# Sandstorm

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Sandstorm and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free open-source platform for running web apps yourself with proper sandboxing and an easy interface. Critics cite slow cold starts, high memory use, and an app library some find unappealing.

## Why people recommend it

- Good for personal self-hosting (2 comments): "It was a beautiful thing that tried to thread the needle between personal, self-hosted software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184676)) "as someone who definitely will still be running Sandstorm at home" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184989))
- Important, inspiring concept (2 comments): "I think Sandstorm as a concept, improbably, is more important now than it was a decade ago." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075206)) "sandstorm is a really interesting and inspiring piece of software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184983))

## What people warn about

- Poor experience in practice (2 comments): "I tried once, with Sandstorm, and like I said, it didn't work well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184687)) "it didn't work well, because of cold start times and memory usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184183))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Umbrel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/umbrel.md): 20 recommend
- [Zo Computer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zo-computer.md): 15 recommend
- [Cloud in a Bottle](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloud-in-a-bottle.md): 14 recommend
- [Cloudron](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudron.md): 6 recommend
- [Umbrel Personal Cloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/umbrel-personal-cloud.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Sandstorm", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sandstorm/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).