Self-hosting in the company: what is worth maintaining on your own

Self-hosting means running and maintaining software on your own or rented infrastructure, rather than using only a SaaS service managed by the manufacturer. The solution can provide greater control over the configuration and location of data processing. At the same time, the company takes over the tasks that are performed by the provider in the SaaS model: updates, monitoring, backups, incident response and service restoration.

Self-hosting doesn't always mean a server in the office

The application can run on a physical server on-premises, on a virtual machine in a data centre, or on a rented cloud server. In each variant, it is necessary to determine who administers the system and where the data, copies, logs and encryption keys are located.

Just running an application on a controlled server does not mean that the data will never leave the company. The software may use external email, API, content delivery network, telemetry, cloud copy or AI model. The actual data flow must be verified for the version and configuration used.

When to consider your own application maintenance

Self-hosting may make sense when:

• the organisation needs control over configuration, data location or integrations;
• a person responsible for administration and failure response is available;
• the application has a documented update, copy and recovery process;
• availability requirements are consistent with infrastructure and team capabilities;
• total maintenance cost is acceptable after adding labour, monitoring, backup, energy and support.

The licence price is not enough to compare. The free edition of the app still requires a server, administrator time, and a backup plan. A paid service, on the other hand, may include security features, support and guarantees that the standalone version does not offer.

Apps worth reviewing

Nextcloud: files and collaboration

Nextcloud can share files, calendars and contacts from infrastructure controlled by your organisation. Before implementation, you need to plan for storage space, versioning, permissions, external sharing, updates, and independent backup. File sync is not a backup itself.

n8n: flow automation

n8n allows you to connect applications, databases and APIs. Community Edition can be run independently under the terms of the Sustainable Use Licence. The term "open source" without a disclaimer would be imprecise because the licence limits certain ways the software can be made commercially available.

Resource requirements depend on the number and type of flows, data size, execution mode, and history retention. In a production environment, you need to secure credentials, restrict access to webhooks, monitor for errors, and determine how to retry operations.

Vaultwarden: Unofficial server compatible with Bitwarden clients

Vaultwarden is a community project and is not an official Bitwarden server. It may be useful in selected environments, but stores particularly sensitive data, so requires careful evaluation of the update, backup, administrative access, and recovery process. The company should also compare it with the manufacturer's official service or self-hosted solution.

Forgejo or Gitea: code repositories

Both platforms can provide Git repositories, change overview, tickets and automations. The appropriateness of implementation depends on the needs of the team, integration, security of secrets and expected support. The repository copy does not automatically include all settings, attachments, package registries, and application data.

Uptime Kuma: availability monitoring

Uptime Kuma can check selected services and send notifications. The monitoring system should operate independently of the environment it is observing. If the monitor and the monitored application stop working together, the alert may not be sent.

Metabase: Data reporting

Metabase allows you to build reports and dashboards based on multiple data sources. Your own installation gives you control over connections, but requires managing permissions, encryption, application database copies and query performance. Reporting users should not be automatically granted broad access to the source production database.

Paperless-ngx: Digital Document Archive

Paperless-ngx supports document import, recognition and search. Before use, you need to define data categories, retention periods, permissions, OCR quality and how to delete and export information. The tool does not replace office policies or an assessment of legal document retention requirements.

Vector database for AI systems

Qdrant and similar databases can store vector representations used by semantic search. Vectors and metadata can still reveal source information, so they should be protected like other application data. A local database does not guarantee local processing if content is sent to an external model or service that creates representations.

Which is usually not worth moving without a strong justification

Company email is an example of a service in which its own maintenance covers not only the server, but also sending reputation, spam filtering, queues, copies, monitoring, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. For many small businesses, a managed email service will be a less risky solution.

Your own server does not replace an external copy of data or a resilient DNS infrastructure. Critical services requiring high availability should remain in an environment that truly meets established RPOs, RTOs, and support conditions.

Security and data protection

Self-hosting does not guarantee GDPR compliance. The organisation still needs to determine the purposes and basis for processing, the scope of data, the roles of entities, storage periods and appropriate technical and organisational measures. Not only the location of the server is important, but the entire chain of suppliers and administrators.

The minimum maintenance plan should include:

• inventory of applications, versions, owners and dependencies;
• access control, MFA where available, and secret management;
• regular updates preceded by a change assessment and a rollback plan;
• monitoring of availability, capacity, errors and security events;
• isolated backups and periodic recovery tests;
• documentation of failure, update, recovery and safe termination of service.

Automatically installing each update without testing may result in interruption or incompatibility. In turn, postponing updates for a long time increases the risk of exploiting a known vulnerability. The schedule must be adjusted to the criticality of the system and the manufacturer's information.

How to compare self-hosting with SaaS

Compare both variants for the same functional range and period. Include licensing fees, infrastructure, admin work, backups, monitoring, security, migration, support and service termination. Add the cost of downtime according to your business process.

There is no common payback period or fixed number of maintenance hours for all applications. A small, internal service may require little work for weeks, and one failed update can take an entire day. A fair calculation should include provisions for incidents and environmental developments.

How NexaIT approaches implementation

We start by defining data, users, integration and required availability. Then we compare the SaaS model, your own server and the managed variant. If self-hosting is warranted, the scope may include configuration, security, monitoring, backups, documentation, and maintenance. We record responsibility and service parameters for a specific project.

Please visit the service page for more information self-hosting for companies. If the application is intended to automate processes or work with AI models, also check the scope AI and automation.

Frequently asked questions

Is self-hosting always cheaper than SaaS?

No. It may reduce licensing fees, but increases administration costs and operational liability. The result depends on the number of users, features, level of support and accessibility requirements.

Does the data then stay with the company?

Not always. This depends on the location of the infrastructure, configuration, backup, integration and external services. The data flow must be described based on the actual implementation.

Do containers solve the update and copy problem?

No. Containers make it easier to distribute and restore parts of the environment, but they do not replace data copies, migration testing, monitoring, or a rollback plan.

Are you considering maintaining the application yourself? Write to us. We'll start by comparing risk and cost with a managed service before proposing an architecture.