Survey on factors influencing the decision to Self-host software
survey.lpt.feri.um.si

Hi everyone,

I’m a PhD student in Computer Science researching why people choose to self-host software—what motivates you, what concerns you, and what factors affect your decision-making.

To better understand this, I’ve prepared a short anonymous survey (~10 minutes). Your insights as part of the self-hosting community would be incredibly valuable for this research.

🔗 Survey link: https://survey.lpt.feri.um.si/376953?newtest=Y&lang=en&s=ls

This study is part of my doctoral research at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, conducted under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Lili Nemec Zlatolas, PhD. All responses are anonymous and used strictly for academic purposes.

If you’ve ever self-hosted anything—or even just considered it—I’d really appreciate your input.

Thanks a lot for your time, and feel free to ask me anything about the project (luka.hrgarek@um.si)!

Cheers!

  • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 months ago

    Good Luck Luka!

    I feel like I’m a minority in this group in that I really don’t like self hosting but I do it anyways because it gives me the things I want from a content/privacy/control/ownership perspective.

      • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        PhDs are hard, don’t get discouraged if you get told to rewrite tons of things. My Dad had to rewrite many parts to his dissertation, the arbitrary nature of the rewrites was the hardest part to deal with for him. Hopefully you have better advisors!

  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    7 months ago

    Yeah, those data questions are really loaded. I don’t host for privacy or what not. It’s because of a learning objective, to study, experiment, and run automated stock trading algorithms. I don’t exactly have anything to hide from private companies.

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Thank you for your comment. The use of similar statements is a common practice in this type of research, as it helps to better capture different aspects of a construct and ensures reliability. I understand that privacy may not be your personal motivation for self-hosting, and that’s perfectly fine. The purpose of this survey is to explore a variety of factors that can influence why individuals choose to self-host, and to determine the relative importance of each. Even if certain factors don’t apply to you, your responses contribute to a broader understanding of the motivations behind self-hosting. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the survey.

  • anarcho_vroom@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    29·
    7 months ago

    I’m a little concerned about selection bias (because obviously).

    I also want to know about people who are not aware of self-hosting. If they’d be interested or even try.

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      28·
      7 months ago

      That’s a very valid concern, and you’re absolutely right to bring it up.

      One existing study that surveyed the general population found that about 8.4% of respondents were self-hosting users, which means that in order to get enough self-hosters from the general population for meaningful analysis, we’d need a very large sample.

      Unfortunately, we don’t have the funding or resources to conduct such large-scale research through a representative panel or agency. That’s why this study is focusing on communities where self-hosting is already discussed, like this one.

      That said, we’re definitely aware of this limitation, and we’re also sharing the survey in broader, more general-interest online communities where we expect non-self-hosters (or people unfamiliar with the concept) to be more present. This will allow us to include comparisons between the two groups in the analysis.

      Really appreciate your thoughtful comment — thanks!

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        20·
        7 months ago

        One existing study that surveyed the general population found that about 8.4% of respondents were self-hosting users

        Wow! That’s a lot higher than I would’ve expected. My guess would’ve been about 1%, or maybe even an order of magnitude or so less than that.

          • kernelle@0d.gsEnglish
            5·
            7 months ago

            Thanks for the source, super interesting read! I would’ve guessed 1-5% as well.

          • Mniot@programming.devEnglish
            3·
            7 months ago

            Thanks for linking that. Reading the paper, it looks like the majority of the “self-host” population they’re capturing is people who have a WordPress site. By my reading, the wording of the paper would disqualify a wordpress.com-hosted site as “self-hosted”. But I’d be very suspicious of their methodology and would expect that quite a few people who use WP-hosted reported as self-hosted because the language is pretty confusing.

        • nfh@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          7 months ago

          I suspect there’s a tendency of experts in something to think of people who do it narrowly as people doing at least as much as they are.

          The people who have a bunch of docker services, or complex multi-machine infrastructure are self-hosted software users, and probably in that 1-2% range. People who heard piholes are useful, so they bought a pi 3 and set it up are self-hosted software users. Somebody using an old desktop they got on Facebook marketplace for running Plex media are self-hosted software users… and so on. So are the people in their houses, some of their friends and family.

          Using that inclusive definition, being closer to 10% than 1% makes sense to me.

        • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          6·
          7 months ago

          My guess is that it also included things like the 12 year old hosting a Minecraft server for their friends. Which, to be clear, is a totally valid self-hosting use case.

    • Macallan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      I sort of fit that category. I am aware of self-hosting, even somewhat interested. But I know absolutely nothing about it, and if I’m being honest, too lazy to research it.

      Truthfully, I haven’t owned my own PC/Laptop in over a decade. I just use the one I get from work if I need to do something on a computer. I preferred gaming on a PS4/5 so I could just relax on the couch with a controller instead of sitting in a chair at a desk. I recently got a steam deck and love it. I want to poke around desktop mode some more so I can get more familiar with Linux.

  • Limonene@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 months ago

    This survey doesn’t distinguish between levels of cloud service provider, so I was a little confused.

    Virtual private servers, cloud virtual servers (like AWS), cloud-based software where you provide code or a program and the cloud system runs it on a server of its choosing, and cloud-based systems where someone else provides the software (like Google Docs).

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      Thank you for your feedback and for completing the survey. The first part of the survey primarily focuses on Software as a Service (SaaS). We appreciate your input and will consider ways to clarify this in future surveys.

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      Thank you very much – I really appreciate your participation! Yes, the results will be published as part of my PhD dissertation, and also in one of the peer-reviewed journals in the field of Computer Science. Once everything is finalized and publicly available, I’ll definitely share a summary and a link to the publication here as well. Thanks again for your interest and support!

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      18·
      7 months ago

      Thanks so much – I definitely will! The results will be published in my PhD dissertation, and since publication in a scientific journal is a requirement for completing the degree, they’ll be shared there as well. I’ll make sure to post a link here once everything is available! :)

      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.websiteEnglish
        9·
        7 months ago

        Hopefully you can publish in an open-access journal — if not it would be great if you could share an arXiv preprint :)

        • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          5·
          7 months ago

          Absolutely, that’s our intention as well! Our university actively encourages publishing in open-access journals whenever possible, and I fully support that approach. So yes, if all goes well, the results will definitely be published open access. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 months ago
    • It’s educational for those who have a lust for learning.
    • It’s fun.
    • It’s far more private than using commercial cloud services.
  • The Bard in Green@lemmy.starlightkel.xyzEnglish
    3·
    7 months ago

    Many of my self hosted solutions are just DIY cludges. I was talking to a friend of a friend on Saturday about media streaming and he told me all about his Jellyfin setup and then asked about mine and I was just like “I just store MP4s on an SSHFS drive and play them in VLC on my TV (which runs Linux Mint).” When the survey asked about the various types of software I was like “No… I don’t use anything like that… wait… yes I do! I just don’t use a prebuilt solution!”

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    7 months ago

    Done. Nobody else wants to know why I have 3 RasPi’s running stuff around the house, so I get to tell you in the survey, lol.

  • CLOTHESPlN@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 months ago

    Good luck on the thesis and I hope my data points can assist your research! I’m sure the community would love to see your finished thesis when it is done

  • Dialectic Cake@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    7 months ago

    Have you thought about contacting Louis Rossmann? He created an extensive video guide on how to self host using FOSS. Perhaps he’d be willing to highlight your survey to his over 2 million subscribers.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    7 months ago

    Page 2 seems to have a lot of redundant question.

    I intend to continue using self-hosting services in the future if possible.
    I will use self-hosting services regularly in the future if possible.
    I will frequently use self-hosting services in the future if possible

    • Kingofthezyx@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      They are different enough in intention though.

      I intend - I plan to try, but I might not.

      I will - I am definitely going to, but maybe not very often or for limited uses

      I will frequently - I am definitely going to, and it will be a common/important part of my work/life-flow

    • kernelle@0d.gsEnglish
      8·
      7 months ago

      Questions in surveys like this are sometimes repeated with slight variations to get more accurate results.