felhom.eu/documentation/audits/forum-research-2026-10-12/FINDINGS.md

# FINDINGS — PROHARDVER! „Home server / házi szerver építése”, 2023-10-12 → 2026-10-12

Source: posts #7943–#11092 of the public topic, fetched 2026-10-12. Every number below is produced by
`build.py` from `tags.csv` and can be re-run. Post numbers make each claim checkable on the forum.
„People” = distinct writers (pseudonymous hash), never posts. Method and limits: `METHOD.md`.
**Hardware counts are approximate** (spot-check agreement 82.9 %, below the 85 % bar — `METHOD.md`).

## 1 Numbers

| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Post numbers in the window | 3,150 (#7943–#11092) |
| Posts on the forum, read and tagged | 2,908 (+1 excluded: #11091, Felhom's own announcement) |
| Missing on the forum | 241 — #9874–#10108 (235, the 2025 site outage), #10118–#10120, #8571, #9230, #11073 |
| Pages fetched | 34 (2 empty: hsz_9901–10000, hsz_10001–10100) |
| People | 195 (49 active in 2023 Q4, 101 in 2024, 96 in 2025, 62 in 2026 to Oct) |
| Posts by role | answers 1,600 · experienced asks 464 · other 351 · own setup 295 · beginner asks 198 |
| Question threads (all) | 308 |
| Beginner threads | 82, from 54 people (2023 Q4: 14 · 2024: 31 · 2025: 23 · 2026: 14) |
| Beginner threads resolved | yes 9 · no 4 · unknown 69 (most askers never report back) |

## 2 Top beginner questions (82 threads)

| # | Cluster (our words) | Threads | Examples | Answer the community most often gave |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which system do I install — TrueNAS, OMV, Proxmox, Xpenology, Windows? | 20 | #8046, #8201, #10418 | OpenMediaVault, then Proxmox; apps in Docker; plain Debian if you know Linux; TrueNAS called hard for a beginner |
| 2 | Which small, low-power machine should I buy? | 16 | #8143, #9251, #10518 | A used business mini PC or an N100-class box; for TV playback alone a Kodi/LibreELEC player |
| 3 | Disks: external USB drives, powering drives, adapters, RAID | 12 | #8124, #8301, #8783 | Do not power drives by hand — take a used business tower (SFF/MT) with bays; skip board RAID; keep a cold backup |
| 4 | How do I install or connect an app (containers, shares, Home Assistant)? | 11 | #7981, #8631, #10514 | Case by case; Home Assistant OS in its own VM or a cheap separate box |
| 5 | Ready NAS (Synology) or build / reuse a PC? | 10 | #7952, #8285, #8847 | Split: build or reuse a PC (6 answers) vs Synology (5) — price and freedom against convenience |
| 6 | How do I reach it from my phone or outside the home? | 7 | #8037, #8073, #8516 | Tailscale or WireGuard; never expose SMB; slow upload limits remote films |
| 7 | Is my old, inherited or office PC good enough? | 6 | #8330, #10254, #9145 | Usually yes for files, torrent and Plex; watch power draw |

Question types across all 82 threads (one thread may have several): hardware choice 49 · OS/platform 26 ·
storage/RAID 23 · remote access 16 · install help 13 · app choice 9 · power/noise 4 · cost 4 · broken 4 · backup 3.

## 3 Apps

**3a Wanted by beginners** (top 30)

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plex | 15 | #8176, #8201, #8240 |
| 2 | qBittorrent | 12 | #7952, #7964, #8046 |
| 3 | Home Assistant | 8 | #8285, #8292, #8296 |
| 4 | Jellyfin | 7 | #8273, #9145, #9148 |
| 5 | Samba | 7 | #8046, #8056, #8071 |
| 6 | BitTorrent client | 4 | #8330, #8358, #8367 |
| 7 | Nextcloud | 3 | #8783, #8785, #8999 |
| 8 | Emby | 2 | #8143, #11053 |
| 9 | Immich | 2 | #8631, #10362 |
| 10 | Minecraft server | 2 | #8143, #11012, #11051 |
| 11 | MiniDLNA | 2 | #8071, #8867, #8870 |
| 12 | Pi-hole | 2 | #8847, #8867, #8999 |
| 13 | Radarr | 2 | #8358, #10418 |
| 14 | Sonarr | 2 | #8358, #10418 |
| 15 | Chrome Remote Desktop | 1 | #10406 |
| 16 | CloudPanel | 1 | #8358 |
| 17 | Cloudflare Tunnel | 1 | #8073, #8079 |
| 18 | Conan Exiles server | 1 | #8715, #8731 |
| 19 | CyberPanel | 1 | #8356, #8358 |
| 20 | FTP | 1 | #11012 |
| 21 | GNS3 | 1 | #8849, #8867, #9001 |
| 22 | LDAP | 1 | #10362 |
| 23 | Mealie | 1 | #8358 |
| 24 | Media server | 1 | #8474 |
| 25 | Syncthing | 1 | #8867, #8999 |
| 26 | Tailscale | 1 | #10533 |
| 27 | Transmission | 1 | #8049 |
| 28 | VPN | 1 | #8330 |
| 29 | WordPress | 1 | #8356, #8358 |
| 30 | camera recording | 1 | #10254 |

**3b Run by experienced people** (top 30)

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plex | 28 | #7961, #7967, #8014 |
| 2 | Home Assistant | 23 | #7966, #8062, #8109 |
| 3 | qBittorrent | 22 | #8014, #8020, #8061 |
| 4 | Samba | 21 | #7973, #8014, #8066 |
| 5 | Jellyfin | 14 | #8982, #9118, #9135 |
| 6 | Nextcloud | 9 | #8020, #8022, #8109 |
| 7 | OPNsense | 8 | #7977, #8491, #8527 |
| 8 | Sonarr | 8 | #7967, #8014, #8733 |
| 9 | Transmission | 8 | #8022, #8470, #8507 |
| 10 | AdGuard Home | 7 | #7966, #8109, #8966 |
| 11 | Pi-hole | 7 | #8014, #8062, #8549 |
| 12 | Kodi | 6 | #8014, #8239, #8802 |
| 13 | Radarr | 6 | #7967, #8014, #8733 |
| 14 | Tailscale | 6 | #8527, #9241, #9248 |
| 15 | Minecraft server | 5 | #7954, #8266, #8637 |
| 16 | Portainer | 5 | #8963, #9529, #9541 |
| 17 | Cloudflare Tunnel | 4 | #8082, #8522, #8528 |
| 18 | Jackett | 4 | #8733, #9719, #9731 |
| 19 | MiniDLNA | 4 | #8014, #8109, #8540 |
| 20 | NFS | 4 | #8510, #8549, #8808 |
| 21 | Nginx Proxy Manager | 4 | #7967, #8965, #9128 |
| 22 | Proxmox Backup Server | 4 | #9289, #9364, #9408 |
| 23 | WireGuard | 4 | #7967, #8109, #10162 |
| 24 | Bazarr | 3 | #8733, #9826, #10605 |
| 25 | Deluge | 3 | #7967, #8397, #8540 |
| 26 | ESPHome | 3 | #8109, #8985, #10334 |
| 27 | Frigate | 3 | #9429, #9853, #10175 |
| 28 | Netdata | 3 | #8029, #9850, #10536 |
| 29 | Prowlarr | 3 | #9693, #9731, #9737 |
| 30 | UniFi Controller | 3 | #8539, #8664, #8963 |

**3c Wanted by anyone, grouped by job** (for the catalog gap; ≥ 3 people):
DLNA media server (MiniDLNA, Serviio…) 7 · router/firewall (OPNsense, pfSense, OpenWrt) 6 ·
ad/DNS blocker (Pi-hole, AdGuard Home) 5 · camera recorder / NVR (Frigate, ZoneMinder, MotionEye…) 5.
Single-app counts: `build.py` table 3c.

## 4 Hardware (approximate — see the banner)

**4a Owned by beginners**

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | synology | 7 | #8179, #8631, #9240 |
| 2 | diy-build | 6 | #8783, #8795, #10682 |
| 3 | minipc-used-business | 6 | #8176, #8285, #8301 |
| 4 | router-device | 5 | #7965, #8037, #8047 |
| 5 | n100-class | 4 | #7985, #8005, #8154 |
| 6 | thin-client | 4 | #8166, #9626, #10159 |
| 7 | business-desktop-used | 3 | #8046, #8285, #10254 |
| 8 | old-desktop | 2 | #7952, #7964, #8330 |
| 9 | old-laptop | 2 | #9145, #9266 |
| 10 | other | 2 | #8240, #10736, #10817 |
| 11 | other-nas-box | 1 | #7952, #7964, #7981 |
| 12 | qnap | 1 | #10525, #10533 |
| 13 | rack-server | 1 | #10856 |
| 14 | tower-server-used | 1 | #9194 |

**4b Planned by beginners**

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | diy-build | 15 | #8356, #8483, #8731 |
| 2 | business-desktop-used | 5 | #8201, #8474, #8665 |
| 3 | n100-class | 4 | #8183, #8999, #9003 |
| 4 | synology | 4 | #7952, #8285, #8847 |
| 5 | minipc-used-business | 3 | #8474, #8665, #8673 |
| 6 | rack-server | 3 | #10243, #10282, #10368 |
| 7 | other | 2 | #9251, #9266, #10306 |
| 8 | other-nas-box | 2 | #8847, #10854 |
| 9 | old-desktop | 1 | #8367 |
| 10 | raspberry-pi-5 | 1 | #10362, #10368 |
| 11 | raspberry-pi-other | 1 | #8825 |

**4c Recommended by anyone** (top 10)

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | business-desktop-used | 17 | #8157, #8163, #8169 |
| 2 | diy-build | 17 | #7968, #8150, #8227 |
| 3 | n100-class | 17 | #8144, #8155, #8164 |
| 4 | minipc-used-business | 11 | #8145, #8148, #8234 |
| 5 | synology | 9 | #7955, #7970, #7972 |
| 6 | tower-server-used | 7 | #8222, #8226, #8486 |
| 7 | old-desktop | 5 | #8026, #8027, #8030 |
| 8 | workstation-used | 5 | #7948, #8115, #9356 |
| 9 | other-nas-box | 3 | #9395, #10379, #10643 |
| 10 | raspberry-pi-4 | 3 | #7959, #8828, #10515 |

**Budgets stated** (latest per person, HUF): everyone n=48, min 1,000, median 61,000, max 800,000;
beginners n=15, min 1,000, median 60,000, max 300,000. (The 1,000 is a monthly fee; most figures
exclude disks.)

## 5 Platforms

**5a What beginners want or tried**

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TrueNAS | 14 | #8046, #8057, #8149 |
| 2 | Debian/Ubuntu plain | 11 | #8056, #8059, #8149 |
| 3 | Docker | 10 | #7981, #8083, #8356 |
| 4 | Proxmox | 10 | #8149, #8862, #9589 |
| 5 | Windows | 9 | #8143, #8176, #8516 |
| 6 | OpenMediaVault | 8 | #7985, #8049, #8050 |
| 7 | Xpenology | 8 | #8070, #8071, #8990 |
| 8 | Synology DSM | 6 | #7952, #8179, #9240 |
| 9 | Unraid | 6 | #8356, #8363, #8796 |
| 10 | Home Assistant OS | 4 | #8008, #8012, #8579 |
| 11 | CasaOS | 3 | #9145, #10225, #10403 |
| 12 | ZimaOS | 2 | #10403, #10416, #10525 |

**5b What experienced people recommend** (top 12)

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proxmox | 23 | #8062, #8065, #8097 |
| 2 | OpenMediaVault | 20 | #8048, #8051, #8060 |
| 3 | Docker | 16 | #8023, #8051, #8061 |
| 4 | Debian/Ubuntu plain | 12 | #7959, #7962, #8053 |
| 5 | TrueNAS | 12 | #7962, #8148, #8206 |
| 6 | Unraid | 9 | #8401, #8403, #8404 |
| 7 | Xpenology | 9 | #7962, #8023, #8068 |
| 8 | Windows | 7 | #8052, #8053, #8272 |
| 9 | CasaOS | 5 | #7959, #8102, #8106 |
| 10 | Home Assistant OS | 4 | #8010, #8985, #9479 |
| 11 | Synology DSM | 4 | #7955, #7958, #7970 |
| 12 | ZimaOS | 3 | #10445, #10885, #11037 |

**5c What experienced people run** (top 11)

| # | Value | People | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proxmox | 40 | #7967, #7982, #8044 |
| 2 | Docker | 23 | #7960, #7967, #7980 |
| 3 | Debian/Ubuntu plain | 18 | #7973, #8054, #8058 |
| 4 | TrueNAS | 14 | #7954, #8015, #8016 |
| 5 | OpenMediaVault | 13 | #7967, #8044, #8064 |
| 6 | Windows | 10 | #8105, #8217, #8390 |
| 7 | Xpenology | 10 | #7957, #7976, #8074 |
| 8 | Unraid | 7 | #7980, #8029, #8522 |
| 9 | Home Assistant OS | 5 | #9441, #9493, #9529 |
| 10 | CasaOS | 3 | #8555, #8556, #9693 |
| 11 | Synology DSM | 3 | #7966, #8966, #9229 |

**5d Advised against** (anyone): Proxmox 8 people („overkill” for a home NAS, #9487, #11081) · TrueNAS 5 („you will tear your hair out”, #8364) · Docker 2 · Windows 2 · Xpenology 2.

**5e Products that do part of what Felhom does** (people; tone + / 0 / −)

| Product | People | + | 0 | − | How it is spoken of | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synology | 43 | 17 | 27 | 18 | the default „easy” answer; praised for comfort, attacked for price, weak CPUs and the 2025 own-brand-disk lock | #7955, #10352, #10468 |
| CasaOS | 10 | 4 | 6 | 2 | recommended to beginners as „a few clicks for Plex, AdGuard, torrent” | #7959, #10219 |
| ZimaOS | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | new in 2025; easy, but beginners hit share-mount problems | #10403, #10528, #10539 |
| QNAP | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | second to Synology; trust doubts | #8843, #9386 |
| Google Drive / OneDrive / Google Photos | 14 | 2 | 11 | 2 | the cloud the household already pays for; seldom attacked | #8342, #8474, #10679 |
| Umbrel, Cosmos, Runtipi | 1 each | 0 | 1 | 0 | named once in a list | #9606 |
| A paid helper / managed service | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | one writer would pay someone to set it up | #9716 |

No paid managed home-server service other than Felhom was named in three years.

## 6 Pains (people)

| # | Pain | Everyone | Beginners | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | power bill | 60 | 11 | #7953, #8133, #8143 |
| 2 | noise | 43 | 8 | #7975, #8309, #8665 |
| 3 | too complex | 39 | 13 | #7981, #8083, #8181 |
| 4 | up-front cost | 38 | 7 | #8367, #8477, #8847 |
| 5 | space | 38 | 8 | #7952, #7964, #8195 |
| 6 | hardware failure | 29 | 8 | #7964, #8124, #8160 |
| 7 | heat | 24 | 3 | #7975, #7993, #8572 |
| 8 | time it costs | 22 | 7 | #8085, #8181, #8474 |
| 9 | fear of losing data | 19 | 5 | #7964, #8344, #8353 |
| 10 | family does not accept it / cannot use it | 18 | 1 | #8465, #8637, #8803 |
| 11 | security fear | 17 | 1 | #8030, #8039, #8041 |
| 12 | vendor lock-in | 15 | 2 | #8752, #10294, #10352 |
| 13 | bad documentation | 14 | 2 | #7981, #8099, #8240 |
| 14 | an update broke it | 14 | 0 | #7962, #8015, #8752 |
| 15 | disk failure | 14 | 2 | #8113, #8351, #8990 |
| 16 | remote-access confusion | 11 | 6 | #8037, #8040, #8073 |
| 17 | fears the terminal | 10 | 5 | #8008, #8149, #8363 |
| 18 | gave up | 10 | 4 | #8012, #8149, #8236 |
| 19 | distrust of the cloud | 8 | 3 | #8296, #8581, #8841 |

## 7 Trend

Most year-to-year moves are within noise (about 100 active people per full year; a move needs ≥ 2
standard errors). Four exceed it (power bill 2.3 SE, lock-in 2.6 SE, self-built 3.5 SE; ZimaOS is new):

| Change | 2023 Q4 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (to Oct) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power bill named, share of active people | 35 % | 33 % | 19 % | 18 % |
| Vendor lock-in named (Synology disk lock, TrueNAS app change) | 0 % | 2 % | 11 % | 3 % |
| ZimaOS named | 0 | 0 | 4 people | 3 people |
| Self-built machines, share of active people | 20 % | 28 % | 33 % | 50 % |

No trend in the beginner questions themselves: the same seven clusters appear every year.