Managed or Self-Hosted Encrypted Storage: An Honest Decision Guide

Since Hoodik Cloud launched, the obvious question is which one you should use: run the open-source server yourself, or pay us to run it for you. We build both, so we don't have a horse in this race beyond wanting you on the option you'll still be happy with in a year. Here is the actual tradeoff.

What's the Same Either Way

Start with what the choice does not affect, because it's the part most comparisons get wrong.

Hoodik Cloud runs the same open-source code as self-hosted Hoodik — the same repository you can read on GitHub, not a fork or an "enterprise edition" with different internals.

The encryption is identical too, because it lives in the client, not the server. Files are encrypted with AEGIS-128L on your device before upload. File keys are wrapped with a post-quantum hybrid of X25519 and ML-KEM-768. Login uses OPAQUE, so your password never leaves your device. Whoever operates the server — you, us, anyone — operates a machine that stores ciphertext and never holds your keys. The full explanation is here.

So privacy doesn't decide this question. The decision comes down to who does the operations work, and what that work is worth to you.

Self-Host If

You want maximum control. Nobody can change pricing on you, because there is no pricing — the self-hosted server is free. You choose the storage backend, the update schedule, and the country your box sits in.

You enjoy this, or at least don't mind it. Self-hosting Hoodik is genuinely low-effort as these things go — one Docker container, around 20MB of RAM — but "low-effort" is not "no-effort." You'll apply updates, keep an eye on disk space, and own the recovery plan when an SD card dies. If tinkering with a home server sounds like a pleasant Sunday, self-host. Our Raspberry Pi guide is a good starting point.

You want the lowest long-term cost. We ran the full cost math previously: a Raspberry Pi with a 1TB SSD works out to roughly $188 over five years. No subscription comes close. If your storage needs are large and your budget is small, hardware you own wins on price, full stop.

You have unusual requirements. More users than a paid plan makes sense for, multi-terabyte archives, a specific S3 backend you already pay for, or an air-gapped network. Self-hosting bends to all of it.

Choose Hoodik Cloud If

You don't want to patch and monitor a server. This is the whole product. Updates and monitoring are our problem, and so is the storage layer. You sign up and upload; the rest stops being your job. Your files also stop depending on your home internet connection.

You want E2E encryption without acquiring a hobby. Plenty of people read why self-hosting matters, agree with every word, and still know they will never run a server. That was the gap Hoodik Cloud exists to close: the same auditable code, minus the sysadmin role.

You value your time at more than a few euros a month. Starter is €9/month (or €90/year) for 100 GB; Plus is €19/month (or €190/year) for 500 GB. There's a 14-day trial — card required, and it converts automatically unless you cancel. Each instance gets its own dedicated storage bucket with credentials scoped to that bucket alone, and you pick an EU or US region at signup.

Being blunt about the cost: over five years, Hoodik Cloud costs more than a Pi in your closet, and per gigabyte it costs more than consumer encrypted clouds like Filen. Both comparisons miss what the subscription buys. A consumer cloud sells accounts on one shared system, so another user costs them little more than disk; Hoodik Cloud provisions every customer their own instance, so the floor cost is running that instance rather than a slice of shared disk. You're paying for the hours you don't spend and for an instance that is yours. Whether that trade makes sense depends entirely on how you value those hours — for some people it obviously does, for some it obviously doesn't.

The Choice Is Reversible

Cloud to self-hosted: you can export your entire instance at any time. The export is a runnable copy of open-source Hoodik with your encrypted data inside. Point Docker at it and you are self-hosting, with only your passphrase able to decrypt any of it. If we raise prices, or you buy a NAS and change your mind, you download the export and leave.

Self-hosted to Cloud: sign up, point your apps at the new instance, and move your files over. Nothing about self-hosting locks you in either — your files were always yours.

Because both directions stay open, you don't have to get this decision right forever. You're only deciding what suits you now.

A Short Decision Table

Our Actual Recommendation

If you're on the fence, try the version with the lower commitment for you. For technical folks that's a self-hosted install on whatever machine is lying around — it costs nothing and an hour of your time. For everyone else it's the Hoodik Cloud trial — it costs nothing for 14 days and no hours at all.

Either way you end up on the same code with the same encryption, and either way you can change your mind later. That's the setup we wanted to build: the choice between managed and self-hosted should be about convenience, because the privacy is settled before your files ever leave your device.