pi for an old Android phone, and... description: A homelab enthusiast compares running self-hosted services (Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Uptime Kuma, BentoPDF) on an old Motorola Android phone versus a Raspberry Pi... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-my-raspberry-pi-for-an-old-android-phone-and-my-self-hosted-services-finally-stopped-thro-nsk6jwqel twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I ditched my Raspberry Pi for an old Android phone, and my self-hosted services finally stopped throttling | daily.dev og:description: A homelab enthusiast compares running self-hosted services (Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Uptime Kuma, BentoPDF) on an old Motorola Android phone versus a Raspberry Pi... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-my-raspberry-pi-for-an-old-android-phone-and-my-self-hosted-services-finally-stopped-thro-nsk6jwqel og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NSK6jwqEl.png og:image:alt: I ditched my Raspberry Pi for an old Android phone, and my self-hosted services finally stopped throttling og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I ditched my Raspberry Pi for an old Android phone, and my self-hosted services finally stopped throttling **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 24 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary A homelab enthusiast compares running self-hosted services (Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Uptime Kuma, BentoPDF) on an old Motorola Android phone versus a Raspberry Pi 5. Despite a complex setup requiring root, Termux, and proot-distro to bind DNS to port 53, the old phone never thermally throttled under load, while the Pi 5 quietly throttles clock speed to manage heat, often invisibly, verifiable via vcgencmd get_throttled. The conclusion isn't that phones replace Pis, but that repurposed hardware can outperform a Pi for lightweight secondary homelab services when thermal headroom matters more than convenience. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does a Raspberry Pi 5 thermal throttle when running homelab services like Pi-hole without an active cooler? Yes, a Raspberry Pi 5 running services such as Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, and Uptime Kuma continuously without an active cooler can quietly throttle its clock speed to manage heat, without any obvious warning. You can check this by running vcgencmd get_throttled; a result of 0x0 means no throttling occurred, while any other value indicates the board reduced performance to protect itself. _Homelab builders weighing Pi 5 cooling setups can find comparisons like this through daily.dev._ ### Can an old Android phone run Pi-hole and other self-hosted homelab services reliably? Yes, an old Android phone with root access, Termux, proot-distro, and Docker can run Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Uptime Kuma, and BentoPDF continuously without noticeable CPU or thermal stress, even on modest hardware like a Snapdragon 845 with 6GB RAM. Combined container memory usage stayed under 500MB, though setup required binding to the privileged port 53 for DNS, unlike a plug-and-play Raspberry Pi deployment. _Anyone deciding between repurposed phones and Pis for a homelab can track these tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@sam7work** · 4 upvotes > Frankly the raspberry pi has lost the plot, it is too expensive and under powered, an old phone can set you back, what $30 , if you can get it going that is, and maybe install a Linux on it , i wish there would be a god way of getting a proper Linux into these , but there isn't and everything i have seen so far, is a total hackery with no support whatsoever. sadly a raspberry pi would cost as much as a mini pc , so , short of using the GPIO there is no reason to buy one , not even for a router, since it only has ONE Ethernet port, not as a sound system, because the built in sound chip is... **@rallisf1** · 0 upvotes > I'm running a k8s cluster on OnePlus 6 phones over postmarketOS as an experiment. The wifi was unstable; I had to use ethernet adapters. They work great though. **@deepjoshi\_dev** · 0 upvotes > The only problem is that phones are kind of unreliable when comes to run server for 24 hours. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [An old phone beats a Raspberry Pi for everything except the one thing that matters](https://daily.dev/posts/an-old-phone-beats-a-raspberry-pi-for-everything-except-the-one-thing-that-matters-zj2e7lv97) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [My old phone can't replace a Raspberry Pi for this home server project](https://daily.dev/posts/my-old-phone-can-t-replace-a-raspberry-pi-for-this-home-server-project-m12nbcpfl) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your old phone is a better home server than a Raspberry Pi](https://daily.dev/posts/your-old-phone-is-a-better-home-server-than-a-raspberry-pi-k8n6vn5b5) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#raspberry-pi](https://daily.dev/tags/raspberry-pi), [#homelab](https://daily.dev/tags/homelab) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-my-raspberry-pi-for-an-old-android-phone-and-my-self-hosted-services-finally-stopped-thro-nsk6jwqel) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} 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is too short in ram and the cpu isn’t powerful enough, plus it is expensive if available","datePublished":"2026-09-03T17:02:26.689Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NSK6jwqEl#c-yjeGgRJLG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam","url":"https://daily.dev/sam7work","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJGz1oRsDNA5jHaL8S_Dm_S69r5oVuMT_253w26IC3wacnjq1U=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m running a k8s cluster on OnePlus 6 phones over postmarketOS as an experiment. The wifi was unstable; I had to use ethernet adapters. They work great though.","datePublished":"2026-09-04T14:58:00.548Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NSK6jwqEl#c-ZbdTzKep3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"John Rallis","url":"https://daily.dev/rallisf1","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/8031572?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The only problem is that phones are kind of unreliable when comes to run server for 24 hours.","datePublished":"2026-09-07T14:37:10.231Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NSK6jwqEl#c-0Oj6m4U2h","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Deep Joshi","url":"https://daily.dev/deepjoshi_dev","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--TdY8j8Aa--/f_auto/v1776506972/avatars/avatar_aSUkzUQS97QJpQRxKMe49?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-my-raspberry-pi-for-an-old-android-phone-and-my-self-hosted-services-finally-stopped-thro-nsk6jwqel#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Does a Raspberry Pi 5 thermal throttle when running homelab services like Pi-hole without an active cooler?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, a Raspberry Pi 5 running services such as Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, and Uptime Kuma continuously without an active cooler can quietly throttle its clock speed to manage heat, without any obvious warning. 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