DispatchSEOCloud or self-hosted
Two ways to run DispatchSEO, what actually differs between them, and how to pick without regretting it later.
On this page
Self-hosting has no feature limitations. Everything the paid cloud does, this repo does today, in your own accounts, at $0.
That's the honest headline, and it's worth stating before anything else, because the answer to "which is better" is usually "whichever you'll actually keep running."
The short version
One Docker command on a machine you control. Your database, your Google credentials, your data. Costs nothing beyond the machine.
We run it. Search data is bundled into the bill, Google connects with one click, and there's no machine to keep awake.
What actually differs
| Self-hosted | Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | All of them | All of them |
| Price | $0 | Subscription |
| Where data lives | Your machine | Our Postgres |
| Keyword and SERP data | Bring your own keys, or run free on Search Console only | Bundled into the subscription |
| Google Search Console | Create a service account, paste the JSON | One click, OAuth |
| GitHub connection | A merge token you create | One-click GitHub App install |
| Who keeps it running | You | Us |
| Upgrades | You pull a new image | Automatic |
| Backups | Yours to take | Handled |
| Schedules run when | Your machine is awake | Always |
Both run the same code from the same repo. The cloud sells convenience, not capability.
Pick self-hosted if
- You have a machine that can stay on - a $5 VPS, a Raspberry Pi, a desktop that doesn't sleep.
- You want your Search Console credentials and your data to stay yours.
- You're comfortable pasting a service-account JSON once.
- You like paying $0.
The setup is longer, mostly because of Google's service-account flow. Budget about twenty minutes for the whole thing, most of it in the Google Cloud console.
Pick cloud if
- You don't want to run or maintain a machine.
- You'd rather one bill covered the search data than manage a DataForSEO balance.
- The Google service-account dance is not how you want to spend your evening.
The laptop question
You can absolutely install this on a laptop to try it, and plenty of people do. Just know what you're signing up for: schedules only run while the machine is awake.
That's less bad than it sounds. Missed schedules are delays, not failures - content builds catch up on their own when the machine wakes, and the health checks only flag a job that missed its window while the stack was actually running. You'll never be warned about a job that was simply powered off.
But day to day, something that stays on is better. A cheap VPS is the usual answer, and the VPS guide covers it including a domain with automatic HTTPS.
Can I switch later?
Yes, in both directions, with some manual work.
Your content is the part that matters and it never lived in DispatchSEO anyway - it's in your own Git repo, committed and merged. Moving means standing up the other version, reconnecting Search Console and GitHub, and re-running research. The rankings history stays behind unless you move the database yourself.
Upgrading and backups covers moving a self-hosted install between machines.