For years, I handed over control of my business’s critical data and workflows to various third-party services. I was paying monthly fees for tools that didn’t quite fit my needs. And I always had a sense of unease about my data living on someone else’s servers. Then I discovered Docker.
It started as an experiment to simplify one or two services and quickly evolved into a complete business overhaul. By containerizing key business tools, I have replaced my expensive subscriptions and manual processes with a completely self-managed stack.
Outline
A robust knowledge base
There is no shortage of self-hosted knowledge management tools out there. I tried Docmost, Tududi, Blinko, and many others, and finally settled on Outline for several reasons. It felt intuitive and powerful for my freelancing business needs.
Outline offers a clean, minimalistic interface combined with a robust editor. The Home menu shows my recently used notes and a sidebar to access collections. Thanks to a block editor and slash command, Outline feels modern as well.
For me, it’s the perfect central hub for my business. I use it to create client-facing documentation, project specifications, and personal reference guides. The list of features includes templates, permissions, history, and integration with other tools like Zapier, Slack, and GitHub.
If you have been relying on usual note-taking tools like OneNote or Evernote, give Outline a try.
Invoice Ninja
Professional invoicing made easy
As the name suggests, Invoice Ninja is another crucial tool for my freelancing business. I used to manually create documents and track payments in a spreadsheet. With my self-hosted Invoice Ninja container, that’s all a thing of the past.
I can create professional, branded invoices in minutes and set up recurring invoices for my long-term clients. It offers a bunch of professionally designed templates to get started in no time.
The list of features includes excellent reporting and client management, automated invoices, payment tracking, and reminders, and more.
Nextcloud
Private cloud for everything
Nextcloud appearing on this list shouldn’t surprise anyone. Whether you are a freelancer, small business owner, or a professional, you can’t go wrong with it.
Nextcloud gives me a single, secure place to store all my client work, project files, media, and personal documents. If you have been looking to replace Google Drive or OneDrive, Nextcloud is the way to go.
The self-hosted cloud storage tool recently received a neat makeover on the web. It now displays customizable widgets where I can check my emails, media, tasks, notes, and more. The collaboration experience is also secure, where I can password-protect and set an expiry date before sharing private links.
There is also built-in support for office files, where I can create documents, edit spreadsheets, and presentations directly in my browser.
Firefly III
Personal finance manager
Financial clarity is one of the most critical aspects of running a successful freelance business, and for me, Firefly III does the duties without breaking a sweat.
I used to rely on a confusing mix of bank statements and rough spreadsheets to track my income and expenses, which made it impossible to see where my money was actually going. By using the Firefly III container, I have a private way to manage all my finances.
The biggest feature is rule-based transactions. I can set up rules to automatically categorize transactions. The long list of features includes comprehensive reporting that gives me a clear picture of my business’s profitability, the ability to set budgets, goals, and more.
In short, Firefly III has given me a level of financial control and insight that I never thought was possible with a self-hosted solution.
Stirling PDF
Powerful PDF toolkit
Working with PDFs used to be a major source of friction in my freelancing business. I was constantly dealing with clients sending me forms to sign, needing to combine multiple documents, or having to redact sensitive information before sending a file.
I tried everything from expensive, subscription-based software to free online tools, and then I found Stirling PDF. By self-hosting this container, I now have my own private, full-featured PDF toolkit that I can access from any device.
It offers a long list of PDF editing tools like merging and splitting, compression, redaction, the ability to apply watermarks, conversion, and more. Overall, Stirling PDF has become my go-to ‘Swiss Army Knife’ for all things PDF. It’s a versatile tool that gives me full control over my documents.
The secret to my business’s efficiency
Managing a business with a self-hosted Docker stack isn’t about saving money on subscriptions or tinkering with tech. It’s about building a robust and fully controlled system that works for you. By leveraging Outline for business knowledge base, Invoice Ninja for billing, Nextcloud for file management, Firefly III for finance tracking, and Stirling PDF for editing files, you can build an efficient foundation for your entire operation.
Of course, these are just my personal picks. The Docker ecosystem is vast and ever-growing. You can always explore more containers as per your business needs.