Raspberry Pi Project Ideas
Not sure what to build first? Each project below links to every guide you need to complete it. Sorted roughly by complexity.
Build a Pi 4 server with Pi-hole for DNS filtering, WireGuard VPN for remote access, and Samba for file sharing. The ideal first homelab project.
Run Jellyfin on a Pi 5 with a USB SSD for storage. Stream your movie and music collection to any TV, phone, or browser.
Replace Google Drive and Dropbox with Nextcloud on a Pi 4. Automatic photo backup from your phone, file sync across all your devices.
Install Home Assistant on a dedicated Pi 5 with a Zigbee USB stick. Control all your smart devices locally with no cloud dependency.
Build an OpenMediaVault NAS on a Pi 5 with two USB drives. Includes Samba shares, scheduled rsync backups, and SMART monitoring.
A security-focused Pi setup with key-based SSH, Fail2ban, UFW firewall, and WireGuard VPN. The base configuration before exposing any service.
Install Docker and Portainer, then deploy Pi-hole, Uptime Kuma, and Gitea as a three-service stack managed entirely through a web UI.
Set up Grafana with InfluxDB and Telegraf to visualise CPU temperature, memory, disk, and network metrics from every Pi in your lab.