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Self-hosting is great for hobbyist projects or if you want to go wild with a completely custom implementation (maybe you’d prefer the whole app was translated into pirate-speak). For most companies and teams, we recommend Lightdash Cloud. To self-host Lightdash securely in production, you should have an excellent understanding of running services with Docker and kubernetes, as well as the security considerations. If you’re unsure whether to self-host or use Lightdash Cloud, here are some things to consider:

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When to use Lightdash Cloud

Unless you have a specific need to self-host, we recommend using Lightdash Cloud:
  • Suitable for most teams
  • Get started with Lightdash quickly
  • Secure and reliable out-of-the-box.
  • No need to maintain your own infrastructure.
  • Always have the latest version of Lightdash.
  • Incredible support from the core Lightdash team and maintainers.

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When to self-host

There are a few reasons why you might want to self-host Lightdash:
  • You’re a large enterprise and want to run a proof-of-concept on your own infrastructure. This can be a great way to get your hands on Lightdash, while your infosec team approves the use of Lightdash Cloud. For enterprise features on self-hosted instances, see our enterprise features documentation.
  • You’re a hobbyist and want to run Lightdash on your own infrastructure.
  • You want to customise Lightdash to your specific needs.

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Move from Lightdash Cloud to self-hosted

Moving an existing Cloud organization to your own instance means running the infrastructure yourself, then copying your content across:
  1. Deploy Lightdash following the production deployment checklist. Enterprise features you use on Cloud, such as embedding, AI agents and data apps, need an Enterprise license key on the new instance.
  2. Create the project on the new instance and connect the same dbt project and warehouse.
  3. Copy charts, dashboards and spaces with lightdash download and lightdash upload (content as code), and organization resources such as custom roles, users, groups and user attributes with lightdash download --organization and lightdash upload --organization (organization content as code).
  4. If you embed Lightdash, generate an embed secret and choose the allowed content on the new project. Embed settings aren’t part of content as code, and URLs signed with your Cloud secret don’t work on the new instance.