Self-hosted Egress Watch

Detects when self-hosted apps phone home excessively, protecting privacy

Problem

Users found the self-hosted open-source app Herdr pinged herdr.dev over 7000 times in 3 days, far beyond expectations. Many self-hosted apps include hidden telemetry or analytics that users can hardly notice or block.

Solution

A lightweight network monitoring agent installed on self-hosted servers that automatically identifies and counts outbound requests from open-source apps, generates reports, allows one-click blocking, and offers a plugin marketplace listing known telemetry domains.

Users

Self-hosting enthusiasts, homelab users, privacy-conscious small teams

MVP

Support Docker/Linux installation; record per-process outbound connections; aggregate by domain; provide known telemetry domain list; one-click iptables rule blocking

Revenue

Open-source core + paid cloud dashboard subscription ($5-$15/mo); or one-time $49 lifetime license

Why now

Self-hosting and privacy awareness are rising; users are increasingly sensitive to apps 'secretly phoning home'; indie developers can quickly build lightweight agents