Self‑hosting swaps one risk for another. A cleaner option may be local‑first apps that speak an open sync protocol: your data lives on your phone/laptop/homeserver; an optional, end‑to‑end‑encrypted relay just moves opaque blobs for backup and multi‑device access. Why this matters: the No. 1 failure I see isn’t servers getting hacked. It’s users losing the only copy of their files. * ~70 million phones are lost annually; most are never recovered. https://snohomishcountywa.gov/Archive.asp?ADID=543 * Consumer hard‑drive AFR hovers around 1‑2 %—≈7 % fail within five years. https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/05/02/disk-failure-rates-in-... * 29 % of people have already suffered data loss from deletion, ransomware, or disk death. https://www.worldbackupday.com/en With odds like these, an off‑device, unreadable backup is basic hygiene, not a luxury. Disclaimer: I work on Anytype, which follows this model: local ownership, open‑source sync protocol, source‑available clients.