Both Umbrel and Start9 look stale. Their blogs haven’t been updated in 2025 at all. Is self-hosting dead? @umbrel nostr:npub126ntw5mnermmj0znhjhgdk8lh2af72sm8qfzq48umdlnhaj9kuns3le9ll
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I’m actually quite satisfied with my nostr:npub1aghreq2dpz3h3799hrawev5gf5zc2kt4ch9ykhp9utt0jd3gdu2qtlmhct and am doing the final post-editing of before publication.
Haven’t checked their blog much, but I find the answer to most of my questions on Github.
What’s more, they provide very regular updates.
Insane developments taking place every day: https://github.com/Start9Labs/start-os/pull/2867
Oooooh, when is this pull request going through?


Sorry. Yes. I looked at your GitHub later nostr:nprofile1qqs9df4h2deu3aae83fmet5xmrlm4w5l9gdnsy3q2n7dklem7ezmwfcpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qghwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnw3ezu6twvehj79fllg5 and I did notice development.
I am running the previous version on an old laptop and was wondering when / if anything will change?
Ha yeah, we know. Getting there
I have used many nodes, Umbrel, RaspiBlitz etc. But for me Start9 is the best 🙏.
Why do you say that, specifically with respect to Umbrel? Just curious from a consumer review perspective, as I'm considering both of these devices...
Frequent updates in “ubrale” meant that I had to constantly pay attention to the node's operation. RaspiBlitz was designed for Raspberry Pi, and in my opinion, this hardware is too weak for the node.
For me, the best configuration is nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wvfskuep0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qg3waehxw309ahx7um5wgh8w6twv5hsqgzk56m4xu7g77unc5au46rd3la6h20j5xeczgs9flxm0ualv3dhyufzqxvd + “One-liter computer” + UPS.
With this configuration, the node worked without any problems for two years without even a restart.
Recently, the node worked for over 300 days and I had to shut it down because I was upgrading the server to a better model... 🤷♂️
Recently, the node worked for over 300 days and I had to shut it down because I was upgrading the server to a better model... 🤷♂️I was going to send this screenshot 😅, the previous screenshot shows how long it took me to synchronize with the Bitcoin network on new hardware, 1 day and 7 hours...


I agree, my go to bitcoin node in a box is still Start9, the long wait for a OS updates is pretty annoying though..
From a home server perspective I think Umbrel has more to offer right now. I hate that they don’t have SSL but there are more apps and services available and it gets regular OS updates.
So my advice would be, 1 separate server for bitcoin / lightning related services and 1 or more for other services. Unraid is also a very nice solution and a good business model.
Cool thanks! Yeah I would use this as a general-purpose home media server, etc, so I would expect to need to do frequent updates -- 100% uptime isn't necessarily a huge priority for me.