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EnglishGrowthBook Cloud vs. Self-Hosted: What's the Difference?
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GrowthBook offers two deployment options that run the same core product — experimentation, feature flags, and product analytics. GrowthBook Cloud is the managed option: instant updates, low maintenance, and warehouse-native. Self-Hosted GrowthBook gives you the same features and the same product, but runs 100% in your own cloud or on-premises environment. The right choice comes down to how much control, maintenance responsibility, and infrastructure ownership your team wants.
The Core Difference
Both options deliver the same functionality. The distinction is operational, not functional:
| Dimension | GrowthBook Cloud | Self-Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Updates | Instant, handled for you | You manage the upgrade cycle |
| Maintenance | Low — vendor-managed | Your team owns it |
| Data location | Warehouse-native (connects to your data warehouse) | 100% in your cloud or on-prem |
| Setup effort | Start for free, minimal setup | You provision and run the infrastructure |
| Feature set | Experimentation, feature flags, product analytics | Same features, same product |
The website describes Self-Hosted as offering "same features, same product, 100% on your cloud or on prem," and Cloud as "instant updates, low maintenance, and warehouse-native."
When to Choose GrowthBook Cloud
Pick Cloud if your priority is speed and low operational overhead:
- You want to start for free and begin running experiments without standing up infrastructure.
- You prefer instant updates rather than planning upgrade windows.
- You want low maintenance so your engineers focus on product, not platform upkeep.
- You're comfortable with the warehouse-native model, where GrowthBook connects to your existing data warehouse.
This fits teams that want rigorous testing at scale without adding a deployment project to their backlog.
When to Choose Self-Hosted
Pick Self-Hosted if control and data residency drive your decision:
- You need the platform to run 100% in your own cloud or on-premises environment.
- Your organization has data residency, security, or compliance requirements that rule out a vendor-managed deployment.
- You have the infrastructure and engineering capacity to run and maintain the platform yourself.
- You still want the full feature set — experimentation, feature flags, and product analytics — not a reduced edition.
The trade-off is explicit: you gain control and lose the convenience of vendor-managed updates and maintenance.
How to Decide
Ask three questions:
- Who maintains the platform? Cloud = vendor. Self-Hosted = your team.
- Where must the data live? If it must stay entirely in your environment, Self-Hosted is the fit.
- How fast do you need to be running? Cloud lets you start for free with minimal setup; Self-Hosted requires provisioning first.
If your answers point to "we want it running now with minimal upkeep," choose Cloud. If they point to "we must own the deployment and can support it," choose Self-Hosted.
What Stays the Same Either Way
Regardless of deployment, you get the same platform capabilities the site highlights:
- Experimentation — run rigorous tests at scale.
- Feature Flag Management — ship fast with a safety net, including auto-rollbacks and ramp schedules with guardrails.
- Product Analytics — connect product data to understand user behavior and track trends.
GrowthBook is also described as open source and fully transparent, and the site notes it's trusted by 3,000+ companies worldwide. Both deployment paths are presented as delivering the same product, so the decision rests on operations and control rather than missing features.