Is Mac Mini suitable for self-hosted server?

I'd recommend against it. Apple's software ecosystem isn't as friendly for self hosting anything, storage is difficult to add, ram impossible, and you'll be beholden to macOS running things inside containers until the good folks at Asahi or some other coummity startup add partial linux support.

And yes, I've tried this route. I ran an m1 mac mini as a home server for a while (running jellyfin and some other containers). It pretty consistently ran into software bugs (less maintained than x64 software) and every time I wanted to do an update instead of sudo whateveryourdistroships update, and a reboot, it was an entire process involving an apple account, logging into the bare metal device, and then finally running their 15-60 minute long update. Perfectly fine and acceptable for home computing, but not exactly a good experience when you're hosting a service.

If the price is right for you, go for it. You will run containers and or VMs, so doesn't really matter what your bare metal is.

I would choose something where I can install Linux easily and nice and I am sure at the Mac mini price point you can build yourself an assembled mini-pc with beefer specs, but indeed it's more work and hassle.

YMMV

HP/Lenovo/Dell workstation tiny/mini/micro will be cheaper and better supported. Price-wise, I've set up 4-5 reasonably powerful t/m/m machines for the cost of my M2 Mac mini.

Which is nice for some of the development work I do, but for a server I personally won't use anything other than Linux, and I wouldn't recommend anything else either. Apple adds some funkiness that can be a complete pain (IMO) with some tools, Linux is the only server solution worth using.

So if you want a Mac, go for it, but if you want a server as the most important part, I'd say get an x86 based bit of hardware.

Self hosted server to do what?

Because I have a self hosted server running on a refurb Lenovo mini-pc that I bought for $90 and it does a fine job running the dozen or so docker image of service I need.

But I ain't gonna run no LLM on that machine, that's for sure.

I have an old mac mini that was a server for a good 4-ish years.

The good:

1. They are pretty good at sticking in a closet and forgetting about them.
2. Specs are always on the decent side and some of the older models are easy to upgrade.
3. Power is ok. It sips power
4. It can run for years without issues. I still have two mac minis I used for CI/CD jobs, thin clients, etc...
5. Its a cheap mac. If you need mac for something, like building custom mac specific applications, then its a decent little machine.

The bad:

1. CPU is usually lacking compared to any computer of the same price range.
2. MAC OS. Its good at desktop but as a server, it just doesn't have the same options/ease of use as a good linux box. You can get around that by dual booting, but its just another headache. Docker/VMs are also an option, but the RAM/CPU usage would take a hit.
3. The newer the model, the harder it is to upgrade.

I would use it as a specialty server if you have something you do automatically only macs can do. Or as a thin client/vm box.

I used to use it as a CI/CD box before github actions was a thing. If you happen to have one, sure set it up for fun. If you dont and are looking at buying one, I would suggest a cheap dell desktop or (depending on what you want to host) a pi 5 or thin client and throw linux on it.

I bought a M1 Mac Mini second-hand and it's great for home server purposes. Like others have said, you'll be using containers a bunch, so bare metal doesn't matter quite as much as it used to. They're power efficient and offer good performance. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, there's a bunch of other benefits to having a Mac set up as a server (e.g. content caching for updates/iCloud content).

It wouldn't be my first choice, but it'll probably do the job. Depends on what you want to do with it. There's fewer people choosing this path, which means that when things go wrong, you'll have fewer sources of information to help.

Some old Dell office PC with a good amount of RAM and an SSD would be just as well.

i have one running debian as a secondary backup to run just smart home stuff and pi-hole. you can set it up to start back up after power failure. was like $50 used. there's basically no point in it being a mac rather than an old lenovo machine, but it sure is cute looking.

Most answers here are missing the benefits of a home Mac running 24/7 if you’re already part of the Apple ecosystem. For example, you can have it sync all your iCloud data (documents, photos, iTunes content) and back them up locally, then elsewhere outside of Apple’s ecosystem. You can also have it act as a local CDN for OS updates, whereby it will cache OS downloads locally so any subsequent updates will be super quick.

On the downside, I found native Docker on macOS kinda sucked, and just installed Ubuntu on my 2012 Mac Mini (now running Proxmox for funsies), but I have an old iMac to do the caching. You could probably virtualize and get both benefits, and I am considering moving to a new M4 mini for the power savings and sheer speed. That M4 Pro chip has absolutely incredible Geekbench numbers while sipping power.

If you just want a server with a very small footprint and good specs there are far better options. If you like using macOS and will occaionally use it like a desktop while also having some hosted services running in VM full time. Then yeah the minis are great little systems and fairly indestructable. If i went back to daily driving macOS outside work, i'd just buy a mini. But i'd only pay out for a mini if i'm actually gonna use macOS.

At the ends of the day, it’s about what you’re comfortable working on. My daily driver is a MacBook Pro. I have a BeeLink S12 Pro that runs most of my self hosted stuff, and a Synology that runs a couple things. I also have an HP Z440 as a test bed box (powered off unless I’m working on something). I’m comfortable working with Linux and power draw was important for me in setting up my always-on server (my power bill is already high).

The only minor concern I would have with a mini is you’re limiting your support base. This isn’t to say there’s no support, there’s just less. Most self hosted are using something like a unraid, a beelink, or an old micro Dell/HP/Lenovo. Because of that, there’s a ton of stuff out there about getting various services running on these setups. The M-based mini environment is going to be a little more unique.

If you’re planning on running containers, tbh I would not. The required virtualization layer (due to macOS being BSD-based) is going to make containers WAY less efficient. You’re better off with a system you can easily slap proxmox (or whatever distro floats your boat) on.

Using the igpu might be problematic for transcoding if you need that. I'd recommend older intel / Asus NUCs if you want a mini PC. 3 year warranty, built for Enterprise, tall version has room for a 7mm tall sata SSD or HDD along with nvme m.2 SSD.

I think if you do Asus 12gen + they have another m.2 slot though it is the smaller one 2242. Doing all this you can upgrade it to 64GB RAM, 8TB m.2 2280, 8TB SATA SSSD, and 1TB M.2 2242. In homelab especially with mini PCs the limit is usually RAM / storage rather than CPU.

I got 4 11th gen with 64 GB RAM each and 32TB of SSD storage. I recommend avoiding QLC SSD as much as possible. Aim for TLC , MLC, or SLC. Higher storage capacity tends to be QLC or TLC, QLC has shortest endurance and slowest speeds.

It's fine, but not going to be the cheapest.

Cheap to buy: Any old PC desktop, really. Most will run linux and windows fine, depending on what you want. Anywhere from free to £100. If you have an old desktop or laptop already, use that to start with.

Cheap to run: Any mini PC. I run a Lenovo ThinkCentre M53 for low power duties. Cost £40 and runs silently at 10watts, idle. (I have a secondary, much beefier server for other stuff that runs at around 100w which lives in the garage)

But plenty of people do run mac minis as home servers, often on Linux. They're fine - just do your homework on the CPU ability, how much ram you can add, and whether you're okay with external disks if you can't fit enough inside.

Main problem is, ram isn't upgradable on recent Apple tech, and you'll need ram for containers, if you're gonna host it to the CPU limit, if not, then even more so, brand new intel n100 mini pc for 100-150$ is gonna do wonders for you in self hosting field, what I'm saying is, if your MAIN goal is self hosting, then Mac is not optimal, i mean, you can buy Mac mini for your daily tasks and intel n100 mini pc for pocket change you'll have left after buying Mac, and host your projects on intel one while using Mac yourself

I switched all my server stuff to my m1 Mac mini because previously I was trying to host everything off my truenas scale NAS with truecharts. Since truecharts isn’t really an option for future truenas updates and I already had an m1 Mac mini I bought secondhand, I figured it’d work pretty well for docker containers, which it does. And it’s a ton more easy for me to troubleshoot than K8s.

I mean, it would work, but you would be better off power-wise, price-wise, and performance-wise, going with a used office PC such as Optiplex.