Is it possible to self-host RustDesk completely for free? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 months ago by Flagstaff@programming.dev to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I thought self-hosting requires, like, paid ownership of a website or something. I don't think I've ever self-hosted before and am lost with its guide.

My primary concern is RustDesk's warning about possibly shutting down its free self-hosting because of bot abuse, despite now requiring GitHub accounts. There seems to be nothing even remotely close to RustDesk, except possibly HopToDesk, which I heard is a fork of an older version or something.

It'd be nice to be able to keep this going just in case. Or are there free, E2EE servers out there that anyone knows of?

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[-] ryokimball@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

I have not set it up yet but plan to do so soon. I could imagine a requirement of owning a host name so that you can have a certificate, but I imagine an IP address would work just as well. You will need to open ports on your router according to the documentation; I haven't looked into reverse proxy options or anything to prevent the firewall changes being necessary.

But yeah, my understanding is it's totally doable for "free" (i.e. using your existing infrastructure).

this post was submitted on 06 May 2026

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