TeslaMate is a fantastic open-source data logger for your Tesla — but self-hosting it comes with real responsibilities. If you run your own instance, these five tips will help you keep it secure, reliable, and low-maintenance. And if any of them sound like too much work, we’ll show you how to skip them entirely at the end.
1. Add an authentication layer
By default, TeslaMate and its Grafana dashboards ship without authentication. Anyone who can reach the IP and port can see your location history, home address, and charging habits. Put a reverse proxy (Nginx, Traefik, or Caddy) with HTTP basic auth — or a full SSO layer like Authelia — in front of both services. Never leave the raw ports open on your network.
2. Back up your data daily — and off-site
Your entire driving and charging history lives in a single PostgreSQL database. One disk failure can wipe years of data. Schedule a daily pg_dump and copy the backup to redundant, off-site storage: a second drive, a NAS, or a cloud bucket. Just as important — test a restore now and then, so you know the backup actually works before you need it.
3. Choose between private network and remote access
Running TeslaMate on a private-only LAN is the safest setup, but you lose access the moment you leave home. If you only check your stats from the couch, that’s perfectly fine. If you want remote access, resist the urge to open ports — use a VPN such as WireGuard or Tailscale to reach back into your home network instead. It’s dramatically safer than exposing services to the internet.
4. Think twice before exposing it publicly
Publicly exposing TeslaMate from home demands solid networking and security knowledge: TLS certificates, firewall rules, fail2ban, and constant patching. A single misconfiguration can compromise your entire home network, not just TeslaMate. If you’re not confident maintaining all of that long-term, don’t do it.
5. Keep everything updated
TeslaMate, Grafana, and PostgreSQL all receive regular updates with new features and important security fixes. If you run them in Docker, pull the new images and recreate your containers on a schedule. Outdated components are the single most common source of bugs and vulnerabilities in self-hosted setups.
Or skip the maintenance entirely
Every tip above is a recurring chore. MyTeslaMate runs TeslaMate for you in the cloud — authenticated, backed up daily, always up to date, and reachable securely from anywhere. You get the exact same TeslaMate dashboards, with none of the server maintenance. It’s the simplest way to enjoy TeslaMate without becoming your own sysadmin.