What is a Homelab — and Why Do You Need One? - Read The Manual - Tech

TL;DR:

A homelab is your personal test bed for learning real-world IT, cloud, and cybersecurity skills — on your own terms.
It doesn’t need to be expensive — you can start with free-tier cloud accounts or a £50 Raspberry Pi.
It’s hands-on learning that makes you more confident, more employable, and more capable.
We’re building a community where learning, experimentation, and collaboration can change lives.

Homelab =
Real Learning

If you’re in tech — or trying to break into it — there’s something that no course or textbook can give you:
👉 Grit earned through hands-on experience.

And that’s where homelabs shine.
They give you the space to try, fail, learn, and grow. Whether you’re running containers on a Pi, testing identity in Azure, or building a DIY firewall — it’s yours to explore.

Homelabs dont have to be beautiful, expensive, perfectly cabled (but sure they of course can be!) They’re as unique as the techs that build them, but most will follow common themes!

But Wait… What Is a Homelab?

A homelab is any tech setup that helps you learn by doing.

It could be:

🔌 A Raspberry Pi with Docker
🧰 A few VMs on your laptop
🖥️ A retired corporate firewall from eBay
☁️ A sandboxed Azure tenant

Whether it’s in a garage or just a spare folder on your PC, it counts if it helps you test, tinker, and build.

Why You Should Care

Because real-world understanding beats passive learning every time.

You might know the theory behind DNS or patch management, but until you’ve broken something and had to recover it at 2AM… you don’t really get it.

A homelab gives you:

🎯 Confidence in your skills
💡 A safe place to try stuff you can’t risk at work
🔧 Practical examples for your CV, interviews, or freelance gigs
💬 Talking points that prove you’re not just a “textbook techie”

Start Cheap. Or Free.

You don’t need enterprise gear or £1000 ($1000) servers.

Here’s how you can start right now:

Azure Free Tier — VMs, storage, functions, identity
Proxmox VE — Turn an old PC into a hypervisor
Pi + Docker Guide — Host anything
Cloudflare Tunnel — Make your services public
Raspberry Pi – Pi 5 is fastest but if you’re on a budget, get what you can afford!
Raspberry Pi Zero (Starter Kit) – Probably the smallest single board Computer around (but not very quick! so just consider what you want to run on it)

We’ll walk through all of these in detail. With tutorials, shopping lists, project guides, and downloadable scripts — so you’re never stuck.

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More Than a Lab — A Life Changer

We built ReadTheManual to do more than teach tech.

We’re here to:

Unlock opportunity for career changers and curious minds
Give back by sharing real-world lessons
Collaborate with people across skill levels and backgrounds
Build together — and launch the next generation of engineers, architects, and mentors

This is about community. Growth. And helping people go from lab to leader.

Want to Join Us?

🛠️ Build a project.
🧠 Learn a skill.
🤝 Meet others doing the same.