Compare
Selfhost.dev vs
ClickHouse® CloudSelfhost.dev and ClickHouse Cloud both run real, managed ClickHouse; the difference is cost and ownership. For an always-on analytics instance, a dedicated Selfhost.dev box runs about $65/mo versus about $173/mo on ClickHouse Cloud's serverless model in ap-south-1 (Mumbai), about 2.6x less and you can run it in your own AWS account with 189 MCP tools.
TL;DR
The short
version.
The same always-on 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB box is about $65/mo on Selfhost.dev versus about $173/mo on ClickHouse Cloud. About 2.6x less for steady workloads.
A dedicated instance you can see into, with BYOC to run it in your own AWS account. Not a serverless black box you cannot see into.
189 AI-powered MCP tools included, so you provision and manage ClickHouse from your editor. ClickHouse Cloud has no equivalent MCP layer.
Pricing comparison
Same box,
a fraction of the bill.
ClickHouse Cloud's serverless model is priced for spiky, idle-heavy usage. For an analytics database that stays on, a dedicated Selfhost.dev instance is far cheaper and the bill does not move with load.
100 GB, 2 vCPU / 8 GB, always on
- Serverless, usage-based, metered per minute
- Priced for the instance running 24/7
- Dedicated instance, pay-as-you-go by the hour
- Pauses to $0 when you stop it, BYOC available
Figures verified against billed rates in August 2026. The Selfhost.dev figure excludes the public IPv4 address every instance gets at deploy, about $5/mo, itemized in the console before you launch. ClickHouse Cloud's bill is compute-dominated and usage-metered, while a dedicated Selfhost.dev instance is a flat hourly rate whose bill does not move with load. We are cheaper for always-on workloads; a bursty or mostly-idle workload narrows the gap, since ClickHouse Cloud scales compute down. Build your exact Selfhost.dev number on the pricing calculator.
Analytics database that stays on? A dedicated Selfhost.dev instance is about 2.6x cheaper than ClickHouse Cloud's serverless model, prepaid and paused at $0 when you stop it and it runs in your own AWS account. Or see how it stacks up against the other real-time analytics databases and the best managed ClickHouse services or, if your data is time-series, the best time-series database.
Deploy managed ClickHouse โFeature by feature
Full
comparison.
| Feature | Selfhost.dev | ClickHouse Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB, always on | ~$65/mo | ~$173/mo |
| Model | Dedicated instance, PAYG | Serverless, usage-based |
| Pauses to $0 when stopped | Yes | Idles compute, storage keeps billing |
| BYOC (your own AWS) | Yes, transparent management fee | GA, committed contract |
| See into the instance | Live metrics, logs, dedicated host | Managed, abstracted |
| Protocols | HTTP 8123 + native 9000 | HTTP + native |
| High availability | Keeper Multi-AZ, auto failover | Managed HA |
| Storage / compute separation | S3 by default or EBS or tiered | Yes (object storage) |
| Serverless elastic autoscale | Scheduled + reactive resize | Yes (signature) |
| First-party (ClickHouse Inc) | No, we operate it for you | Yes |
| AI management | 189 MCP tools | 13 MCP tools, read-only |
Deep dive
Where the
differences matter.
Serverless is priced for idle
Serverless pricing assumes your database sleeps. Product analytics, dashboards and log stores run all day.
- Metered per minute, idles to zero. A good fit for spiky analytics, though storage keeps billing while it sleeps.
- $65/mo versus $173/mo, always on, for the same 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB box in ap-south-1 (Mumbai). About 2.6x less and it does not swing with query load.
- The gap is compute-driven. Their storage is cheap, so it is widest on compute-heavy configs and narrows as your dataset grows. A dedicated instance is still cheaper at 1 TB.
A box you can see into
A dedicated instance with live metrics and logs, not an abstraction in front of one.
- Standard protocols. HTTP 8123 and native 9000, so any ClickHouse client connects.
- BYOC. It runs in your own AWS account, so the data and the exit path stay yours.
- One account for the whole stack. Your app, your Postgres or MySQL and 189 MCP tools to drive it from your editor.
Real reasons to pick ClickHouse Cloud
Pick ClickHouse Cloud if your usage is spiky or if you want the vendor that builds ClickHouse to run it.
- First-party, from ClickHouse Inc.
- True serverless elasticity, so an idle-heavy workload never pays for an always-on box.
- Shared object storage billed per compressed TB, which suits a very large and mostly cold dataset.
If your analytics database runs steadily and you want a cheaper dedicated instance you own and can drive from your editor, Selfhost.dev is the better fit.
Migration
Moving off ClickHouse Cloud?
We migrate you, free.
It is standard ClickHouse on both ends, so the data moves with standard tooling. A Selfhost.dev engineer plans and runs the move with you, at no extra cost.
Your ClickHouse Cloud service, dataset size and version. The free cost audit gives you the exact monthly Selfhost.dev number and a migration plan before anything moves.
Standard ClickHouse paths: the remote and s3 table functions, native INSERT SELECT or clickhouse-client export and import. Nothing proprietary to convert.
We confirm row counts and query results on the new instance first and you repoint your app only when you are satisfied.
Free on every plan size. If the numbers do not work for you, you keep the breakdown.
Based on this page: ยท
On now or still deciding?
What's the bill you're looking at?
Roughly how much a month, all in?
Matched to RDS, we bill 3.0x less in ap-south-1 (Mumbai) and 2.1x less in us-east-1.
2 vCPU / 4 GB with 20 GB: $24.54/mo in Mumbai, $35.27/mo in us-east-1, against an estimated $73.75/mo on RDS.
See a real RDS bill, before and after →Neon meters compute hours and sleeps. We bill one fixed hourly rate and never sleep.
{price} Same number in a quiet month and a launch month.
Price your size →Two ways off the Supabase bill and you can keep the Supabase stack.
Self-host Supabase on a project server from about $0.02/hr or move just the database to a dedicated Postgres. {price}
How self-hosted Supabase works here →An enterprise client is moving production ClickHouse to us at up to 60% less.
Worked example: off ClickHouse Cloud Scale to always-on managed ClickHouse, $891.86 to $364.03 a month, 59%.
See the ClickHouse bill, before and after →A PaaS bills per service. A project server is one bill for everything on it.
Worked example: a studio consolidated client hosting onto project servers, $390.00 to $82.66 a month, 78%.
See that bill, before and after →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price} Postgres and MySQL price the same.
Price your size →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
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Price your size →A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Dedicated Postgres or MySQL on AWS, with restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{price} Pay-as-you-go credits, top up from $5, no plan tiers.
Price your size →Most setups map onto two shapes: dedicated databases on AWS and a project server for everything else.
{price} Project servers from about $0.02/hr.
Price your size →Under $200 a month, the calculator beats a human reply. Price it there first.
What's it for?
Where do your users mostly sit?
Dedicated managed Postgres or MySQL, with point-in-time restore, pooling and Multi-AZ failover when you want it.
{region} If you need scale-to-zero or instant branching, Neon fits better than we do.
What managed Postgres includes →Managed ClickHouse for events at volume or TimescaleDB on managed Postgres for time-series next to your app data.
Worked example: off ClickHouse Cloud Scale, $891.86 to $364.03 a month, 59%. {region}
See the ClickHouse bill, before and after →pgvector on managed Postgres: one database instead of a second vendor.
{region} TimescaleDB is one click away on the same instance if you also have time-series.
When a dedicated vector DB is worth it →A project server from about $0.02/hr: push to GitHub and it deploys, several apps and their databases on one box.
Auto-deploy on push, PR previews, custom domains. The $5 welcome credit covers the start of it, no card and you can pause it to $0.
How Projects work →Project servers: many sites per server, one bill.
Worked example: a studio consolidated client hosting, $390.00 to $82.66 a month, 78%.
See that bill, before and after →Most things fit dedicated databases on AWS plus a project server for the apps.
{region}
See it in the live demo →What are you trying to do?
Which editor?
We migrate you, free, on every plan size.
An engineer runs it with you: match the instance, replicate or dump and restore, test the restore, cut over.
See one migration, step by step →The Supabase stack, one click, on a server of your own.
One click from the template, on a project server from about $0.02/hr. Nothing to build or wire up.
The Supabase deploy guide →Paste one config and your editor can run the whole backend.
Run it once, sign in when the browser opens and all 189 tools register.
An hourly instance you pause when done.
Restore a snapshot into a second instance, point staging at it, pause it when idle.
Price a small instance →Push to GitHub and it's live: auto-deploy, PR previews, custom domains.
A project server from about $0.02/hr runs several apps and their databases.
Deploy guides by framework →The one that matters most:
A managed database for as low as $5 a month. Project servers from about $0.02 an hour.
The smallest dedicated Postgres, a t4g.nano with 1 GB, is about $5.34 a month in ap-south-1 (Mumbai) and about $6.41 in us-east-1 and the $5 welcome credit covers its first days. Pay-as-you-go credits, top up from $5, no tiers.
Price your size →When production needs help, you talk to the engineers who run it and a founder reads every request.
Outages, restores, performance issues and migrations reach the people operating the platform. No response-time promise or uptime percentage we cannot prove.
How support and recovery work →Failover, point-in-time restore and backups cover the common ways a database fails.
Multi-AZ failover is a toggle on every engine, Postgres and MySQL add point-in-time restore and all engines get automated backups, live metrics and alerts.
The reliability and recovery details →We migrate you, free. An engineer plans and runs the move with you.
Match the instance, replicate or dump and restore, test the restore, cut over. Any plan size, no extra cost.
See one migration, step by step →Run it in your own AWS account with BYOC, in the region you need.
Encryption in transit and at rest on every managed instance. We do not hold SOC 2 or HIPAA today and we will say so before you spend an hour.
What we can and cannot certify →Fair enough. The live demo is the fastest way to see it.
Or claim $5 to start, no card needed.
Watch the live demo →Our founder
You've already sent us your setup from this browser. A founder will reply to it; no need to send it twice.
Got it. I'll reply to within two working days, from my own inbox.
Noted. One note when it changes, nothing else.