Transparency is the core foundation of SelfHostHero. In the homelab community, trust is everything. We want to be completely upfront about how this website makes money to cover server costs, hardware purchases, and the time it takes to produce deep-dive technical tutorials.
The Short Version
Some of the links on SelfHostHero are affiliate links. This means that if you click on one of these links and purchase a product, we may receive a small commission. This comes at absolutely no extra cost to you. The price you pay is exactly the same whether you use our link or find the product yourself.
Amazon Associates Disclosure
SelfHostHero is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated international Amazon sites. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Our Promise: Editorial Integrity Above All
We do not do “sponsored positive reviews.” If a piece of software is broken, or a hardware chassis feels cheap and hollow, we will tell you. (You can read our TerraMaster TOS 6 review to see what happens when software fails our standards).
- We buy our own gear: The vast majority of the hardware reviewed on this site, including our baseline Proxmox servers and networking equipment, was purchased with our own money.
- Review Units: If a manufacturer ever sends us a review unit, we will explicitly state that at the top of the article. However, our terms are non-negotiable: the manufacturer does not get to see the review before publication, and they have no editorial control over our verdict.
- We only recommend what we use: We do not link to random products just to make a quick buck. If we link to a specific NVMe drive, a Zigbee coordinator, or a NAS enclosure, it is because we have tested it and believe it belongs in a proper homelab.
Why Not Just Run Ads?
You might have noticed the lack of invasive banner ads, pop-ups, and auto-playing videos on SelfHostHero. We hate the modern, ad-cluttered internet just as much as you do. We believe in privacy-first, self-hosted solutions. Using affiliate links allows us to keep the site clean, fast, and free of third-party tracking networks.
If you find our guides helpful, using our affiliate links is the best way to support the site so we can keep tearing down hardware and writing tutorials.
Your Data. Your Server. Your Rules.
