Hosted vs Self-Hosted
Konstruct offers two deployment models for the control plane tier. This page compares them so you can choose the right option for your team.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Hosted Control Plane | Self-Hosted Control Plane |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Minutes — sign up and go | Hours — control plane, multitenant mgmt clusters, workload clusters from there |
| Control plane infra | Civo manages | You provision and maintain, but you can start in any cloud or bare metal |
| Control plane upgrades | Automatic, managed by Civo | Manual, on your schedule |
| Supported clouds for mgmt cluster | Civo only (roadmap: AWS, GCP) | Any Kubernetes 1.24+ |
| Supported clouds for workload clusters | Civo, AWS, GCP | Civo, AWS, GCP, Azure, bare metal, any CNCF-conformant |
| kubectl to control plane cluster | Not available | Full access |
| Konstruct control plane operators | Not available | Fully configurable |
| Control plane version pinning | Not available | Supported via Helm |
| Authentication | Civo account (OAuth) | Configurable — Dex, OIDC, or disabled for development |
| Management cluster ownership | You own the cluster | You own the cluster |
| GitOps repo ownership | You own the repo | You own the repo |
| Workload cluster management | Full control | Full control |
| Platform tooling customization | Full control via GitOps | Full control via GitOps |
| Air-gapped installation | Not available | Supported |
| On-premises / bare metal mgmt cluster | Not available | Supported |
| Control plane data residency | Civo regions | Your chosen infrastructure |
| Cost model | SaaS subscription + Civo cluster costs | Self-managed infra plus Konstruct license costs |
Choose Hosted If
- You want to start in minutes, not days
- You do not wish to have direct access to Konstruct custom resources
- Your management clusters can run on Civo
- You want Civo to handle control plane availability, upgrades, and security patching
- You are evaluating Konstruct and want the lowest-friction starting point
Choose Self-Hosted If
- You need kubectl access to the control plane cluster
- You require access to Konstruct custom resource objects
- You need management clusters on AWS, GCP, Azure, or bare metal today
- Your environment is air-gapped or cannot reach
konstruct.saas.civo.com - You have compliance requirements that mandate control over where the control plane runs and who can access it
- You need to pin the Konstruct version and control when upgrades happen
Summary
Both models give you full ownership of your management cluster, GitOps repository, and workload clusters. The difference is who operates the control plane tier.
Hosted is the fastest path to a running platform, at the cost of less direct control over the control plane itself.
Self-Hosted gives you complete control over all three tiers, at the cost of more setup and ongoing operational responsibility for the control plane.
What's Next?
- Hosted Control Plane — learn about the hosted product and its architecture
- Hosted Quickstart — get started with hosted in under 30 minutes
- Hosted Limitations — current constraints of the hosted model
- Install Self-Hosted — set up a self-hosted control plane