I ditched Plex, Google Photos, and iCloud for self-hosted alternatives, and Pangolin made it actually work
This title could be clearer and more informative.Try out Clickbait Shieldfor free (5 uses left this month).
A technology journalist shares how they replaced Plex Pass, Google One, and Apple One with self-hosted alternatives — Jellyfin, Immich, and Nextcloud — saving $30/month. The key challenge was remote access: CGNAT blocked direct exposure, so they deployed Pangolin (an open-source WireGuard-based reverse proxy) on a rented VPS to make all three services accessible from anywhere. The setup worked well, but the author is candid about the tradeoffs: maintenance overhead, manual updates, backup responsibility, and occasional troubleshooting replace the convenience that paid subscriptions provide. The conclusion is balanced — self-hosting makes sense if you already run hardware and the subscription costs outweigh the added work.
