So I have a Synology server that I have a good deal of experience with, so this post will be through that lens.
What I’d like to do is set up a Raspberry Pi exclusively for pirating. So Qbittorrent and Proton VPN to get started, later Radarr, Lidarr, etc. I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting the Pi up and running, but I’d like to run it like my server, tucked away somewhere without a monitor or peripherals.
How do I access it? For my Synology box, I just put in a browser the local ip port 5000 and I have a whole desktop right there. But when I google about how I’d access a Pi, everything points to using SSH. I know a lot of people have Pis set up like this and surely they can’t be administering the whole thing through CLI, right? How do I get a similar setup to my Synology such that I can just get a desktop interface in a browser?
Yes, most people do it over ssh.
Tailscale is a good option.
Edit: I’m assuming you mean away from home, but if you mean in your local network just use SSH?
Home is fine for now. The problem with SSH is I don’t want to run everything with CLI
To answer your question more specifically, most people set up the pi with docker, using services which have a front end accessible in the browser. They basically use their browser to navigate to the front end of the service they want to use and administer it like that. For instance portainer to manage their docker containers, or pihole for managing their firewall, or even jellyfin for their media which is both the website to consume the media and has an administrator dashboard.
Edit: this is in complement to using something like tailscale which basically allows you to access these services away from home. They work in conjunction.
You could use either VNC or RDP to access your computer remotely through the GUI. I’d recommend RDP because it’s more secure. You should also enable SSH just in case something goes wrong with the GUI connection or something.