Choosing a deployment
Cloud, or your own servers?
This decision usually gets made earlier than it should — and more often on anxiety than on any criterion.
Compared
The differences, plainly
| Hosted | Your own servers | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to start | The same day | Needs your infrastructure team |
| Up-front cost | None | A server, setup, and engineering time |
| Where client data sits | Infrastructure inside Iran | Your network; nothing leaves |
| Updates | Automatic | On your schedule |
| Language model | An external service | Can sit inside your own network |
| Suits | Most teams | Banks, data-residency obligations |
A simple test
If you have a written obligation that client data must not leave your network — in a bank, a public body, or a contract you have signed — self-hosting is the answer and the rest of the discussion is moot.
If you have no such obligation and are choosing self-hosted because it “feels safer”, cost it properly: a server somebody maintains, updates somebody applies, and backups somebody tests. In most teams of 5 to 50, those jobs land on a person who does not have the time.
And note the decision is reversible. You can start hosted and move later; what matters is knowing on day one how a full data export works.
Deployment questions
Self-hosted, does it need internet access?
Not to run. The licence verifies offline and nothing phones home. If you want to use an external language model, that is a separate and optional connection.How complex is a self-hosted deployment?
Four containers and one volume. For a team that knows Docker it is an afternoon; what usually takes time is the internal coordination, not the install.What does self-hosting cost?
It is priced to the size and shape of the deployment, on an annual contract. ⚠ Figures are not final — get in touch and we'll talk it through.
Let's look at the deployment together
If you have a data-residency obligation, that is the thing to talk about before anything else.