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Choosing between the managed sovseal Platform and a self-hosted edge function comes down to your operational priorities, not your security requirements. Because both options enforce client-side encryption, your choice does not affect the zero-knowledge guarantees — the server remains blind to your plaintext regardless of where it runs. The difference is who operates the replication infrastructure.

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Feature matrix

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Compliance and security decision guide

Use these callouts to align your hosting choice with your regulatory environment.
1

Start here: does your security policy prohibit third-party cloud storage of ciphertext?

If your policy prohibits any external cloud storage — even of opaque encrypted blobs — you must use Self-Hosted. Deploy the edge function inside your own VPC or GovCloud environment and point the SDK at your endpoint.If your policy permits external storage of non-readable ciphertext, continue to the next step.
2

Does your application fall under a strict regulatory framework?

If your app is not subject to specific regulatory mandates (no HIPAA, FedRAMP, or equivalent), use the managed Platform. It’s the fastest path to production with zero infrastructure to operate.If your app is subject to specific compliance frameworks, continue to the next step.
3

GDPR and SOC 2 workloads

The managed Platform narrows the surface these frameworks care about, but read the posture honestly:
What is true: the managed server only ever stores AES-256-GCM ciphertext and client_payload_hash SHA-256 integrity anchors. Plaintext personal data is never processed or held on sovseal’s servers, and plaintext never crosses a border because it never leaves the host machine. Erasure is handled client-side via rollback or local deletion tombstones.What we do not claim: sovseal is not certified under GDPR or SOC 2. GDPR readiness is In Progress and no SOC 2 report has been issued — see Trust. The architecture makes the audit surface narrow; it does not substitute for an audit.
For a SOC 2 assessment, the Platform’s audit surface is narrow: the server receives and stores opaque ciphertext, so there is no plaintext data flow to document.
4

HIPAA and FedRAMP workloads

If your company policy requires that even encrypted payloads cannot reside on third-party SaaS infrastructure, use Self-Hosted. Deploy the replication edge function to your own Supabase project. The SDK configuration is a single endpoint change — no other code modifications required.
Self-Hosted gives you full control over network topology, storage location, and access logging for the replication endpoint. The encryption and key custody model is identical to the Platform.

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Cost and resource comparison

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Migration paths

Moving between Platform and Self-Hosted requires no source code changes beyond a single configuration update. Your local LanceDB index is unaffected — it doesn’t move when your replication endpoint does.

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Platform → Self-Hosted

1

Deploy the edge function to your infrastructure

From your sovseal repo checkout, deploy the Deno edge function and apply the database migrations to your Postgres instance.
2

Drain or export your existing replication queue

Either wait for the in-flight write-behind queue to drain completely, or export your local LanceDB snapshot directory directly. The local index is the source of truth — nothing is lost if you switch endpoints mid-flight.
3

Update your SDK configuration

Point replicationUrl at your new endpoint and swap in your self-hosted auth token.
The background worker will automatically begin replicating new writes to your endpoint from this point forward.

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Self-Hosted → Platform

1

Create a managed project and generate an API key

Register at app.sovseal.com and generate a sov_live_ API key from the Devices page.
2

Update your SDK configuration

Point replicationUrl at the managed Platform endpoint and swap in your sov_live_ key.
3

Let the background worker sync

The background worker automatically synchronizes your existing local LanceDB records to the Platform. No manual data export or import step is required. You can watch sync progress on the Home and Devices pages of the dashboard.
Migration in either direction is reversible at any time. Because the local LanceDB index is always the canonical store, you can point your replicationUrl at a new target and the background worker will reconcile from there — no data is at risk during the switch.