"Self"-hosted?

[drewstopherlee]

Hi, forgive my ignorance as I'm just beginning to explore the app, but in the documentation, it explains (very well, I might add) how to get started with a cloud hosting provider, Render. I see that a docker-compose install is planned (#627), but until then, shouldn't the documentation accurately reflect that the recommended installation method isn't technically self-hosted?

From awesome-selfhosted:

Self-hosting is the practice of hosting and managing applications on your own server(s) instead of consuming from SaaSS providers.

I was just confused, having never heard of Render, and expecting a way to deploy this locally to test it out. I'm interested in feedback and I'd like to know if this is just arguing semantics or if clarification is needed.

Thanks!

[zachgoll]

@drewstopherlee you are correct, we will have a Docker Compose setup available this week, which is the most "pure" form of "self-hosting".

There are 3 layers of abstraction here:

1. Managed - i.e. Maybe Finance (the company) manages the server and DB (you have NO control)
2. Partially Self Hosted - i.e. Render (they manage your DB + Server, but you have full control over them)
3. Fully Self Hosted - i.e. Docker (you control everything)

Ultimately, it's semantics. But I'd still consider Render closer to self-hosting than "managed" since the user still has full control over the servers, DB, and underlying financial data.

[drewstopherlee]

I'm still not a fan of the "partially self-hosted" terminology and would prefer something like "cloud hosted" (because it isn't actually self-hosted at all), but I'll be excited to try things out when the docker-compose is available.
Edited to add: I suppose my issue is that your wording is misleading, especially considering we're talking about sensitive financial data that we're trusting to someone else when we host it on someone else's server. Yeah, maybe we have full control over the configuration of the server, but ultimately my data is still in someone else's hands.

[zachgoll]

All addressed in this PR - #732