Cloud or self-hosted? A decision framework for support teams
Onsites AI ·
The cloud-vs-self-hosted question used to be reserved for enterprises. Today a 40-person trading firm and a 200-person services company face it too. Here is the framework we use with prospects:
Ask four questions
Can customer data leave your network? If the answer is legally "no" (banking, healthcare, government contractors), self-hosted is not optional — it's the requirement.
Do you budget annually or monthly? Teams that lurch between procurement cycles prefer a single annual per-seat line item.
Can you be offline? Factories, ports and segmented networks can have intermittent internet. Self-hosted software should run fully disconnected.
Who maintains it? Cloud means zero ops. Self-hosted usually means you own backups and upgrades — with Onsites, installation, updates and support are included in the per-seat plan.
The honest middle
The expensive mistake is treating this as a permanent identity. Choose cloud to start (free, fifteen seconds), and keep the door open: when regulation or budgeting changes, the same software should move with you. We build both tracks from one codebase for exactly that reason — migrate when the trigger arrives, not before.