"ElfReport" for May 2025
During May, we continued to refine our most popular ElfStack (the Aars), reinforced our Discord anti-spam protection, and expanded our portfolio of Elf-illiated apps / devs.
To get us started, here are some geeky stats for May 2025, followed by a summary of some of the user-facing changes announced this month in the blog...
Stats
| Focus | Mar 2025 | Apr 2025 | May 2025 |
| Discord members | 2572 | 2666 | 2102 |
| YouTube subscribers | 694 | 735 | 764 |
| TikTok followers | 27 | 27 | 27 |
| X followers | 98 | 102 | 104 |
| BlueSky followers | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Fediverse followers | 1 | 1 | 2 |
The stats below illustrate CPU cores used (not percentage). These stats only cover the DE cluster at present, we're working on cross-cluster metrics aggregation to make this data more useful.
kubectl top nodes
NAME CPU(cores) CPU(%) MEMORY(bytes) MEMORY(%)
fairy01 1070m 6% 32275Mi 25%
fairy02 884m 5% 29456Mi 22%
fairy03 3466m 21% 57800Mi 44%
gretel01 1003m 8% 57750Mi 89%
gretel02 400m 3% 11478Mi 17%
gretel03 1108m 9% 21084Mi 32%
gretel04 952m 7% 60247Mi 93%
gretel05 1478m 12% 29280Mi 45%
gretel07 1944m 12% 35701Mi 27%
gretel08 1263m 7% 40052Mi 31%
gretel09 513m 3% 26369Mi 20%
gretel10 2626m 16% 38732Mi 30%
gretel11 1728m 10% 33914Mi 26%
gretel13 579m 3% 31869Mi 24%
gretel14 721m 4% 31316Mi 24%
gretel15 2073m 12% 37046Mi 28%
gretel16 1464m 9% 29609Mi 23%
gretel17 772m 4% 35044Mi 27%
gretel19 2099m 13% 37138Mi 28%
gretel20 3236m 20% 38198Mi 29%
gretel22 1336m 8% 28253Mi 21%
gretel26 1058m 6% 31568Mi 24%
gretel27 1590m 9% 32258Mi 25%
gretel30 8870m 55% 40214Mi 62%
gretel31 978m 6% 37061Mi 28%
gretel33 718m 4% 24475Mi 38%
gretel37 3086m 19% 32117Mi 24%
hansel01 1209m 10% 26395Mi 41%
hansel02 1078m 8% 29057Mi 45%
hansel03 1353m 11% 30723Mi 47%
hansel04 1011m 8% 26155Mi 40%
hansel05 2136m 17% 28312Mi 44%
hansel06 1709m 14% 24971Mi 38%
hansel07 2483m 20% 25257Mi 39%
hansel08 1548m 12% 30540Mi 47%
hansel14 1612m 13% 30599Mi 47%
hansel15 2422m 20% 30331Mi 47%
hansel16 932m 7% 25209Mi 39%
hansel17 1466m 12% 30080Mi 46%
hansel18 1098m 9% 28652Mi 44%
hansel20 1320m 11% 26423Mi 41%
Last month (Apr)'s for comparison:
kubectl top nodes
NAME CPU(cores) CPU(%) MEMORY(bytes) MEMORY(%)
fairy01 580m 3% 27593Mi 21%
fairy02 1954m 12% 53447Mi 41%
fairy03 3808m 23% 51922Mi 40%
gretel01 1742m 14% 25316Mi 39%
gretel02 2505m 20% 42766Mi 66%
gretel03 222m 1% 13206Mi 20%
gretel04 1208m 10% 45430Mi 70%
gretel05 1083m 9% 31904Mi 49%
gretel07 1638m 10% 25942Mi 20%
gretel08 1089m 6% 29087Mi 22%
gretel09 441m 2% 26763Mi 20%
gretel10 942m 5% 24987Mi 19%
gretel11 2762m 17% 37517Mi 29%
gretel13 1911m 11% 20736Mi 16%
gretel14 1275m 7% 38733Mi 30%
gretel15 836m 5% 32720Mi 25%
gretel16 2725m 17% 35253Mi 27%
gretel17 813m 5% 37057Mi 28%
gretel19 2336m 14% 30708Mi 23%
gretel20 2230m 13% 28087Mi 21%
gretel22 965m 6% 20195Mi 15%
gretel23 725m 4% 31945Mi 24%
gretel26 1262m 7% 25887Mi 20%
gretel27 1248m 7% 16423Mi 12%
gretel30 2775m 17% 36210Mi 56%
gretel31 1993m 12% 36189Mi 28%
gretel33 791m 4% 23564Mi 36%
gretel37 1585m 9% 22062Mi 17%
hansel01 1152m 9% 24158Mi 37%
hansel02 1296m 10% 28245Mi 44%
hansel04 928m 7% 23501Mi 36%
hansel05 1705m 14% 23604Mi 36%
hansel06 1277m 10% 26652Mi 41%
hansel07 2821m 23% 25423Mi 39%
hansel08 1056m 8% 25979Mi 40%
hansel14 1447m 12% 37012Mi 57%
hansel15 3867m 32% 47671Mi 74%
hansel16 889m 7% 23476Mi 36%
hansel17 1143m 9% 30925Mi 48%
hansel18 1042m 8% 24270Mi 37%
hansel20 1028m 8% 25540Mi 39%
This graph represents memory usage across the entire (DE) cluster.
Other high consumers of RAM:
- csi-rclone: used for mounting all rclone-compatible storage mounts, primarily RealDebrid libraries
- kube-system: the Kubernetes control plane, including the cilium agents which manage the networking / policy enforcement (currently 11K flows/s across 30 nodes)
- traefik: all inbound access to the cluster / services
- mediafusion: an excellent (but RAM-hungry!) Stremio addon
kubectl top nodes
NAME CPU(cores) CPU(%) MEMORY(bytes) MEMORY(%)
fairy01 1070m 6% 32275Mi 25%
fairy02 884m 5% 29456Mi 22%
fairy03 3466m 21% 57800Mi 44%
gretel01 1003m 8% 57750Mi 89%
gretel02 400m 3% 11478Mi 17%
gretel03 1108m 9% 21084Mi 32%
gretel04 952m 7% 60247Mi 93%
gretel05 1478m 12% 29280Mi 45%
gretel07 1944m 12% 35701Mi 27%
gretel08 1263m 7% 40052Mi 31%
gretel09 513m 3% 26369Mi 20%
gretel10 2626m 16% 38732Mi 30%
gretel11 1728m 10% 33914Mi 26%
gretel13 579m 3% 31869Mi 24%
gretel14 721m 4% 31316Mi 24%
gretel15 2073m 12% 37046Mi 28%
gretel16 1464m 9% 29609Mi 23%
gretel17 772m 4% 35044Mi 27%
gretel19 2099m 13% 37138Mi 28%
gretel20 3236m 20% 38198Mi 29%
gretel22 1336m 8% 28253Mi 21%
gretel26 1058m 6% 31568Mi 24%
gretel27 1590m 9% 32258Mi 25%
gretel30 8870m 55% 40214Mi 62%
gretel31 978m 6% 37061Mi 28%
gretel33 718m 4% 24475Mi 38%
gretel37 3086m 19% 32117Mi 24%
hansel01 1209m 10% 26395Mi 41%
hansel02 1078m 8% 29057Mi 45%
hansel03 1353m 11% 30723Mi 47%
hansel04 1011m 8% 26155Mi 40%
hansel05 2136m 17% 28312Mi 44%
hansel06 1709m 14% 24971Mi 38%
hansel07 2483m 20% 25257Mi 39%
hansel08 1548m 12% 30540Mi 47%
hansel14 1612m 13% 30599Mi 47%
hansel15 2422m 20% 30331Mi 47%
hansel16 932m 7% 25209Mi 39%
hansel17 1466m 12% 30080Mi 46%
hansel18 1098m 9% 28652Mi 44%
hansel20 1320m 11% 26423Mi 41%
Last month (Apr 2025)'s for comparison:
kubectl top nodes
NAME CPU(cores) CPU(%) MEMORY(bytes) MEMORY(%)
fairy01 580m 3% 27593Mi 21%
fairy02 1954m 12% 53447Mi 41%
fairy03 3808m 23% 51922Mi 40%
gretel01 1742m 14% 25316Mi 39%
gretel02 2505m 20% 42766Mi 66%
gretel03 222m 1% 13206Mi 20%
gretel04 1208m 10% 45430Mi 70%
gretel05 1083m 9% 31904Mi 49%
gretel07 1638m 10% 25942Mi 20%
gretel08 1089m 6% 29087Mi 22%
gretel09 441m 2% 26763Mi 20%
gretel10 942m 5% 24987Mi 19%
gretel11 2762m 17% 37517Mi 29%
gretel13 1911m 11% 20736Mi 16%
gretel14 1275m 7% 38733Mi 30%
gretel15 836m 5% 32720Mi 25%
gretel16 2725m 17% 35253Mi 27%
gretel17 813m 5% 37057Mi 28%
gretel19 2336m 14% 30708Mi 23%
gretel20 2230m 13% 28087Mi 21%
gretel22 965m 6% 20195Mi 15%
gretel23 725m 4% 31945Mi 24%
gretel26 1262m 7% 25887Mi 20%
gretel27 1248m 7% 16423Mi 12%
gretel30 2775m 17% 36210Mi 56%
gretel31 1993m 12% 36189Mi 28%
gretel33 791m 4% 23564Mi 36%
gretel37 1585m 9% 22062Mi 17%
hansel01 1152m 9% 24158Mi 37%
hansel02 1296m 10% 28245Mi 44%
hansel04 928m 7% 23501Mi 36%
hansel05 1705m 14% 23604Mi 36%
hansel06 1277m 10% 26652Mi 41%
hansel07 2821m 23% 25423Mi 39%
hansel08 1056m 8% 25979Mi 40%
hansel14 1447m 12% 37012Mi 57%
hansel15 3867m 32% 47671Mi 74%
hansel16 889m 7% 23476Mi 36%
hansel17 1143m 9% 30925Mi 48%
hansel18 1042m 8% 24270Mi 37%
hansel20 1028m 8% 25540Mi 39%
Network usage during the snapshot period has is indicated below, but given the changing nature of traffic patterns across the day / week, it's not possible to reach any conclusions about the changes from month-to-month. Rather, the graphs below indicate that our nodes are not contending for network throughput, and our per-tier egress rate-limits are being correctly enforced.
Why Hansel & Gretel?
Bundles are datacenter-agnostic, but nodes are specific to each datacenter, and we needed a way to differentiate US nodes from DE nodes. The fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel originates in Germany 
Last month (Apr 2025)'s for comparison:
Retrospective
Spam attacks defeated
On Mother's Day (while the ElfVengers and I were distracted), a juvenile, attention-seeking, malicious user jumped into Discord and spammed all of our channels with a range of hateful, explicit, and disturbing content. This took longer than usual to clean up because the user immediately quit the server, making it harder to ban-and-wipe them.
To minimize the likelihood of a recurrence of this issue, we've tightened up access to Discord as follows:
- 2FA is now required in order to send messages (a Discord safety feature)
- Verification is required for new members to access the majority of community channels
- Trusted volunteers are granted temporary moderation (kick / banning) powers in the event that an incident occurs and staff are unavailable
- The Discord members list is routinely purged of inactive accounts (this is why the membership count dropped this month)
Deprecation of Blackhole / RDTClient
Since Decypharr supports a "closed-loop" interaction with RealDebrid, it's now the clear best option as a downloader for the Aarr stacks. We announced the "gentle deprecation" of RDTClient / Blackhole for these stacks, which will roll out across June 2025 as stacks are renewed.
User can still manually opt-into RDTClient / Blackhole if they need them for a particular feature, but these won't be bundled with our Aar stacks by default anymore.
More details in this blog post
Mooar Apps
Storyteller
Storyteller is a platform for automatically aligning ebooks and audiobooks for immersive reading, with native Android / iOS apps.
Switch back and forth between listening and reading without losing your place, or have Storyteller read aloud to you while highlighting the text!
Booklore
BookLore is a web app for hosting, managing, and exploring books, with support for PDFs, eBooks, reading progress, metadata, and stats.
Wizzar
Wizarr is an automatic user invitation system for Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby. Create a unique invite link and share it with users — they’ll be automatically added to your media server and guided through downloading apps, accessing request systems, and more!
The problem: Inviting your Friends/Family to your Plex server Is complicated and tedious. It's also a hard concept for them to get their head around.
The solution: Wizarr makes it easy to invite users to your server by simply sending them a link, and guides them through the process of getting set up.
Wizarr is still a little rough-around-the-edges, and is currently bundled with all ElfHosted Plex stacks by default.
Coming up
Zurgling 2.0
Hot-off-the-press, the latest Zurg/DMM Patreon update indicates:
What's Coming
DMM Integration
Subscribe to content on DMM website
Subscribed content automatically added to your Zurg server
Similar to how Sonarr/Radarr monitor and grab releases
We're excited about this because it would be a significant quality-of-life improvement for Zurgling users, retaining the intended simplicity of their stacks, but automating away some of the human "clickops" required to add new content to their libraries.
US East Coast DC
I'm told that our new hardware for the East Coast DC was shipped to site last week (i.e., early June). Unless something else goes wrong (
), we'll be building out elfhosted.party (PA) during June 2025, so that it's ready for our 2nd birthday in July 2025 (below) 
!
Birthday treats
Next month (July 2025) is our second birthday! (To see how far we've come, check out our 2023 and 2024 reports).
All going well, we hope to:
- Have our US DC ready for users to migrate to
- Announce a new loyalty program (ElfPoints) which we're currently trialing
- Announce a new sponsored community resource
Stay tuned!
Even mooar apps
Apps currently requested can be found (and submitted!) here
Notable suggestions:
PeerTube
PeerTube is an open-source, federate-able video hosting platform. We use it for https://video.elfhosted.com, and we have a few in-flight requests for hosted instances. We're still working the bugs out of this one, but effectively a hosted PeerTube would get you your "own" YouTube, with content stored in your own external (S3-compatible) cloud storage.
Dispatcharr
Dispatcharr is described as:
..an open-source powerhouse for managing IPTV streams and EPG data with elegance and control. Born from necessity and built with passion
Or..
Think of Dispatcharr as the *arr family’s IPTV cousin — simple, smart, and designed for streamers who want reliability and flexibility.
We're still at the proof-of-concept stage, and we've not had much success with Plex/Jellyfin/Emby-integrated IPTV (ChannelsDVR works great though!), but if you're interested in helping to beta-test, then shout out!
Nuvio Streams
Nuvio Streams is a new Stremio Addon, which scrapes HTTP streaming sites, and is especially interesting for non-english Stremio users. We've donated hosting resources to a public instance at https://nuviostreams.hayd.uk, and private instances will be available from June 2025.
Your ideas?
Got ideas for improvements? Send us an EEP (ElfHosted Enhancement Proposal) here!
How to help
Another effective way to help is to drive traffic / organic discovery, by mentioning ElfHosted in appropriate forums such as Reddit's r/plex, r/realdebrid, and r/StremioAddons, which is where much of our target audience is to be found!
Join us!
Want to get involved?
Want to get involved? Join us in Discord!
What users say..
Here's what some of our usersfriends say..
I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.
You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!
@skwah (Discord)
I self host and share a fully automated ‘arr stack with Plex. Been doing so for around 4 years. Also recently got into real debrid and hosting a Comet and Annatar for Stremio. The amount of time and head banging I’ve put into it is in the hundreds to thousands of hours. From setting it up to keeping it running smoothly. Let’s not forget the cost of my server and how much it cost to keep it running.
Anyway I wanted to see what ElfHosted was about to compare. Yeah I had the whole thing setup in just a few hours. It also passes the headache of maintaining it to ElfHosted. Will I keep it no because nerdy things and maintaining my server are my hobby and quirky passion project. Will I recommend it to my friends who don’t have the money up front to buy a server, the knowledge to maintain it or desire.
Just my server alone was $2k. Power cost to keep it on yearly is $250ish, annual memberships to RD, Usenet and indexers are around $100. Then whatever a value my free time at. Which is currently at minimum my hourly pay at work or more. Yeah so take the monthly cost of all that and compare to ElfHosted Ultimate Stream package at $39 monthly, add RD to the cost and get nearly all your time back is incredibly cheap.
Lastly it seems like a lot of people forget how quickly an ultimate cable package used to cost. Or how quick paying for every stream service would add up to. Which when using ElfHosted with RD is essentially and more what you get. Quick hint it’s far above the asking price.
/u/MMag05. (Reddit)
As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.
/u/jatguy. (Reddit)
I recently found ElfHosted and decided to start out with the Infinite Starter Kit. Within a week I realized that this was for me and upgraded to the Hobbit plan. Give it another week and I was up to the Ranger plan.
I just love the simplicity and the fact that things just work. For years I've ran a home server and between the constant maintenance and always upgrading harddrives, it became apparent I wanted to make it easier on my self. Enter ElfHosted.
Setup was super easy with the guided documentation and the discord community. It seems that somebody is available at all hours of the day to help with questions. I started with the Aars, which I knew from my prior hosting... but saw a newer product called Riven. I decided to jump in feet first. I enjoy being on the front end of an up and coming replacement for the Aars and will soon be upgrading to the annual plan!
@.theycallmebob. (Discord)
I’ve been using this service for a while now, and honestly, it’s a game-changer compared to anything else I’ve tried for managing my media library. The support is fantastic—super quick, and if the staff aren’t around (which rarely happens), the community steps up right away. I can’t imagine going back to any other platform.
Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.
Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.
I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.
@seapound (Discord)
Best possible options for anyone looking for the do-it-all option along with the best customer service ive experienced in this space so far. Id rate it a 6 if I could but its limited to 5/5...
@hashmelters (Discord)
(responding to a Reddit thread re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):
I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.
That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.
-
mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.
-
elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.
-
selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.
I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.
I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.
@cobra2 (Discord)
"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"
@Fingers91 (Discord)
"I just have to say, I am an incredibly satisfied customer. I had been collecting my own content for nearly 20 years. Starting off with just a simple external HD before eventually graduating to a seedbox with 100TB of cloud storage attached and fully automated processes with Sonarr and Radarr . However, the time came when the glory days of unlimited Google Drive storage ended. I thought my days of having my full collection at my fingertips via :plex: were behind me, until I found Real-Debrid and ElfHosted.
Now I essentially have the exact same access to content as I had before, but even better. Superior support and community involvement. Content is available almost immediately after being identified. A plethora of tools at my fingertips that give me more control and automation than ever before. Wonderfully well done and impressive! I am looking forward to being a customer for a very long time! Massive kudos to @funkypenguin 🤟
@BSM (Discord)
"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."
Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)
"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"
@tjelite (Discord)
"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me
I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"
@dead.potahto (Discord)
"Very happy customer. Great service"
@ronney67 (Discord)
"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"
@ed.guim (Discord)
"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"
@alon.hearter (Discord)
"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"
@dead.potahto (Discord)
"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"
@bfmc1 (Discord)
"really enjoying the service from elfhosted. The setup is really easy from the guides on the website. And the help on the discord channel is really quick."
@jrhd13 (Discord)
"Support is amazing, and once you find a setup which works best for you it works perfectly, very happy 😊"
@fiendclub (Discord)
"great fast service, resolved my problem and really friendly"
@allan.st.minimum (Discord)
"Great service and sorted out a billing issue super quick and easy."
@scottcall707 (Discord)
"Very friendly support, resolved a problem with my account! I also appreciate the community that has been built around the service!"
@leo1305 (Discord)
"excellent customer service and very fast replies"
@yo.hohoho (Discord)
"Loved the simplicity, experience and support"
@y.adhish (Discord)
"Very friendly help as always, problem solved, one happy elf here!"
@badfurday0 (Discord)
"Great Helpful and Fast support. Thanks!"
@.mxrcy (Discord)