7 Docker containers that I depart operating 24/7

I’m a giant fan of Docker, particularly with apps like Papermerge and Actual Budget. Over time, I’ve ditched some containers like Wallabag for alternatives that work better for me. While I take advantage of it for a lot of completely different duties, I typically spin down containers for apps I’m not actively utilizing at any given time. However, I run some apps 24/7 on one among my homelab laptops. These apps assist me monitor, management, and handle my work daily.

Portainer

It’s the star of the entire present

The most necessary app I run 24/7 is fairly apparent. It’s the container administration app, Portainer. In my expertise, having a container supervisor is pretty vital to running Docker. I nonetheless have not modified my thoughts about it, regardless of making an attempt out comparable apps.

Portainer makes managing the apps themselves easy and provides me a direct line of sight into what is going on on with them. It’s just about a necessity for my Docker workflow.

Trilium, Stirling-PDF, Paperless-ngx, Linkwarden and Excalidraw

My 5-app, constantly-running productiveness stack

Monitoring and taking management over your consumer expertise are two issues I take very significantly. But not each app I run 24/7 in Docker is said to that stuff. I’ve a full suite of productiveness apps I take advantage of every day. Unless I have to shut them down for updates, they keep up and on on a regular basis for fast entry.

The app I take advantage of most frequently (it is normally within the tab proper subsequent to the one I’m engaged on) is Trilium. It’s nice for fast notes and saving concepts. I’ve additionally been utilizing it to maintain observe of tasks, kind of like a Kanban board. I nonetheless use Obsidian every day, however Trilium is a good increase to it. I can simply pop into it once I full a process or have to scribble one thing down in a rush.

Stirling-PDF has been very useful in serving to me set up music stuff (lyrics, charts, chords) and drawing directions into single PDFs. I’m studying to attract several types of ocean creatures, plane, and cartoons. I used to be actually into cartooning in my 20s however obtained away from it for some time. Organizing notes and diagrams into PDFs is so significantly better than lugging a whole library of bodily books round.

Paperless-ngx and Excalidraw are each constructed for group and productiveness. Excalidraw is nice for sketching concepts when inspiration hits, and I’ve been discovering numerous worth with Paperless-ngx for protecting observe of labor paperwork and serving to handle a really bold facet mission that I work on daily (a minimum of for a short time).

I additionally prefer to preserve Linkwarden continuously lively as a result of I’m in the course of saving all of my revealed work from throughout the net and, simply in case I wish to bookmark one thing for later (which I’ve a really unhealthy behavior of doing), Pocket-style.

AdGuard Home

An anchor for native advert blocking

I didn’t at all times despise adverts the way in which I do now. I grew up watching syndicated tv, full with business breaks. I wrote and recorded adverts once I labored in radio. I used to be in advertising and marketing for seven years. I even get nostalgic generally about stuff like those old Reese’s commercials.

But there’s simply one thing about at this time’s adverts that basically will get on my nerves. Maybe it’s how pervasive and invasive they’re. Today’s adverts really feel like a rodent infestation in your favourite apps. It’s gross.

I’m completely satisfied that in 2026, everybody wants a very good advert blocker. I take advantage of them on a regular basis as browser extensions, however I wish to broaden into one thing extra complete for my dwelling community. I’ve regarded into Pi-hole, however AdGuard Home is the one I’ve used for some time.

It’s a DNS sinkhole that works nicely for my small dwelling community and residential lab. It blocks adverts, trackers, malicious domains, and all kinds of terrible stuff on the DNS stage. Setup can take a little bit of time, however AdGuard principally provides you step-by-step directions to get issues up and operating.

It works nicely when I’m at dwelling on my native community. If I’m touring, I take advantage of a browser extension known as AdNauseum in Firefox on my gadgets. I’ll ultimately give Pi-hole a shot, however for now AdGuard Home is working simply high quality.

I see no motive to close it down in any respect.

Running 24/7 Docker containers is all about versatility

There are numerous completely different choices for operating always-up/always-on containers, like Kubernetes or VMware (which I’ve used for different tasks prior to now), however I at all times discover myself coming again to Docker. My present stack works nice for my present tasks. But the perfect half is that it is versatile and might change relying on my wants.