Self-hosting as silver bullet: The myths and trade-offs

Self-hosting is having a moment. In recent conversations with enterprises, we’ve noticed the request pop up often. Companies want to run Zapier (or other automation platforms) entirely on their own infrastructure. At first glance, it makes sense: control feels safer. But beneath the surface, the story is more complicated.

At Zapier, we take a pragmatic view: for the vast majority of businesses, self-hosting creates more problems than it solves. That doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad. If you’re in a highly regulated industry, or have government contracts with security mandates that prohibit SaaS, then it can be non-negotiable.

But most companies aren’t like that, and even very large enterprises often overlook the trade-offs, in hopes that the self-hosting “silver bullet” will solve all their problems.

Let’s unpack why.

The security mirage

One of the most common reasons companies cite for self-hosting is security. On paper, having everything inside your own walls seems safer. But the data doesn’t back that up. Even well-resourced IT teams take (depending on the study you look at) 38 to 60 days to remediate vulnerabilities. That lag creates windows of exposure that attackers exploit. According to industry studies, 60% of corporate data breaches stem from missed patches.

In contrast, with a managed cloud solution like Zapier, security and compliance are built into the service. Updates roll out continuously, vulnerabilities are patched as soon as they’re identified, and monitoring happens 24/7. The liability and maintenance burden doesn’t sit on your shoulders—it’s ours. Ironically, although it gives you control, self-hosting can actually increase risk by shifting all of that responsibility to you.

The hidden costs

The second misconception is around cost. It’s tempting to look just at license costs and assume running software yourself will save money. The reality is the opposite. Self-hosting requires:

• Dedicated technical headcount to handle patches, upgrades, and troubleshooting.

• Infrastructure investments, from servers to networking gear, additional cloud bills if you’re deploying in AWS/Azure/GCP, and GPU capacity to run local LLMs.

• Opportunity cost, as IT Ops and Dev/Eng spend time managing a local environment rather than innovating.

When you add it all up, the total cost of ownership for self-hosting is almost always higher—and far less predictable—than a SaaS model. Cloud platforms like Zapier benefit from economies of scale. We manage infrastructure for millions of users, spreading costs in ways that no single enterprise can replicate.

One of our customers who switched from a self-hosted competitor to Zapier told us, “I saved on the software and then lost all my weekends.”

Ouch.

The innovation gap

Even if you manage to keep costs under control, there’s a third downside: self-hosting slows you down. Cloud-native platforms ship features continuously; Zapier, for instance, rolls out new connectors and AI capabilities on a weekly basis. Self-hosted stacks, by definition, lag. Every upgrade requires manual effort, testing, and deployment. Many companies delay updates for months, which means they fall behind not just on basics like security patching, but on product innovation itself.

Which brings us to AI, where innovation is capped on self-hosted environments. Cutting edge AI models from frontier labs like OpenAI or Anthropic don’t leave their own clouds. Models with the latest capabilities, the least hallucinations, unlimited scalability—these are only available as cloud-hosted options. To put it another way, by choosing self-hosted, you’re guaranteeing that your competitors have an AI edge.

Fundamentally, self-hosted solutions are primarily usable by highly technical teams, and that’s who they benefit most (think: the IT backlog gets cleared 15% faster). That’s no bad thing, but by contrast, Zapier’s easy-to-use cloud platform multiplies productivity for every employee (think: 15% productivity uplift enterprise-wide).

A better way forward

So what should you do when you feel the pull of self-hosting? We recommend taking a step back and asking three questions:

1. What’s the specific problem you’re trying to solve? Don’t be seduced by the “silver bullet”—get granular. Is it data residency? Integration with on-prem systems? Concern about AI models?

2. Is there a targeted solution that addresses this need without going all-in on self-hosting? Often, there is: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) connectivity, regional instances, Bring Your Own Key (BYOK), etc.

3. What’s the bigger picture trade-off? Are you gaining control at the expense of security, cost predictability, or innovation? Is that worth it?

Our philosophy is simple: deliver the benefits of self-hosting, without the burdens that come with it. For most companies, that’s a win-win.

The bottom line

Self-hosting will always have a place for edge cases: classified environments with air-gapped labs, or regulated industries with absolute prohibitions on SaaS. But for the overwhelming majority of businesses, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. The costs are higher, the risks are greater, and the speed of innovation is slower.

Zapier’s managed AI orchestration platform exists to flip that equation. We handle security, compliance, scaling, and updates, so you can focus on what really matters: automating workflows that move your enterprise forward. In a world where time, talent, and trust are your scarcest resources, that’s the smarter investment.