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Build Your Self-Hosted Toolbox with 7 Simple but Powerful Tools

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Easy Self Host!

In this video, I’m sharing a few simple self-hosted tools that I really love.

They’re super easy to set up and even easier to use.

We’ll take a look at Stirling PDF for all your PDF needs, ConvertX for file-type conversions, it-tools for handy developer utilities, Librespeed for testing your network, Excalidraw and Draw.io for drawing and diagramming, and finally Dozzle for real-time DoCan cker log monitoring.

Unlike my previous videos, I won’t dive into the details of the Docker Compose file for each app.

I’ll just give you a quick look and then you can find the full file in my GitHub repo, which is linked in the description below.

Let’s jump right in!

Stirling PDF has appeared in several of my videos, but I’ve never given it a proper introduction.

It’s the best free PDF utility I’ve found.

Whenever I need a quick PDF fix, I don’t like downloading pricey software or using those sketchy websites that might keep my files.

Stirling PDF supports a ton of PDF operations—organizing, cropping, converting, compressing, even OCR—and it’s all self-hosted, so there’s no privacy risk.

Here’s how simple the Docker Compose setup is—just a few lines

For example, the PDF Multi Tool lets you reorder, rotate, remove, or insert pages.

After you finish, simply click download to get the result file.

I also love the compression feature—it’s perfect for uploading PDFs to websites with size limits.

Here let’s compress this 10MB PDF into 5MB.

We can check that the result PDF is around 5MB.

And the OCR tool? It scans text in images and overlays it on the PDF, making it searchable and copyable.

Here I have a PDF that is an image of some text.

I’ll drag and drop it in the OCR tool and start scanning this file.

Then I get a file that has text overlaid on top of the PDF that I can select and search.

Now that we’ve covered PDFs, let’s move on to another common need: file-type conversions.

We’ve all been there—maybe you recorded a video in dot MOV and need MP4, or you have a PNG image and you need it in JPG.

That’s where ConvertX comes in. It’s a self-hosted tool that bundles utilities like ffmpeg into a simple web UI.

It also just needs a few lines of Docker Compose.

All you have to do is drop your file onto the page, pick your target format, and hit “Convert.”

For example, converting a PNG to JPG is as easy as selecting “JPG” in the format list and clicking “Convert.”

And then download the output file from the browser.

That’s it—super straightforward!

We’ve looked at some single-purpose tools so far, but here’s one that brings a ton of helpful features in one site: it-tools.

It’s a web app packed with developer utilities like UUID generators, key pair creators, and converters for JSON, XML, YAML and more.

Even if you’re not a developer, there are still plenty of handy features.

For example, there’s a QR code generator that you can use for self-hosted apps, or a Wi-Fi QR code generator for your guests to scan.

I really like this Docker command to Docker Compose converter—it can take a random Docker command you find online and instantly transform it into a Compose file.

All these tools in one place make it-tools a must-have for our self-hosted toolbox!

Next up is Librespeed, a self-hosted network speed testing utility.

If you’ve ever wanted to measure the speed between your devices and your home server, this is a great tool.

It’s also incredibly easy to use: just hit “Start,” wait for the test to finish, and you’ll see your download, upload, and ping metrics right away.

Now let’s shift from utilities to something more creative.

One tool I love is the self-hosted version of Excalidraw, a virtual whiteboard you can run on your own server.

Here, you can draw shapes, make flowcharts, or simply sketch with the pencil tool.

Once you’re done, you can save the drawing as a file.

Later, to continue working on it, just drag and drop the file back into Excalidraw.

One thing to keep in mind: the self-hosted version doesn’t currently support collaboration or sharing features.

But if you’re using it solo or just need a local brainstorming space, it’s perfect!

Speaking of drawing tools, we can’t overlook the classic Draw.io.

There’s also a self-hosted Docker version that keeps your data on your own network.

You get the same features and interface as the official site—flowcharts, mind maps, and all—without sharing any of your data out.

The final tool I want to share is Dozzle, a real-time log viewer for Docker containers that’s extremely useful for self-hosting.

Here’s a quick overview of the Docker Compose setup:

We mount the Docker socket from the host to the container so that Dozzle can access the logs.

We also create a small YAML file for login credentials with username and password.

This YAML file needs to be created with this command here because the password needs to be hashed.

And then we mount the file to the Dozzle container.

Once Dozzle is running, you can log into its dashboard to see all the containers on your server.

Just click on one of them, and you’ll get a live stream of its logs.

If you’re using Docker Compose with multiple containers, Dozzle groups them together so you can view all their logs in one place.

Or you can drill down into each container individually.

One of my favorite things is the ability to search the logs.

So if something’s failing, you can quickly look for error entries or other info to troubleshoot your self-hosted apps.

These are all I want to share today.

You can find the link to the Docker Compose file for each app in the description below.

If you found this helpful, consider subscribing for more self-hosting content.

Thank you for watching!

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