Decide: self-hosting free on every tier

cruelacid commented

2026-09-21 18:06:06 +01:00

Owner

Part of #37. A decision, not engineering.

What Relay does

Self-hosting is free on every tier, including Free, and they argue for it
publicly in relay.md/updates/we-dont-charge-for-privacy: "We charge for the
convenience and infrastructure we provide. We do not charge for the architecture
that guarantees your privacy."

Their seat caps still apply and are enforced remotely, and their self-hosted
server still authenticates against their proprietary control plane — so their
self-hosting is partial in a way ours is not.

What we do

Gate self-hosting behind a signed licence at Business/Enterprise (Phase 12,
deferred and currently running last).

The tension

Our entire position is privacy. Charging for the deployment mode they give away
is the one place our pricing reads worse than theirs on our own strongest
ground, and docs/positioning.md already says to price at parity and compete
on the claim.

What it would cost

Nothing to build — it deletes Phase 12. No licence file, no signing key, no
offline verification, no key rotation. docs/commercial-model.md argues the
opposite case (self-hosted is worth far more per customer), and that argument is
on the record and should be weighed rather than skipped.

Why it is filed as an issue

So it is decided deliberately rather than by default. Either answer is
defensible; drifting into one is not.

Part of #37. **A decision, not engineering.** ## What Relay does Self-hosting is **free on every tier, including Free**, and they argue for it publicly in `relay.md/updates/we-dont-charge-for-privacy`: *"We charge for the convenience and infrastructure we provide. We do not charge for the architecture that guarantees your privacy."* Their seat caps still apply and are enforced remotely, and their self-hosted server still authenticates against their proprietary control plane — so their self-hosting is partial in a way ours is not. ## What we do Gate self-hosting behind a signed licence at Business/Enterprise (Phase 12, deferred and currently running last). ## The tension Our entire position is privacy. Charging for the deployment mode they give away is the one place our pricing reads worse than theirs **on our own strongest ground**, and `docs/positioning.md` already says to price at parity and compete on the claim. ## What it would cost **Nothing to build — it deletes Phase 12.** No licence file, no signing key, no offline verification, no key rotation. `docs/commercial-model.md` argues the opposite case (self-hosted is worth far more per customer), and that argument is on the record and should be weighed rather than skipped. ## Why it is filed as an issue So it is decided deliberately rather than by default. Either answer is defensible; drifting into one is not.

cruelacid added this to the Backlog - unscheduled milestone

2026-09-21 18:06:06 +01:00

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2026-09-21 18:06:06 +01:00

cruelacid referenced this issue

2026-09-21 18:07:08 +01:00

True air-gapped self-hosting #71

cruelacid referenced this issue

2026-09-21 18:08:51 +01:00

Relay feature parity, with end-to-end encryption (tracking) #37

cruelacid added this to the Relay parity, with E2EE project

2026-09-21 18:14:57 +01:00

cruelacid removed this from the Relay parity, with E2EE project

2026-09-21 18:16:12 +01:00

cruelacid added this to the Relay parity, with E2EE project

2026-09-21 18:22:02 +01:00

cruelacid commented

2026-09-21 18:32:07 +01:00

Author

Owner

Decided 21 September 2026: self-hosting stays paid. Closing.

This issue was filed on a false symmetry — that Relay giving self-hosting away
on every tier made our licence gate look like a worse deal at the same price.
It does not, and the reason is architectural.

Free self-hosting is not generosity on their side, it is compensation.
Their server reads plaintext, so self-hosting is the only privacy their
architecture can offer. They cannot charge for the sole route to the thing a
privacy-minded customer came for. We include that privacy in the hosted service,
so we are not selling the same product at a worse price — we are selling a
different one.

It is also not a complete answer even for them. Per their own deployment
template, a self-hosted Relay Server on the public internet is one their control
plane can mint itself a token for; privacy needs the customer to run a VPN as
well, and a public-facing server is grounds for removal from their network.

So the comparison is:

For Relay, self-hosting is how a customer obtains privacy, so it must be
free. For us, the hosted service already is private, so self-hosting sells
metadata privacy, residency and air-gap instead — a smaller, richer market
that Relay prices at "Enterprise: custom" with no public figure either.

At the same price our customer gets hosting, support and privacy together. A
Relay customer wanting the equivalent runs their own server and their own VPN
and still holds a Relay account with seats enforced remotely.

Matching their free tier would discount the claim, not the product —
contradicting docs/positioning.md's "price at parity, compete on the claim".

Recorded so it is not re-litigated:

docs/positioning.md — new section "Their free self-hosting is not a
benchmark, and we do not match it", with the side-by-side answer to use when
someone compares the two feature tables.
docs/commercial-model.md — the open question under "What this does not
decide" is now settled there.

One guard kept in the positioning text: E2EE removes the main reason to
self-host, not every reason. Metadata, residency, procurement rules and air-gap
survive it — which is exactly the market the paid tier serves. Do not say
"nobody needs to self-host any more".

Phase 12 stands as planned.

**Decided 21 September 2026: self-hosting stays paid. Closing.** This issue was filed on a false symmetry — that Relay giving self-hosting away on every tier made our licence gate look like a worse deal at the same price. It does not, and the reason is architectural. **Free self-hosting is not generosity on their side, it is compensation.** Their server reads plaintext, so self-hosting is the *only* privacy their architecture can offer. They cannot charge for the sole route to the thing a privacy-minded customer came for. We include that privacy in the hosted service, so we are not selling the same product at a worse price — we are selling a different one. It is also not a complete answer even for them. Per their own deployment template, a self-hosted Relay Server on the public internet is one their control plane can mint itself a token for; privacy needs the customer to run a **VPN as well**, and a public-facing server is grounds for removal from their network. So the comparison is: > For Relay, self-hosting is how a customer **obtains** privacy, so it must be > free. For us, the hosted service already **is** private, so self-hosting sells > metadata privacy, residency and air-gap instead — a smaller, richer market > that Relay prices at "Enterprise: custom" with no public figure either. At the same price our customer gets hosting, support and privacy together. A Relay customer wanting the equivalent runs their own server *and* their own VPN *and* still holds a Relay account with seats enforced remotely. Matching their free tier would discount the claim, not the product — contradicting `docs/positioning.md`'s "price at parity, compete on the claim". Recorded so it is not re-litigated: - `docs/positioning.md` — new section *"Their free self-hosting is not a benchmark, and we do not match it"*, with the side-by-side answer to use when someone compares the two feature tables. - `docs/commercial-model.md` — the open question under *"What this does not decide"* is now settled there. One guard kept in the positioning text: E2EE removes the *main* reason to self-host, not every reason. Metadata, residency, procurement rules and air-gap survive it — which is exactly the market the paid tier serves. Do not say "nobody needs to self-host any more". Phase 12 stands as planned.

cruelacid closed this issue

2026-09-21 18:32:07 +01:00

cruelacid referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-22 17:40:29 +01:00

Say why their free self-hosting is not a price we have to match

Rows
Columns

Decide: self-hosting free on every tier #68

What Relay does

What we do

The tension

What it would cost

Why it is filed as an issue