Lago Cloud vs self-hosted Lago

The supplied facts do not give a published Lago Cloud price, so the figure must come from Lago's current pricing or a direct quote. Cloud costs are subscription fees, usually based on plan tier and usage volume, and they recur for as long as you use the service. Ask Lago for the plan that covers the features you need, whether usage volume changes the fee, and whether any Enterprise plan fees apply on top. Self-hosting replaces that subscription with infrastructure, staff time and support costs, so compare the two totals over the same period rather than comparing a monthly fee with a single server bill.

Self-hosting bills you for the compute, storage, network and managed services that run the platform in your cloud account or data center. The Docker Compose deployment runs a front end, an API, an API worker, a clock worker, PostgreSQL for application data, Redis as the job queue and Gotenberg for PDF generation. Each of these needs capacity, and most of the cost recurs monthly. Ask your team to size each component for your expected event volume and to price high availability, load balancing and any managed PostgreSQL or Redis service you choose instead of running them yourself.

Staff time is often the largest cost in self-hosting and it recurs. Engineers spend time on installation, configuration, monitoring, certificate and secret rotation, database maintenance, on-call response for failed jobs and invoice runs, and upgrades. Count the hours from the engineers who already run your PostgreSQL, Redis and container platforms, and add the cost of the skills you lack. Ask whether the team can cover this work without pulling people from billing or product delivery.

ClickHouse is an optional external store for high-volume events and it is disabled by default, so it adds cost only when you turn it on. Enabling it means running and maintaining another database cluster, with its own compute, storage, backups and upgrades, and it needs engineers who understand it. Cloud customers should ask whether the managed service includes a ClickHouse store and whether it affects the plan price. For self-hosting, price the extra nodes and the operating time, and use the decision on event volume to decide whether the cost is justified.

Payment gateway fees apply in both models because Lago does not process payments itself. Lago calculates what to charge and when, then sends that to a payment gateway, and the README names Stripe, Adyen and GoCardless as supported providers. Each gateway sets its own fees, so these costs are the same whether Lago runs in Cloud or on your infrastructure. Ask the gateway for its fee schedule for your transaction mix, and check whether the gateway contract or the Lago plan restricts which providers you can use.

In a self-hosted model you pay for backup storage, retention, restore testing and the standby capacity needed to recover within your target time, and you carry the staff effort to run and test them. With Lago Cloud, ask Lago what backup, retention and recovery commitments are included in your plan and whether they are written into the contract. Do not assume either model includes disaster recovery until the terms are written down. If you self-host, include the cost of testing restores on a schedule, because untested backups still cost money without protecting your billing data.

Switching costs are one-time but can be significant. Moving from Cloud to self-hosting means exporting customers, plans, subscriptions, usage history and invoices, rebuilding the infrastructure, reconnecting payment gateways and accounting or CRM integrations, and validating invoice output before cutover. Moving the other way means the same work in reverse. Ask both Lago and your implementation partner how data export works, which versions and data formats are supported, and what parallel running costs during a migration. Written scope before work starts keeps this cost predictable, since DeployOpen engagements are fixed-scope and quotes follow the agreed scope.

Request a written breakdown that separates one-time from recurring costs. For Lago Cloud, ask for the plan price, the Enterprise plan fees that apply to your features, any usage-based charges, data export terms and support levels. For self-hosting, ask for a list of the infrastructure components with sizing assumptions, the staff hours by activity, backup and recovery arrangements, and the upgrade and pinning approach. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, and its quotes follow from a written scope that names the systems, integrations, deliverables and timeline, so define your scope before asking for a figure.

Self-hosting moves the cost from a subscription into people time, infrastructure and on-call coverage. The default Docker Compose deployment runs a front end, an API, an API worker, a clock worker, PostgreSQL for application data, Redis as the job queue and Gotenberg for PDF generation, so your team owns each of those services. One engineer can often stand up a test environment, but a production setup needs someone to watch backups, restarts, queue depth and upgrades. Whether one team can carry this depends on existing container and PostgreSQL skills and on how many people can respond out of hours. Ask your own platform team to map that load before comparing it with a Lago Cloud plan.

The duration depends on your target environment, your network and identity rules, the size of your event volume and how many integrations you connect at launch. A proof of concept on a single host can be quick, while a production deployment with backups, monitoring, TLS and a tested upgrade path takes longer. Lago does not publish a timeline for this work in the sources we rely on, so treat any figure you hear as an estimate until it is written into a scoped plan. Ask for a plan that lists each environment, each service, each integration and the acceptance tests before go-live.

You need people who can operate containers, PostgreSQL, Redis and a reverse proxy, plus someone who understands billing data. Lago's self-hosting guide is written for Docker Compose and points larger deployments to Helm charts and dedicated workers, so Kubernetes skills matter once you outgrow a single host. Plan for secrets management, outbound access to your payment gateway (Stripe, Adyen or GoCardless are the providers named in Lago's README), and read access for finance and accounting systems. Confirm each of these with your security team before the first install, because they determine who can change production billing data.

Moving is possible in principle, but the cost depends on how much billing history, customer records, plans and invoices you have already created. Your PostgreSQL data is the core asset, so the first question is whether the migration path between your deployment and a managed service is documented and tested for your version. Keep backups and a version record for every change, and pin your deployment to a tagged release as Lago's self-hosting docs recommend. Ask the vendor in writing how data export, import and cutover would work, and what they would need from you during that window.

A partner is not required, but many teams use one for the parts that are hard to staff internally. DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside the client's own infrastructure, and most engagements are fixed-scope with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts. Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so a quote follows from the written scope. Ask any partner to show how they handle version pinning, upgrades and evidence for your audit.

Lago's FAQ describes a forever-free open-source edition with fundamental billing features, and Enterprise plans that add premium features. Whether the free edition is enough depends on the features your billing model requires, such as specific dunning, tax, progressive billing or CRM and accounting integrations. The README lists integrations with NetSuite, Xero, Salesforce and HubSpot, but you should confirm in the current feature documentation which of them each edition supports. Build a feature checklist from your billing rules and check it against both editions before you decide.

Lago Cloud moves service operation and upgrades to the vendor, which reduces the work your team carries day to day. Self-hosting keeps data inside your own cloud account, data center or network, and it lets you choose when to upgrade. Lago's self-hosting docs recommend pinning the last tagged version rather than the latest image tag, so you control the timing of changes. Lago v1.55.0 was released on October 7, 2026, after v1.54.0 on October 6, 2026, which shows how often the project ships. Ask the managed provider where your data is stored, how upgrades are announced and how you would roll back.