Cloud or Self-Hosted - Which Deployment Model is Right For You?

Choosing the right observability platform is a critical decision. But how you deploy it is just as important. The right deployment strategy can accelerate your team, simplify operations, and ensure you meet compliance and security requirements. The wrong one can lead to operational headaches and slow you down.

At SigNoz, we believe in flexibility. There is no single "best" way to deploy an observability platform; there's only the way that's best for you. Whether you're a solo developer, a fast-growing startup, or a large enterprise with complex needs, we have a path for you.

This guide will walk you through our two primary deployment approaches, SigNoz Cloud and Self-Hosted, to help you make an informed choice.

The Starting Point for Most: SigNoz Cloud

For the vast majority of teams, SigNoz Cloud is the simplest and fastest path to powerful, enterprise-grade observability. It’s a fully managed, production-ready service designed to let you focus on your product, not on managing another piece of infrastructure.

Think of it this way: you wouldn't build your own data center to host your application, so why build and manage the complex infrastructure needed for a scalable observability platform?

Key Benefits of SigNoz Cloud:

• Zero Management Overhead: We help you setup and handle the maintenance, scaling, and updates. Your engineering team is freed from the operational burden of a distributed system, allowing them to focus on building features that deliver value to your customers.
• Effortless & Unlimited Scalability: As your application traffic grows, so does your telemetry data. With SigNoz Cloud, you can send any amount of data without ever worrying about capacity planning, provisioning new servers, or re-architecting your backend.
• Always Up-to-Date and Secure: You get immediate access to the latest features, performance improvements, and security patches without any manual upgrades or downtime. Our cloud offering is SOC 2 and HIPAA compliant, so you can be confident your data is secure and the platform is reliable.

SigNoz Cloud is the ideal choice if you:

• Want to get started with observability in minutes, not days.
• Prefer to dedicate your engineering resources to your core product.
• Need a platform that can scale effortlessly with your growth.
• Want the peace of mind that comes with enterprise-grade security and reliability.

Taking Control: When to Choose a Self-Hosted Deployment

While our cloud offering is the default choice for its simplicity and power, we understand that some organizations have specific requirements that make self-hosting a necessity. Choosing to self-host is a strategic decision driven by needs for control, compliance, or customization.

You should consider a self-hosted deployment if your organization:

• Is subject to strict data residency laws that require data to remain within a specific geographic boundary.
• Has corporate policies that prohibit sending any data to third-party vendors.
• Operates in an air-gapped environment with no connection to the public internet.
• Requires deep, custom integrations with existing on-premise systems.

If you fall into one of these categories, you still have options. We offer three distinct self-hosted models tailored to different needs.

1. Community Edition: The Open-Source Powerhouse

Our Community Edition is the open-source version of SigNoz with 22.8K stars on GitHub. It’s a complete observability platform that you can deploy and manage entirely on your own.

It's the perfect starting point for developers, small teams, and personal projects. More importantly, it serves as a powerful evaluation tool within large enterprises. Instead of waiting weeks for procurement and compliance reviews, your engineers can deploy the Community Edition immediately to run a proof-of-concept and demonstrate the value of SigNoz.

• Best for: Getting started quickly, evaluations, and teams comfortable with managing their own observability stack.
• The Trade-off: You are responsible for the entire lifecycle of the platform, from deployment and scaling to updates and maintenance.

2. Enterprise Self-Hosted: Control with Confidence

What if you need to self-host but don't want to be on your own when things go wrong? That's where our Enterprise Self-Hosted option comes in. It combines the control of hosting in your own environment with the safety net of dedicated support and advanced features.

This model is designed for organizations that must host on-premise but require the reliability and partnership of a commercial vendor.

• Includes: Dedicated support SLAs, technical consultations, and advanced enterprise-only features.
• Best for: Organizations with on-premise requirements that need vendor support and enterprise-grade features.

3. Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC): The Best of Both Worlds

Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) is a unique hybrid model that offers a cloud-like experience within your own infrastructure.

Here's how it works: You deploy our BYOC controller in your environment, and it pulls configuration and updates from our cloud service. All data stays within your infrastructure - we never access your environment, and you get automated management without granting us any access to your systems.

Benefits: Cloud-like experience without data leaving your environment, automated deployment and scaling, and zero-trust security model with only outbound connections from your infrastructure.

Best for: Organizations that want a managed service experience but must keep their data within their own cloud environment.

A Simple Framework for Your Decision

Still unsure? Let's simplify it. Start with one main question:

1. Who will manage the SigNoz application?

• A) I want a fully managed service.
  • Next Question: Where does your data need to live?
    • If your data can be stored in SigNoz's secure cloud, choose SigNoz Cloud. This is the simplest, most direct path.
    • If your data must remain in your own cloud account, choose BYOC. You get a managed service within your own environment.
• B) My team will manage the application ourselves.
  • Next Question: Do you need dedicated support and enterprise features?
    • If yes, choose Enterprise Self-Hosted. You get commercial support for your on-premise deployment.
    • If no, and you are comfortable managing it all, start with the Community Edition.

You're Never Locked In

One of the core principles of SigNoz is flexibility. Your needs will change as your company grows and evolves. You might start with the Community Edition for a POC, continue with SigNoz Cloud, and later adopt a BYOC model as you enter new markets with different data laws.

With SigNoz, you can migrate between these deployment models. You are never locked into a choice that no longer serves you.

Ready to get started? Try SigNoz Cloud for the fastest path to production observability, or explore our self-hosted options if you have specific infrastructure requirements.