Summary

• Host game servers and manage mods with Pterodactyl.
• Utilize Proxmox for email servers, surveillance systems, and a personal cloud.
• Make your smart home a lot smarter using Home Assistant.

As one of the best virtualization platforms in the computing landscape, Proxmox is equipped with a plethora of nifty features. From letting you create high-availability clusters to supporting LXC containers and the KVM hypervisor, Proxmox has everything you could ever need in a home lab operating system. Although I usually cover wacky ideas like building a Hackintosh with Proxmox or gaming on Windows 11 VMs, you can create quite a lot of useful things with Proxmox, and here's a list of the best home projects you have to build at least once on your DIY journey.

10 LAN game-hosting server

With the help of Pterodactyl. The software, not the dinosaur

Self-hosted game servers are perfect when you want to test out insane mods or create a private lobby for your friends and family. Compatible with most of the popular multiplayer titles, the open-source Pterodactyl management panel provides an easy way to host custom lobbies for your favorite games. While the installation procedure can be a little grueling, you shouldn’t run into any compatibility issues when using Pterodactyl on a Debian VM inside Proxmox.

9 Email server

Spam messages, begone!

In an age where spam mail and virus-riddled messages are commonplace, self-hosted email servers can provide some much-needed security and privacy for your emails. While managing a dedicated email server may sound rather tedious, MailCow provides all the essential features you’ll require in a mail server, all wrapped inside a simple UI. Compared to its rivals, setting up MailCow is fairly straightforward, and all you have to do is configure a couple of network settings after deploying a MailCow Docker container inside a Proxmox VM.

8 Surveillance system

That can send alerts when it notices something out-of-the-ordinary

Looking for ways to create a robust security system? A ZoneMinder container is a great way to start your venture into the world of NVR technology. Besides supporting a variety of IP webcams and security cameras, ZoneMinder can provide real-time alerts and object-detection facilities via third-party integrations. And if you’re a Proxmox maestro, you can link your ZoneMinder container to a virtualized NAS setup to back up all the surveillance footage.

7 Home lab dashboard

An easy way to control all your devices and services

For those running multiple services and tons of paraphernalia in their computing setup, it can be difficult to access certain settings without going through a battalion of menus. Dashboard applications simplify the process of managing your home lab by presenting important statistics in neat, bite-sized widgets and graphs. Although you can choose from a variety of apps, running Dashy as an LXC container is my preferred way to create a dashboard for my home server.

6 Password manager

That won't forget your Lovecraftian chant-like passwords

Being able to recall passwords is no easy feat, especially if you’re as paranoid as I am and set vastly different passkeys when registering for any service. Thankfully, password managers like Vaultwarden can serve as the panacea to your security woes by allowing you to save your complex passkeys inside secure environments. Although you’ll have to create a TLS certificate to access your passwords after creating an LXC container for Vaultwarden, it’s worth the extra effort if you want maximum security for all your user accounts.

5 Media server

Perfect for film aficionados

Whether you’re looking for an intuitive UI to stream your MP4 files over the network or just want to catalog your ripped movies, media servers make for amazing additions to any home lab setup. If you’re going the LXC container route, you can use dedicated Proxmox VE Helper scripts to deploy Plex and Jellyfin servers. Alternatively, you can skip the age-old Plex vs. Jellyfin debate by installing Kodi on top of a Linux virtual machine.

4 Personal cloud

A self-hosted alternative to cloud services

If you’re tired of calibrating complex NAS operating systems inside your Proxmox rig, a container running a private cloud can offer a simpler way to back up data and share files across all your home lab devices. CasaOS is an amazing platform that scratches the personal cloud itch with its eye-pleasing UI and robust set of tools. Plus, it’s fairly easy to configure: simply run its associated Proxmox VE Helper script inside the Proxmox shell and wait for the virtualization platform to deploy a CasaOS-powered container.

3 Paperless-ngx server

Making document management easy, one file at a time

Although document-scanning apps have been a thing for years, it can be a real pain to organize your scanned files. But if you’ve got a Proxmox machine in your computing arsenal, you can make document management a lot less painful by deploying a Paperless-ngx container. From a decent OCR engine to a robust tagging system, Paperless-ngx can be a game-changer if your workflow involves sifting through loads of physical documents.

2 Ad blocker + self-hosted VPN

Highly useful for netizens

As if pesky advertisements aren’t enough already, maintaining your online privacy can be quite a hassle. You can technically deploy ad-blocker LXC containers for AdGuard/Pi-Hole on your Proxmox machine and run them in tandem with a self-hosted VPN container, but Wirehole provides a much better solution. If you haven’t already guessed from the name, this neat repository combines the ad-blocking capabilities of Pi-Hole with the Wireguard VPN. As long as you've got a Linux-based virtual machine capable of running Docker containers, you can easily get your Wirehole server up and running.

1 Home automation hub

The definitive home project

It would be a sacrilege to wrap up a list of the best home projects without granting the top position to Home Assistant. Compatible with a wide range of smart gadgets and IoT devices, it’s hands-down the best software to manage all the paraphernalia in your living space. Apart from its beginner-friendly UI, HA provides top-notch scripting provisions to bring the power of automation to your smart home setup. Whether you go the Proxmox VE Helper script route or deploy a virtual machine just for Home Assistant, there's no denying that it's an amazing smart home management tool for your Proxmox server.

Making your living space more comfortable with Proxmox

If you’re still hungry for more, there are plenty of other projects you can create using your Proxmox home server. Despite being a bit complex for newcomers, a Network-Attached Storage OS packs a lot more features than Nextcloud, CasaOS, and other personal cloud platforms – and you can easily install TrueNAS Scale or a similar NAS operating system inside a Proxmox virtual machine.

Likewise, coding lovers can leverage their Proxmox rigs to host powerful web servers, while hacking and pen-testing enthusiasts can use an isolated Kali Linux VM to test the security of their home network. Really, the sky's the limit when it comes to building fun projects with Proxmox.