Both. Umbrel is just a bitcoin node and public pool for bitaxes. Start9 is also a node, lightning node, and other fun things!

I prefer Umbrel locally. Running dokploy on the server (to host sites/blog).

Use cases umbrel:

- immich

- uptime monitors

- nostr wallet connect

- homeassistant

I run both.

My Start9 is my Bitcoin and Lightning node. I run everything Bitcoin related on it, and nothing else. So Bitcoin, mempool, electrum server, DATUM, JAM, UTXOracle, LND & CLN lightning nodes, Alby Hub, and a watch only wallet in Sparrow.

My Umbrel is my homeserver, running Nextcloud, Photoprism, Calibre Web, Audiobookshelf, Jellyfin, AdGuard, a Synapse server for a Matrix community, and various other non-Bitcoin related tools that I use on a regular basis.

Why I set things up this way:

Currently, Umbrel has a much wider selection of apps and is easier to connect to remotely, since it has Tailscale and Nginx Proxy Manager alongside the Tor option. Meanwhile, Start9 has a good selection of Bitcoin related apps, but not a great selection outside of that, and until we get StartOS version 4.0, it doesn't have any option for connecting remotely except Tor and Nostr Wallet Connect; the latter of which is only useful for connecting to your Lightning wallet. Additionally, it's just a good idea to run everything Bitcoin related on a separate device than you run everything else to reduce the surface area of possible compromise of sensitive information.

I have an umbrel, love it, basically a user friendly NAS based on Docker. Instead of mungling around with the correct configuration, use the one provided by the app dev instead, easily manage dependencies with each other. Easiest way to have a working Bitcoin node + lightning configuration.

can also be your media server, or any sort of things.

I'm incredibly bullish on Umbrel, such a great OSS project