If you run a homelab or self-hosted services, you’ll know how quickly things get messy. Between different ports, IP addresses, and bookmarks scattered everywhere, simply accessing your own tools can become frustrating.

That’s exactly why I started using Homer — a clean, lightweight dashboard that acts as the front door to my entire self-hosted setup.

In this post, I’ll explain what Homer is, why I chose it over alternatives, and how I use it daily in my homelab.

What Is Homer?

Homer is an open-source, static dashboard designed for people who run multiple self-hosted services. It provides a single, fast homepage where you can organise and launch all your apps.

Unlike heavier dashboards, Homer is:

  • Fully static (HTML/JS)
  • Extremely lightweight
  • Configured via YAML
  • Easy to run in Docker
  • Maintenance-free once set up

Because there’s no database or backend complexity, it’s ideal for homelab users who want something simple and reliable.

Why I Chose Homer

There are plenty of dashboard options in the self-hosting world — Heimdall, Dashy, Organizr and others. I tested several, but Homer stood out for a few key reasons.

1. It’s Ridiculously Lightweight

Homer loads almost instantly because it’s just static content. On my setup, it feels noticeably snappier than heavier dashboard solutions.

For anyone running multiple services on shared hardware, keeping things lightweight matters.

2. YAML Configuration Is Easy to Manage

Everything in Homer is controlled through a single YAML file. That means:

  • Easy version control
  • Quick edits
  • No complex UI dependencies
  • Simple backups

As someone who prefers infrastructure-as-config, this fits perfectly into my workflow.

3. Perfect for Docker Environments

I run most of my stack in containers, and Homer fits neatly into that approach. It runs happily in Docker and sits behind my reverse proxy alongside the rest of my services.

Once deployed, it basically looks after itself.

4. Clean, Modern Interface

Some dashboards feel cluttered. Homer keeps things minimal and readable, which makes it ideal as a daily landing page.

When you open your homelab dashboard multiple times a day, good UX matters more than you might think.

My Homer Dashboard Structure

I’ve organised my Homer homepage into three main sections to keep things logical and easy to scan.

Media

This section contains my entertainment and automation stack:

  • Plex
  • Radarr
  • Sonarr
  • Prowlarr
  • Home Assistant
  • Lidar

Grouping these together makes media management quick and obvious.

Infrastructure

This is the engine room of the lab:

  • Pi-hole
  • Nginx Proxy Manager
  • Proxmox
  • UniFi Network
  • qBittorrent
  • Portainer

These are the services I use to keep the network and containers running smoothly.

Services

Currently this includes:

  • AMP Servers

This is where my game server management lives, and keeping it separate helps avoid clutter.

How I Run Homer

My setup is intentionally simple:

  • Running in Docker
  • YAML stored with my configs
  • Reverse proxied with the rest of my stack
  • Custom themed to match my environment

Maintenance is minimal — edit the YAML, refresh the page, done.

If you are anything like me, ensure that your using IP addresses as links, it can be problematic connecting to a network with a VPN and trying to access those internal URL’s that are supposed to make life easier.

Who Should Use Homer?

Homer is an excellent choice if you:

  • Run a homelab
  • Self-host multiple services
  • Want a lightweight dashboard
  • Prefer config files over heavy web UIs
  • Value speed and simplicity

However, Homer may not be the best fit if you want built-in metrics, graphs, or deep service monitoring. In those cases, tools like Grafana are better suited.

Final Thoughts

For my homelab, Homer hits the sweet spot between simplicity and usefulness. It doesn’t try to do everything — it just gives me a fast, clean launchpad to the services I use every day.

If your bookmarks are getting out of hand, a lightweight dashboard like Homer is one of the easiest quality-of-life upgrades you can make to your self-hosted setup.

How to install homer

Hopefully your running docker, because here is how to run Homer on docker.

docker run -d \
  --name=homer \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v /opt/homer/assets:/www/assets \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  b4bz/homer:latest