Self-hosted or managed: which AI assistant setup fits you

The choice is not really about the software

The open tools are good, and they are free. That is not the decision. The decision is who carries the running of it on a Tuesday when something breaks and you have a customer waiting.

Self-hosting means you own the box and everything on it. Managed means someone else does, and you accept that they can see more than nothing. Both are reasonable. Picking the wrong one costs months.

What self-hosting actually asks of you

Installing is the easy hour. The list below is the rest, and it does not stop.

• Updates. Model providers change APIs, tools change interfaces, and a version you skipped becomes a migration you cannot skip.
• Keys and secrets. You hold provider keys, connected-account tokens and their rotation. A leaked token is a bill and a breach at the same time.
• Backups you have restored. A backup nobody has restored is a hope. Memory, files and connected sessions all need to come back together.
• Browser sessions. Anything that drives a real site needs a logged-in profile that survives reboots and does not get flagged. This is the part people underestimate most.
• Uptime. A scheduled job that did not run because the box rebooted is a job you think happened.
• Cost control. Model spend without a budget and an alert is a surprise at the end of the month.

Call it two to five hours in a normal month, and a bad day two or three times a year. If that time is cheap for you, self-hosting is genuinely good. If it comes out of the work you are actually paid for, it is the most expensive free software you will ever run.

What managed asks of you

Less time, and more trust. The honest costs are these.

• Someone else can see your content to the extent needed to run and support the service. No managed product escapes this.
• You move at their pace on features, model choice and integrations.
• You need an exit. Export and deletion are what stop a subscription becoming a hostage situation. Check them before you start, not when you leave.
• There is a bill, and it is predictable, which is the point.

Choose by what is true about you

Self-host if

• A rule, a contract or a regulator requires the data to stay on infrastructure you control.
• Someone on the team already runs servers and would notice an outage without being told.
• You want to change the internals, not only the behaviour.
• Tinkering is a pleasure rather than a tax. This is a real and sufficient reason.

Take a managed service if

• You are the whole operations team and your time converts directly into revenue.
• You want it working this week, not in a project.
• You need logged-in browser work to keep working without you nursing it.
• A predictable monthly cost beats a variable one you have to watch.

Where Tallis sits, plainly

Tallis is the managed side. You bring no keys, run no server and maintain no container. Each subscriber gets a private space with isolated memory, files, credentials and browser session, and the model access is included.

If you want to own the box, Tallis is not for you, and the open tools are a good answer. We would rather say that than sell you a subscription you will resent. If you want the work done without becoming its operator, that is exactly what this is.