No monthly storage fee. No complicated setup. Works from anywhere.
Encrypted on your phone before it leaves. Stored on hardware you own.
Why keep paying a monthly fee for more cloud storage when you already have storage at home? The desktop in the office, the old PC in a closet, a Mac mini on a shelf — install HostAnywhere on it and it becomes the private cloud your phones back up to. Three steps, no networking knowledge required:
Get HostAnywhere for iPhone or Android and sign in.
Mac, Windows, or Linux — any machine with disk to spare. Turn on Storage Server. One toggle. Watch it →
Pick what to back up. Your phone finds your computer automatically — at home or away — and backups just flow.
The whole flow on both platforms — under a minute each:
Your phone doesn't need to be on the same Wi-Fi as your computer. On cellular in an airport or on hotel Wi-Fi abroad, backups flow to the machine at home — no port forwarding, no dynamic DNS, nothing to configure.
Your photos never pass through HostAnywhere's cloud.
Cloud storage plans charge every month and limit what you keep. With HostAnywhere you use storage you already own — and when you need more space, you add a disk, not a subscription.
| HostAnywhere | iCloud / Google One | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your photos live | Your computer | Their cloud |
| Monthly storage fee | $0 | Paid plans |
| Storage capacity | Your disk | Plan limit |
| Works away from home | Yes | Yes |
| You own the storage hardware | Yes | No |
| Router setup required | None | — |
Every backup is encrypted on your phone before upload. Your photos and files are never stored on HostAnywhere's servers — they travel to your own computer and stay encrypted there.
Lost your phone? Got a new one? Deleted a contact you needed? Sign in and restore photos, contacts, and calendars from your own backup — and you don't have to wait for an emergency to try it. Run a restore today; make sure your safety net is real.
Back up the whole family's phones to one computer. A family of four pays for four cloud storage plans — or uses the machine that's already in the house. Each person's backup lives in their own separately encrypted space. The Free plan covers 3 people and 10 devices.
If you've tried self-hosting phone backups before, you know the real cost isn't the software. The benefits of self-hosting, without becoming a network administrator — here's everything you don't configure with HostAnywhere:
Yes. The Storage Server and phone Backups are part of the Free plan, and there's no storage fee and no backup size limit from us — your disk is the limit. By default the app uses up to half the free space on the drive (you can change this in Storage Server settings). Paid plans add other things, like the internet gateway and team features.
Only on the computer or computers you chose. HostAnywhere's servers never store your files.
No, we can't see your photos. Your files are encrypted on your phone before they leave, and they're never stored on our servers — only on the computer you chose. For the full key-management details, see how backup encryption works.
No. Your devices find each other automatically over a private, secure connection. That's the part HostAnywhere makes disappear.
Any Mac (macOS 12+), Windows (10/11), or Linux machine with disk to spare. It runs quietly in the background. You can run more than one — they keep each other in sync automatically.
Wi-Fi only by default, to protect your data plan. There's a "Back up over cellular" toggle in Settings if you want it.
In the app: sign in on the new or reset phone, open Backups, and restore. Photos, contacts, and calendars come back from your own computer.
They're your files on your machine — delete them anytime. Removing the app and deleting your account removes everything on our side.
Back up your first phone for free.
And the desktop app for your storage computer: hostanywhere.io/download · Privacy · Pricing