Automation / AI / Dev★ ~208k
n8n
Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities and 400+ integrations
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Self-hosted software, sized honestly
Can I run it on a $5 VPS?
Look up a self-hosted app before you rent a server. RunOnVPS separates published hardware requirements from clearly labelled estimates, then turns the recommended spec into a practical VPS tier.
50self-hosted apps checked
7apps with all published minimum fields classed as official
43apps where at least one minimum value is an estimate
App directory
Find your app
Search by app, job, category or the SaaS product you want to replace. The badges show the basis for the number, not a quality score.
Showing 50 of 50 apps
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~157k
Open WebUI
Self-hosted AI platform and chat interface for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs with built-in RAG
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~64k
Coolify
Self-hostable PaaS alternative to Vercel/Heroku/Netlify to deploy apps/databases and 360+ one-click services
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~159k
Dify
Open-source LLM app development platform combining AI workflow/RAG pipeline/agent capabilities and model management
- Minimum RAM
- 4 GiB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 8 GiB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~67k
AnythingLLM
All-in-one local-first AI app to chat with documents and build agents with multi-user support
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~46k
LibreChat
Self-hosted AI chat platform (enhanced ChatGPT clone) unifying major AI providers with agents and MCP support
- Minimum RAM
- 1 GiB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 2 GB Official
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~38k
Dokploy
Free self-hostable PaaS (open-source alternative to Vercel/Netlify/Heroku) to deploy and manage apps and databases
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~184k
Ollama
Runtime to run open LLMs locally or in the cloud with a simple CLI and REST API
- Minimum RAM
- 8 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 16 GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ ~61k
Plane
Open-source project management platform (Jira/Linear alternative) for tasks/cycles/docs and triage
- Minimum RAM
- 4 GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 8 GB Official
Media / Photos / Files★ 117030
Immich
High performance self-hosted photo and video management solution
- Minimum RAM
- 6GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 8GB Official
Media / Photos / Files★ 58309
Jellyfin
The Free Software Media System for managing and streaming your media
- Minimum RAM
- 4GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 8GB Official
Media / Photos / Files★ 24325
Navidrome
Web-based music collection server and streamer — your personal Spotify
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Media / Photos / Files★ 37260
Nextcloud
Self-hosted file sync share and collaboration platform — a safe home for all your data
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Estimated
Media / Photos / Files★ 15374
Seafile
Open-source cloud storage system with file sync sharing and team collaboration
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Official
Media / Photos / Files★ 40349
PhotoPrism
AI-powered photos app for browsing organizing and sharing photos and videos
- Minimum RAM
- 3GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Official
Media / Photos / Files★ 14759
Audiobookshelf
Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Media / Photos / Files★ 6778
Komga
Media server for comics mangas BDs magazines and eBooks with OPDS Kobo and KOReader sync
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Media / Photos / Files★ 94819
Stirling-PDF
Locally hosted PDF toolkit with 50+ tools to merge split convert OCR and compress PDFs
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Official
Productivity / Finance★ ~69500
Vaultwarden
Unofficial Bitwarden-compatible password manager server written in Rust
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~26000
Actual Budget
Local-first personal finance app with envelope budgeting
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~24900
Firefly III
Free and open-source personal finances manager with double-entry bookkeeping
- Minimum RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~19100
BookStack
Self-hosted platform for organising and storing documentation and wiki content
- Minimum RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~38500
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical personal knowledge base and note-taking app
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~62000
Memos
Open-source self-hosted note-taking tool built for quick capture
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~45900
Paperless-ngx
Document management system that scans indexes and archives documents with OCR
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~39000
Outline
Fast collaborative team knowledge base and wiki
- Minimum RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~56600
Joplin Server
Self-hosted sync and sharing server for the Joplin note-taking app
- Minimum RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2 GB Estimated
Productivity / Finance★ ~12000
Wallabag
Self-hostable read-it-later app for saving and archiving web articles
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 92808
Uptime Kuma
Easy-to-use self-hosted uptime monitoring tool with status pages
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 29443
Plausible
Privacy-first lightweight web analytics; cookie-free Google Analytics alternative
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 39601
Umami
Privacy-first web and product analytics platform
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 38706
Portainer
Lightweight container management UI for Docker Swarm Podman and Kubernetes
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Official
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 81108
Netdata
Real-time per-second infrastructure monitoring and observability platform
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 26488
Beszel
Lightweight server monitoring with historical data Docker stats and alerts
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 34512
Nginx Proxy Manager
Web UI for managing Nginx reverse proxy hosts with free SSL
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 37640
AdGuard Home
Network-wide ads and trackers blocking DNS server
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 61417
Pi-hole
Network-wide ad blocking via a DNS sinkhole
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Monitoring / Analytics / Infra★ 77463
Grafana
Open observability and data visualization platform for metrics logs and traces
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 21501
WordPress
Open-source CMS and blogging platform
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 55598
Ghost
Modern publishing platform with memberships and newsletters
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 50441
Mastodon
Self-hosted federated microblogging community
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 14283
Lemmy
Decentralised discussion platform for communities
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 58663
Gitea
Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service (Git hosting)
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 49259
Cal.com
Scheduling infrastructure for absolutely everyone
- Minimum RAM
- 2GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 4GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 23942
Listmonk
High-performance self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager
- Minimum RAM
- 1GB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 16405
FreshRSS
Free self-hostable RSS news aggregator
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 35240
changedetection.io
Website change detection and change alerts
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 2GB Estimated
Web / Community / Collaboration★ 9820
Miniflux
Minimalist and opinionated feed reader
- Minimum RAM
- 512MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1GB Estimated
Automation / AI / Dev★ 25192
Activepieces
Open-source workflow/business automation platform with a visual flow builder and 200+ integrations
- Minimum RAM
- 4 GB Official
- Recommended RAM
- 8 GB Estimated
Media / Photos / Files★ 12698
SFTPGo
Fully featured SFTP/FTPS/WebDAV/HTTP file transfer server with web admin and S3/GCS/Azure backends
- Minimum RAM
- 512 MB Estimated
- Recommended RAM
- 1 GB Estimated
No apps match that search.
Try a shorter name or clear the category filter.
Comparisons & best-of guides
Choosing between two apps?
Head-to-head requirement tables for the pairs people weigh up most, plus every category ranked lightest-first by recommended RAM — all from the same checked dataset.
Head-to-head
Immich vs PhotoPrism
The official 8 GB recommendation vs the lighter 3 GB minimum — two AGPL photo libraries, sized side by side.
Head-to-head
Plausible vs Umami
Privacy-first analytics: one official RAM floor backed by ClickHouse vs a lighter, all-estimated MIT stack.
Head-to-head
n8n vs Activepieces
Automation rivals where the licence — fair-code vs MIT core — matters as much as the RAM.
Head-to-head
Nextcloud vs Seafile
The broad collaboration platform vs the file-sync specialist with fully published whole-machine specs.
Head-to-head
Coolify vs Dokploy
Same recommended RAM — the published differences are disk (10 GB vs 30 GB) and CPU disclosure.
Head-to-head
Ghost vs WordPress
Both map to the same 2 GB tier in our dataset; publishing focus, licence and Docker status separate them.
Best-of guide
Best VPS for AI & automation apps
All 10 AI, automation and PaaS apps ranked by recommended RAM, from LibreChat to Ollama.
Best-of guide
Best VPS for media & file apps
Photo, music, video and file apps ranked by recommended RAM, from Navidrome to Immich and Jellyfin.
Best-of guide
Best VPS for monitoring & analytics apps
Monitoring, analytics and infrastructure apps ranked by recommended RAM — most fit the smallest tiers.
Best-of guide
Best VPS for productivity & finance apps
Notes, documents, passwords and budgeting apps ranked by recommended RAM, from Vaultwarden to Outline.
Why two badges?
Official is not the same as estimated
Many excellent projects never publish a complete hardware minimum. Rather than copying an unsourced number from a hosting blog, RunOnVPS marks those entries as Estimated and explains the documented deployment used for the estimate. A value is only marked Official when the checked source supplied it without an estimate marker in our dataset.