Published 7 minutes ago

Beginning his professional journey in the tech industry in 2018, Yash spent over three years as a Software Engineer. After that, he shifted his focus to empowering readers through informative and engaging content on his tech blog – DiGiTAL BiRYANi. He has also published tech articles for MakeTechEasier. He loves to explore new tech gadgets and platforms. When he is not writing, you’ll find him exploring food. He is known as Digital Chef Yash among his readers because of his love for Technology and Food.

Sign in to your XDA account

I’ve been self-hosting my own stack via Docker for years, and in the beginning, I had a bit of a "more is more" mentality. My only goal was to solve a problem; I didn’t care about resource consumption, bloated images, or RAM usage. If an app fixed my workflow, I gave it a permanent home on my server.

However, as my stack grew, my hardware started to feel the squeeze. I realized that many of the heavy-hitters I was running were total overkill. Recently, I went on a mission to swap out the "resource hogs" for leaner, faster alternatives. Here are four swaps I’ve made that saved my server, and I’m never going back.

BentoPDF

StirlingPDF, who?

For a long time, Stirling PDF felt like the crown jewel of my home server. It’s incredibly powerful and packed with features, but over time, it started to feel like overkill for my daily PDF work. I was mostly merging files, splitting pages, compressing documents, and doing quick edits, yet I was running a tool designed to handle everything imaginable.

That’s when I switched to BentoPDF, and the contrast was immediate. BentoPDF takes a privacy-first, client-side approach, meaning most of the work happens directly in the browser. There’s no heavy backend constantly running, and the app feels snappy the moment I open it.

What surprised me most is how much BentoPDF can do despite its lightweight nature. It covers all my core needs: merge, split, compress, reorder pages, rotate files, redact sensitive information, and export clean results — all these 50+ PDF tools from a simple, distraction-free interface. The workflows feel intentional, and small details, like preserving bookmarks during merges, just work reliably.

It’s faster, cleaner, and perfectly tuned for real-world PDF tasks. For my setup, BentoPDF isn’t a downgrade; it’s an upgrade I’m not going back from.

BentoPDF

BentoPDF provides fast, private, and free PDF tools. It processes files locally in your browser, ensuring privacy as your documents never reach their servers. It requires no account, offers all tools for free, and is built for speed.

Related

Trilium Notes

Joplin, who?

I used Joplin for quite some time, and it’s a solid note-taking app. But as my notes grew, it started to feel rigid. I felt limited by its rigid "folder and subfolder" structure. Everything revolved around notebooks, sync layers, and a workflow that never quite matched how I think. I wanted something that felt less like a digital filing cabinet and more like a second brain. I tried multiple options and finally chose Trilium Notes.

The immediate win was how much lighter it felt compared to my old setup. While many note-taking apps are resource hogs, Trilium is lightweight and efficient. The biggest change was moving to an infinite hierarchical tree. In Trilium, every single note can also act as a folder. This means I can nest projects, research, and quick snippets as deep as I need without the UI becoming a cluttered mess. It matches the way I actually think about complex tech projects.

Beyond the layout, the "power user" features are incredible. It has a built-in Relation Map that visually connects my notes, and since it uses a database backend, the full-text search is lightning-fast. It even supports Markdown flawlessly while offering a clean, "what you see is what you get" editing experience. It’s a specialized knowledge base that stays incredibly lean, keeping my documentation organized without the heavy overhead I was used to.

TriliumNext

Trilium Notes is a free, open source app designed for cross-platform use.

Karakeep

Linkwarden, who?

Linkwarden was my go-to for saving the web for quite a while. It’s a solid tool for archiving, but for my personal use, it eventually felt a bit too heavy. I wanted something faster and smarter to handle my "digital hoard" without the heavy overhead. That’s when I moved to Karakeep.

I run Karakeep via Docker, and the difference is night and day. It is incredibly lightweight compared to my previous system; the containers spin up in seconds and sit quietly in the background without hogging resources. Despite being lean, the best feature is the AI-powered auto-tagging. When I save a link, it uses a touch of AI (locally via self-hosted LLM) to categorize the content and generate a summary. I no longer waste time deciding if a link belongs in "Docker" or "DevOps"; Karakeep just handles it.

It’s also surprisingly versatile. Beyond bookmarks, it treats images, PDFs, and quick notes as first-class citizens. My favorite part is the built-in OCR; if I upload a screenshot of a terminal error, the text inside becomes instantly searchable. It’s a snappy, "set-it-and-forget-it" tool that keeps my bookmarks organized with zero manual effort.

Karakeep

Karakeep is an open-source, self-hosted bookmarks manager that allows you to add bookmarks from any platform and categorizes them based on tags.

Time Tracker

OpenProject, who?

Tracking my time is non-negotiable. Between client work, writing, research, and admin tasks, I need a clear view of where my hours actually go. I was using OpenProject for this, but it always felt like overkill. Time tracking was just one small feature buried inside a much larger project management system.

Switching to a lightweight Time Tracker smartly simplified things. This tool focuses purely on what I care about: tracking time accurately and turning that data into something useful. I can start and stop timers quickly, assign time to specific clients or projects, and add short notes without breaking my flow.

One feature I genuinely appreciate is invoicing support. I can generate clean, client-ready invoices directly from my tracked hours, based on project rates and time entries. No exporting data into spreadsheets or dependency on separate billing tools, it’s all connected and straightforward.

Along with daily and weekly summaries, project breakdowns, manual entries, and exportable reports, it covers everything I need without unnecessary complexity. It stays out of the way, runs light, and fits perfectly into my freelance workflow.

Time Tracker

TimeTracker is a self-hosted, open-source time tracking and project management web application for freelancers and teams. It offers smart one-click timers, customizable project boards, detailed reporting, and built-in invoicing for billable hours, giving users complete control over their data with a simple Docker deployment.

Related

Less bloat, more flow

The real magic of switching to a lightweight Docker stack wasn’t just a quieter CPU fan; it was the elimination of the micro-frictions that used to kill my focus. I’ve realized that bloated software acts as a hidden tax on my creativity. By opting for high-efficiency alternatives, I now spend less time troubleshooting overhead and more time actually building. For me, efficiency became the ultimate productivity hack. By trimming the fat and reclaiming my hardware’s potential, I finally have a workspace that moves as fast as I do.