What to Do With a VPS? 15 Weirdly Useful Ideas

Before you start: check what your host allows

Every host has an acceptable use policy, and a few of these ideas touch it. On Packetra, running a VPN is permitted, including as a commercial service. Tor relays and bridges are permitted, but Tor exit nodes are not. Torrent clients and seedboxes are permitted in Switzerland for lawful use but not in Finland. The full rules are in our acceptable use policy.

1. A private file sync and cloud drive

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: Very highResource use: Medium

This is the classic answer to what to do with a VPS: replace Google Drive or Dropbox with storage you control. Nextcloud gives you a full cloud suite with file sync, calendars and contacts. Seafile is lighter and focuses on fast file sync. Syncthing works differently, syncing devices directly with each other, and a VPS makes a handy always-on node that keeps everything in step when your laptop is off.

Tools to try: Nextcloud, Seafile, Syncthing

Best for: anyone who wants their documents and photos off a big platform's servers.

Reality check: you become the admin. Plan for updates, backups and storage growth from day one.

2. An RSS reader that gives you back your feed

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: HighResource use: Light

Most people now read the news through feeds an algorithm picks for them. A self-hosted RSS reader flips that around: you choose the sources, you see everything they publish in order, and nobody tracks what you read. FreshRSS and Miniflux both run on very little memory and work with mobile apps.

Tools to try: FreshRSS, Miniflux

Best for: researchers, news junkies and anyone tired of algorithmic timelines.

Why people keep it: if you want one quick answer to what to do with a VPS this weekend, this is it. It tends to become the self-hosted tool you open every day.

3. A personal wiki or notes hub

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: HighResource use: Light

A wiki turns scattered notes, bookmarks and documents into one searchable knowledge base. Use it for research, travel plans, recipes, project documentation or your business's internal processes. BookStack organises pages like shelves and books, which suits teams. Wiki.js is more flexible and supports Markdown editing.

Tools to try: BookStack, Wiki.js

Best for: founders, students, developers and small teams.

4. A password manager you control

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: Very highResource use: Light

Vaultwarden is an unofficial, lightweight server that is compatible with the Bitwarden apps and browser extensions. You keep the familiar Bitwarden experience on your phone and browser, while the encrypted vault lives on a server you run instead of someone else's cloud.

Tools to try: Vaultwarden

Best for: security-conscious users and small households or teams.

Reality check: this is the most sensitive data you will ever host. Keep it updated, lock down access and take encrypted backups off the server. If you want to understand what a server does and does not reveal about you, read our guide to what an anonymous VPS hides.

5. Your own VPN

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: Very highResource use: Light

For many people, the answer to what to do with a VPS is simply a private VPN. A WireGuard server on a VPS protects you on hotel and café Wi-Fi and hides your browsing from your local network and internet provider. If you travel to countries that block VPNs, AmneziaWG is a WireGuard fork built to disguise VPN traffic from deep packet inspection. We have a step-by-step AmneziaWG setup guide and a longer look at running a self-hosted VPN.

Tools to try: WireGuard, AmneziaWG

Best for: travellers, remote workers and anyone on untrusted networks.

Reality check: a personal VPN is not anonymity. All your traffic leaves from one IP address that is tied to your server, so it moves trust from your internet provider to your host rather than removing it.

6. A private search engine

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: HighResource use: Light

SearXNG is a metasearch engine: it sends your query to many search engines at once and shows the combined results, without building a profile of you. The search engines see requests from your server rather than from you, and you decide which engines to use.

Tools to try: SearXNG

Best for: anyone who wants search results without a search profile.

Reality check: keep your instance private, behind a password or your own VPN. Public instances attract bot traffic, and search engines may start rate-limiting your server.

7. An uptime monitor

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: MediumResource use: Light

An uptime monitor checks your websites, servers and APIs every minute or so and alerts you by email, Telegram or another channel when something goes down. Uptime Kuma is the easiest place to start, and a good answer to what to do with a VPS when you are new to servers. Run it on a different server from the things it watches, otherwise it goes down with them. To test the network path to our locations from your side, use our Looking Glass.

Tools to try: Uptime Kuma

Best for: website owners, developers and anyone running side projects.

8. A status page

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: LowResource use: Light

A status page gives your users one place to check whether everything is working, which cuts down the "is it down?" messages. Uptime Kuma can publish status pages straight from the checks it already runs, so items 7 and 8 pair naturally.

Tools to try: Uptime Kuma

Best for: anyone running a public service, community or tool.

9. Private website analytics

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: HighResource use: Light to medium

Self-hosted analytics tell you which pages people read and where they came from, without handing your visitors' data to an advertising company. Plausible and Umami are both cookie-free and open source. We use Plausible on packetra.com ourselves. If you are weighing where to host a privacy-first site, our privacy hosting comparison is a good next read.

Tools to try: Plausible, Umami

Best for: bloggers, small businesses and privacy-minded site owners.

10. A Discord or Telegram bot

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: LowResource use: Light

Bots post alerts, moderate chats, share updates and automate the repetitive parts of running a community. A bot needs to be online around the clock, which is exactly what a VPS is for. Write it in Python or Node.js, then keep it running with systemd or Docker so it restarts on its own after a crash or reboot.

Tools to try: your own code, run as a systemd service or Docker container

Best for: Discord servers, Telegram groups and hobby developers.

11. A small game server for friends

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: LowResource use: Heavy

Sometimes what to do with a VPS has nothing to do with productivity. Your own game server means your rules, your mods and no random players. It is also one of the most fun ways to learn server administration. Start with our game server hosting guide, or see our roundup of Minecraft server hosting options.

Best for: small groups of friends and anyone learning to run a server.

Reality check: this is the most demanding project on the list. Check the game's own server requirements, especially RAM, before you pick a plan.

12. A bookmark archive or read-it-later list

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: MediumResource use: Light

Save articles, links and references into your own searchable library instead of fifty open tabs. Wallabag saves a clean, readable copy of each article so it survives if the original page disappears. Linkding is a fast, minimal bookmark manager with tags and browser extensions.

Tools to try: Wallabag, Linkding

Best for: heavy readers, writers and researchers.

13. A personal dashboard

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: MediumResource use: Light

Once you run a few tools, a dashboard ties them together: one start page with links to every service, server stats and quick widgets. Homepage and Homarr are both popular and easy to configure.

Tools to try: Homepage, Homarr

Best for: anyone running three or more self-hosted tools.

14. A Tor relay or bridge

Difficulty: MediumPrivacy value: Very high, for othersResource use: Bandwidth heavy

This one helps other people rather than you. A Tor relay adds capacity to the Tor network, and a bridge gives people in censored countries an unlisted entry point they can use when public relays are blocked. Neither sends traffic out to the open internet on anyone's behalf, which is what an exit node does, so they draw far fewer abuse complaints than exits. Relay IP addresses are public, though, and some services block them.

Tools to try: Tor, following the Tor Project's relay and bridge guides

Best for: privacy supporters with spare bandwidth.

Reality check: a busy relay moves a lot of traffic, so check your plan's traffic allowance first. Relays and bridges are permitted on Packetra; exit nodes are not.

15. A disposable test lab

Difficulty: EasyPrivacy value: MediumResource use: Varies

Not sure what to do with a VPS yet? Use it to break things safely. Try a new Linux distribution, test a deployment script, learn Docker or practise firewall rules on a machine where mistakes cost nothing. When you are done, wipe it and start again. Our knowledge base shows how to rebuild your VPS with a fresh operating system.

Best for: developers, sysadmins, students and the endlessly curious.