Thanks I am on the same journey here.
I have used Umbrel, Citadel, Start9. Each have pros and cons. About to try rolling my own stack which is a little above my comfort level.
Would also like to hear from anyone on current best practices.
What are the pros and cons of umbrel?
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Will echo what @DarthCoin says and give a little more feedback.
Umbrel/Citadel/Start9 are basically the same thing just polished interfaces for the individual software.
  • Start9 is extremely polished and you can tell they are trying to build a commercial product. Less apps to play with but they barely work on the other platforms anyway so I appreciate that decision.
  • Umbrel is clearly the most popular, trying to appeal to everyone and build a community. Most apps. But I ended up having to do so much configuration manually I might as well run the individual programs myself.
  • Citadel is on the right track trying to get the best of both worlds. But looks like there is only a single developer chasing down every little thing. And still not perfect out of the box so needs TLC. I'm keeping my eye on it.
Note that I am trying to run on an actual Ubuntu computer. I want some more performance and flexibility than the Rasberry Pi otherwise I would stick with Start9 no question.
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Indeed. I didn't want to discourage the use of these bundles. No, not at all, I just want to warn new users about one important aspect of running a node:

WHY, what is the purpose and destination of running a node?

  • you want only for learning?
  • you want for production/developing?
  • you want to play around/testing?
  • you want for commercial use?
For each of these there's a solution. But choose wisely.
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