Homarr

A self-hosted dashboard for everyone running way too many Docker containers, honestly reviewed.

TL;DR

• What it is: Apache-2.0-licensed home server dashboard — a single webpage to launch, monitor, and control all your self-hosted services [GitHub]
• Who it’s for: Home lab owners running Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Pi-hole, and similar stacks who are tired of memorizing which service lives on which port [1][2]
• Cost: $0 for the software. Infrastructure only — a Raspberry Pi you already own or a $4–6/month VPS [1][2]
• Key strength: No YAML or JSON config files. Everything is drag-and-drop in the browser. SSO via OIDC and LDAP is included, not paywalled [GitHub][homepage]
• Key weakness: 3,215 GitHub stars is modest against Homepage (20K+) and Dashy (19K+) — smaller community means fewer integrations and less community support [GitHub]

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What is Homarr

Homarr is a browser-based homepage for your home server. You stand it up once, point your browser at http://your-server:7575, and you get a customizable grid of tiles: app shortcuts, live status widgets, a calendar pulling from Sonarr/Radarr, a Pi-hole block rate counter, a system resource graph. Everything in one tab instead of fifteen.

The GitHub README’s pitch is direct: “A modern and easy to use dashboard. 40+ integrations. 10K+ icons built in. Authentication out of the box. No YAML, drag and drop configuration.” [GitHub] That last phrase is the whole value proposition. The self-hosted dashboard space has older options — Homer, Heimdall, Dashy — that require editing config files every time you add an app or rearrange tiles. Homarr’s editor is entirely in the browser.

The project is Apache-2.0 licensed — fully free, including commercial use. It runs on x86, Raspberry Pi (ARMv7 and ARM64), TrueNAS, Unraid, old laptops, and Kubernetes [GitHub][1]. As of this review it sits at 3,215 GitHub stars, which is genuine traction, though clearly behind the field leaders.

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Why people choose it

The self-hosted dashboard space splits cleanly between YAML-configured tools (powerful, annoying to edit) and browser-configured tools (easier, occasionally less flexible). Homarr is firmly in the second camp, and every review lands on the same reason for choosing it.

Frank Joseph at WunderTech [3] ran Homer for years before switching. His complaint about Homer: “everything was modified through a YAML configuration file which made modifications more of a chore than I’d like.” After switching to Homarr: “it’s everything that I want in a dashboard. It’s minimal, customizable, and everything is done through the GUI which makes management extremely easy.” He specifically calls out Docker container management — the ability to start, stop, and restart containers directly from the Homarr UI without opening Portainer [3].

LinuxForDevices [2] frames the core problem as too many ports to remember: when you’re running Navidrome, qBittorrent, Pi-hole, and four other services, keeping track of which IP:port maps to which tool becomes its own job. Their walkthrough shows a Homarr instance with all four on one page with live widgets.

Pi My Life Up [1] positions it as the natural successor to Heimdall for Raspberry Pi users: “If you have ever tried out Heimdall on your Pi but found it a little lacking, we highly recommend checking out this tutorial.” Heimdall gives you clickable tiles. Homarr gives you clickable tiles that also show you information.

The community quotes on the Homarr homepage reflect home media users specifically: “The Arrs integration especially the calendar is awesome” and “The thing I like most about Homarr is its speed and simplicity in adding links of your favorite docker apps” [homepage]. The Arr stack — Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr — appears in every tutorial and testimonial. This tool has found its audience in home media servers.

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Features

Based on the README, website, and install tutorials:

Core dashboard:

• Drag-and-drop grid layout — rearrange tiles with mouse or touch, no file editing [GitHub][homepage]
• No YAML or JSON configuration required for any UI changes [GitHub]
• 11,000+ built-in icons via icon picker [GitHub]
• 26 languages supported [homepage]
• Multiple board configurations [3]

Integrations (40+): The README lists AdGuard Home, Aria2, Codeberg, Coolify, Dash. (system monitor), Deluge, Docker Hub, Emby, GitHub, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Plex, qBittorrent, Pi-hole, SABnzbd, and more [GitHub]. The Sonarr/Radarr calendar widget — showing upcoming and recent media releases — gets the most consistent praise in user testimonials [homepage]. If you run the Arr stack, this widget alone justifies the setup.

Authentication (included, not gated):

• SSO via OIDC and LDAP [GitHub][homepage]
• User permissions and group management [GitHub]
• BCrypt + AES-256-CBC encryption for stored credentials [GitHub]

This is worth emphasizing: SSO is in the free, self-hosted version. Many tools either charge for it or don’t offer it at all.

Docker management: Mount /var/run/docker.sock and Homarr can start, stop, and restart containers from the dashboard UI [3]. WunderTech [3] calls this out as one of the most useful day-to-day features: “The Docker management is so incredibly helpful that it’s hard for me to remember life before it.”

Real-time updates: WebSockets + tRPC + Redis keep widgets live — download speeds, Pi-hole stats, media library counts update without you reloading the page [GitHub].

Infrastructure:

• Docker and Docker Compose (primary install method) [1][2][3]
• Helm charts for Kubernetes [GitHub]
• REST API [merged profile]
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi, x86, TrueNAS, Unraid, old laptops [GitHub][1]

What it doesn’t do: No automation, no alerting pipelines, no webhook routing. Homarr shows you information and lets you click things. It’s a dashboard, not an ops platform. If you need active notification routing when a service goes down, look at Uptime Kuma alongside it.

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Pricing: what it actually costs to run

Homarr is Apache-2.0 with no paid tiers and no managed cloud option [GitHub][homepage]. The software cost is zero. Your only spend is infrastructure:

• Raspberry Pi 4 (already owned): ~$0 marginal cost [1]
• Old laptop or mini PC: electricity only
• VPS (Hetzner CAX11 ARM): ~$4/month
• VPS (DigitalOcean 1GB Droplet): ~$6/month

RAM requirements are low — Homarr is a Next.js app with Redis, not a data processing pipeline. A Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM runs it comfortably alongside other containers [1]. The README explicitly lists “old laptops” as a supported platform [GitHub].

There is no “Homarr Cloud” to escape. The question isn’t “SaaS bill vs. self-hosted” — it’s “Docker know-how vs. not having it.” For anyone already running a home server, Homarr is one more container on a machine that’s already on 24/7.

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Deployment reality check

All three tutorial sources use Docker Compose, and all three treat it as a quick process [1][2][3]. The compose file is short:

services:
  homarr:
    container_name: homarr
    image: ghcr.io/ajnart/homarr:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./homarr/configs:/app/data/configs
      - ./homarr/icons:/app/public/icons
    ports:
      - '7575:7575'

Run docker compose up -d, open http://your-ip:7575, start dragging tiles. WunderTech [3] includes a Synology NAS variant with /volume1/docker/ paths, useful if your home server is a Synology.

Where it gets more involved:

The Docker socket mount (/var/run/docker.sock) deserves attention. It gives Homarr root-equivalent access to your Docker daemon — that’s how container management works. WunderTech [3] is explicit about this: “If you do NOT want to manage Docker inside of the Dashboard, remove the /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock volume!” Fine for a home network, worth knowing before exposing Homarr to the internet.

None of the tutorials cover HTTPS setup [1][2][3]. If you want TLS (you should, especially if accessing remotely), you need a reverse proxy — Caddy or Nginx Proxy Manager are the common choices. This is a real gap in the documentation for newer self-hosters who may not know to look for it.

Realistic time estimates:

• Existing Docker user: 15–30 minutes to a working dashboard
• New to Docker but following the Pi My Life Up guide [1]: 2–3 hours including Docker setup
• No Linux experience: not the right starting point — learn Docker on a simpler project first

Backups are manual: your configuration lives in the mounted volumes, so rsync or cp the config directory and you’re covered. There’s no built-in backup tool.

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• No YAML configuration. Everything in the browser. This wins over every user who’s bounced off Homer or Dashy-config-mode [3][homepage].
• SSO included free. OIDC and LDAP auth at no cost, not gated behind enterprise pricing [GitHub][homepage].
• Docker management built in. Start/stop/restart containers without opening Portainer [3].
• Arr stack integrations. The Sonarr/Radarr calendar widget is genuinely praised, not just listed as a feature [homepage].
• Runs on Raspberry Pi. Real ARM support, not an afterthought [GitHub][1].
• 11K+ icons. Not having to hunt down app icons for every tile saves meaningful setup time [GitHub].
• Real-time widgets. WebSocket updates mean the dashboard is a live view, not a static page [GitHub].
• Apache-2.0. Fully permissive license, no commercial restrictions.

Cons

• 3,215 stars is modest. Homepage has 6× more. Smaller community means slower integration additions, less documentation, fewer ready-made configurations to borrow [GitHub].
• 40+ integrations is limited. If the service you want to monitor isn’t on the list, you get a plain shortcut tile with no live data.
• Docker socket access is a real security consideration. The recommended compose file gives Homarr elevated host access. Fine for home labs, not for shared or exposed servers [3].
• No managed cloud option. No “just pay and use it” path for non-technical users who can’t navigate Docker.
• No built-in HTTPS. Reverse proxy setup is on you, and the tutorials don’t cover it [1][2][3].
• No built-in backup tooling. Config backup is manual volume management.

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Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Homarr if:

• You run a home media server with Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, or similar, and want a single dashboard instead of a bookmark folder.
• You’ve tried Homer or Heimdall and gave up because you didn’t want to edit YAML every time.
• You’re comfortable with Docker Compose and want a 30-minute setup.
• SSO without building OAuth middleware matters to you.

Skip it (try Homepage instead) if:

• You want the largest integration catalog and most active community.
• You’re comfortable with YAML and want more configuration control per widget.
• You need something that’s been stress-tested at scale by a larger user base.

Skip it (try Dashy instead) if:

• You want more widget types, richer status checking, or a more information-dense layout.
• You need monitoring widgets that Homarr’s 40 integrations don’t cover.

Skip it entirely if:

• You don’t already have a Docker-capable server. The no-config story stops at the Homarr UI — you still need a terminal to get Docker running.
• You’re running fewer than five services. A browser bookmark folder costs nothing and takes two minutes.

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Alternatives worth considering

• Homepage — The current community leader for home dashboards. More integrations, 20K+ stars, YAML-configured. If integration breadth matters most, this is the pick.
• Dashy — Feature-dense, highly customizable, YAML-configured. More widget types, active development, steeper initial setup.
• Heimdall — Pure launchpad, no live widgets. Right if you just want clickable app tiles with zero complexity [1].
• Homer — Minimal, YAML-configured, fast. What WunderTech used before switching to Homarr [3].
• Organizr — More Plex-centric, designed around media server management. Different approach, overlapping audience.
• Portainer — Not a dashboard replacement. If Docker container management is your primary need rather than a homepage, Portainer is more capable and purpose-built.

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Bottom line

Homarr earns its spot in the self-hosted dashboard category by solving one specific problem well: it gives home media server owners a browser-edited, drag-and-drop dashboard with solid Arr stack integrations and free SSO, without requiring them to touch a config file ever again. The trade-offs are real — 40 integrations is thin compared to Homepage, the community is smaller, and you’re on your own for HTTPS setup. But for the target user — someone who’s been managing Plex + Sonarr + Radarr out of a browser bookmark folder and wants something that actually shows them what’s happening — Homarr is a 30-minute Docker deploy that stays out of the way after that.

If deploying and maintaining Docker is the blocker, that’s exactly the kind of one-time setup that upready.dev handles for clients.

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Sources

1. Pi My Life Up — “Installing the Homarr Dashboard on the Raspberry Pi”. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-homarr-dashboard/
2. LinuxForDevices — “How to Set Up Homarr: A Beautiful Dashboard for Your Home Server”. https://www.linuxfordevices.com/tutorials/linux/install-setup-homarr
3. WunderTech (Frank Joseph) — “Configuring a Home Lab Self-Hosted Dashboard with Homarr”. https://www.wundertech.net/home-lab-self-hosted-dashboard-homarr/

Primary sources:

• GitHub repository: https://github.com/homarr-labs/homarr (3,215 stars, Apache-2.0 license)
• Official website and documentation: https://homarr.dev