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!

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      It’s true! :) Starting with TLD: si - Slovenia; um - University of Maribor; feri - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; lpt - Laboratory for Data technologies; and survey for LimeSurvey.

  • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    I use self-hosted services in the following categories as much as possible…

    That question could really use a “not applicable” option. I don’t operate any home automation solutions, so any answer from me would be invalid, and neutral answers because the item is not relevant will appear the same as neutral answers because I use both self-hosted and externally hosted solutions (e.g. Mullvad for privacy and Tailscale to get around CGNAT).

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      Thanks for the comment: that’s a really good point to raise.

      Just to clarify: the statement “I use self-hosted services in the following categories as much as possible” is meant to reflect how fully you make use of self-hosted solutions in each area. A response like “Strongly agree” would indicate that you actively use and take full advantage of self-hosting in that category.

      If you don’t use solutions in a particular category at all — whether that’s because you don’t need them, aren’t interested, or use only external services — then it’s completely appropriate to select a disagreeing option (e.g. “Disagree” or “Strongly disagree”). In this context, lower agreement simply indicates low or no use, regardless of the reason.

      From a methodological standpoint, the data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). This approach requires a complete set of responses across the measured constructs. If we included a “not applicable” option, it would create missing values in the dataset and potentially lead to excluding the entire response for that part of the analysis — which would significantly reduce the usable sample size.

      That said, I really appreciate your feedback! :)

      • towerful@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        Yeh, I took “don’t agree or disagree” to be the N/A.
        It seemed the most neutral.
        I don’t really use anything for bookmark sharing/management. So I don’t strongly disagree or strongly agree with self hosting it.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        Be prepared for some respondents to choose the middle option as a proxy for “not applicable,” because that’s what I did.

        • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          17 days ago

          I chose the middle option for things I’m not hosting, but could see myself hosting in the future.

      • curve_empty_buzz@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        I get why you’re taking that approach but you risk serious misclassification bias. The replies have stated people are using both “disagree” and “neither agree nor disagree” to indicate they are not hosting a particular kind of service. From your description of your research it sounds like disagree and strongly disagree should indicate that the individual uses company hosted services instead of self hosted services for those domains. The relationship between views on privacy and types of services self hosted is going to be confounded by that.

    • shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lolEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      This is actually a technique to capture an honest answer from a respondent. Ask the same question a few different ways here and there, then take the average of the answers. (It could have been executed better in this survey, though.)

      • redxef@feddit.orgEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        I have a feeling for that to be effective they should be spread-out and not appear one after another though.

      • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        You’re absolutely right, rephrasing similar questions is a common technique in survey design to reduce bias and improve reliability.

        Some questions may feel a bit redundant or oddly phrased because we based the survey on validated constructs from prior academic research, especially well-established models like the Technology Acceptance Model. Using these standardized scales helps ensure the results are scientifically sound and comparable with previous studies - though I totally get that it can feel repetitive from a participant’s point of view.

        That said, I really appreciate the feedback from both of you.

  • anarcho_vroom@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    17 days 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
      0·
      17 days 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
        0·
        17 days 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
            0·
            17 days ago

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

          • Mniot@programming.devEnglish
            0·
            17 days 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
          0·
          17 days 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
          0·
          17 days 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
      0·
      17 days 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.

  • iglou@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    I have answered, and had to put “Other” in employment status because I am self employed. An option for self employment would have been useful in my opinion!

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      Thank you for your feedback! You’re right, self-employment could be listed more clearly, but choosing “Other” was absolutely fine and your response is fully valid. Thanks again!

  • CLOTHESPlN@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    17 days 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

  • redxef@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Hmm. The first section about cloud service providers is a bit weird to me. There are providers which “keep my best interests in mind” as part of their business model, backblaze would be one. Their whole idea is to provide a good backup services. Encrypting my data before transit also doesn’t make me worried that it will be accessed by them or any of their employees because they will only get some garbled mess.

    Compare that to google, another cloud service provider. Their business model is to make money by selling me ads (foremost), they do that by gathering as much data as possible. Here all my answers would be negative.

    This puts me in an awkward spot where I nearly every time answer with “Neither agree nor disagree”, because there is more to it and not because I don’t have an opinion.

    • SelfhostedResearch@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback!

      You’ve raised an important point: cloud service providers are not all the same, and their business models can significantly influence how much trust users place in them. We fully agree that there’s a big difference between providers like Backblaze, whose value proposition is built on privacy and reliability, and companies like Google, where monetization often relies on extensive data collection.

      The purpose of this section in the survey is to explore general perceptions and motivations behind, not to evaluate individual providers. However, we understand that this generalization can be limiting — especially for respondents who distinguish clearly between different types of services and trust models. Your situation, where you answered “Neither agree nor disagree” not out of indecision but due to the complexity of the issue, is very insightful.

      Thanks again for taking the time to share this, it’s greatly appreciated!

  • starshipwinepineapple@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    I submitted a response but if i may give some feedback, the second portion brings up:

    I am willing to pay a substantial amount for hardware required for self-hosting.

    This seemed out of place because there were no other value related questions (iirc). Such as:

    • I believe self hosting saves me money in the short term
    • i believe self hosting saves me money in the long run

    I’m sure you could also think of more. But i think it’s pretty important because between cloud service providers and any non-free apps you want to use, it can be quite costly compared to the cost of some hardware and time it takes to set things up.

    The rest of my responses don’t change but if you’re wanting to understand the impact of money in all of this, i think some more questions are needed

    Best of luck!

    • AbnormalHumanBeing@lemmy.abnormalbeings.spaceEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      I believe self hosting saves me money in the short term
      i believe self hosting saves me money in the long run

      I can add to the voices here that have this as one big consideration. With some second-hand hardware, it’s very cheap to set up almost unlimited cloud space for personal use.

      • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        And unless you are expecting significant traffic, you can use an old Core2Quad with 2GB RAM and it will work just fine.

      • Sixty@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        That, and a lot of questions about ease of use too, but I answered them neutral because some are bears to set up, others are one click. Idk it depends.

    • modus@lemmy.world
      English
      0·
      17 days ago

      Not to mention that a lot of self-hosting can be done on hardware you already had laying around.

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
      English
      0·
      17 days ago

      My only quibble would be to swap “pay” for “invest” which captures both the dynamic of up front expense and expected savings from ending recurring subscription fees. That’s how I look at it. Every penny I put into my own digital sovereignty is an investment that will yield returns both financial and otherwise.

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      Second this - so far it has cost me money, but as I am able to cancel more subscription services, the savings will add up.

    • rekabis@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      And I self-host precisely because of the money I save using surplussed hardware. I have a symmetrical 1Gb SOHO fibre connection from my ISP, so I can host whatever the hell I want, I just need to stand it up. And a beefy older system with oodles of RAM is perfect for spinning up VMs of various platforms for various tasks. This saves me craploads of money over even a single VM on cloud platforms like Vultr. Plus, even if I were to support a “heavy” service sufficiently in demand to warrant its own iron, it still costs me less than a year’s worth of hosting to obtain a decent platform for that service to run on all by it’s lonesome.

      My only cloud costs end up being those services which are distributed for redundancy and geographical distance, such as DNS and caching CDNs.