Two deployments. The software is identical - same code, same features, same releases. What differs is where the database lives.
Managed
We host it. Your workspace shares infrastructure with other customers, separated by rules enforced in the database.
You get: nothing to run, updates applied for you, monitoring, backups, and support that can see the environment when you ask.
You accept: your data sits on our infrastructure, in the region we run it in.
Self-Hosted
You host it. Your own database, your own region, your own backups.
You get: complete control, your choice of region, and data that never sits on our infrastructure.
You accept: it is yours to run. Backups, availability and key material are your responsibility, and if key material is lost we cannot recover encrypted fields for you.
What Actually Changes
| Managed | Self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | Identical | Identical |
| Database | Shared, rule-separated | Yours alone |
| Region | Ours | Yours |
| Backups | Us | You |
| Updates | Applied for you | Applied on your schedule |
| Seat limits | Apply | None — you own the infrastructure |
| AI | Provided | You supply your own provider keys |
The AI row is the difference people miss. On managed, AI capability is provided. Self-hosted brings its own provider keys, because the calls leave your infrastructure and that should be your account and your bill.
How To Decide
Managed if you do not want to run infrastructure, want support to be able to help quickly, and have no regulatory requirement about where data sits. That is most organisations.
Self-hosted if data residency is a legal requirement you cannot satisfy otherwise, if your security posture requires sole tenancy, or if you have the people to run it properly.
Caution
Self-hosted is a real operational commitment, not a checkbox. If nobody owns backups, monitoring and key management, it is less safe than managed rather than more — control you do not exercise is exposure.
Moving Between Them
Possible in both directions, and a conversation rather than a setting. Your data is exportable at any time either way.
Which Are We On
Settings, Configuration, General shows the deployment, region and tier for your workspace. It is read-only - deployment is set at provisioning. See General in the Settings section.
Common Questions
Do we get features later on self-hosted? Same software. Updates apply on your schedule rather than ours, so you choose when.
Can we pick a region on managed? The region is shown in your instance details. If a specific region is a requirement, that is a conversation before signup rather than after.
Who can see our data on managed? Not us, routinely. Support access is by arrangement. See How Your Data Is Protected.
Is self-hosted more expensive? Different: less for the software, and you carry the infrastructure. You also carry the operational cost, which is the part that gets underestimated.
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