Self-Hosted vs. Timefold Cloud Platform

Choosing the best option for your needs

There are two ways to run the Timefold Platform and its models: a fully managed service ("Timefold Cloud Platform"), where we handle everything for you, and a self-hosted option, giving you more control. While both options provide the same core functionality (access to the Timefold Models via their APIs), the managed service offers more features, and the most seamless, efficient, scalable experience.

Here, we’ll break down the differences to help you choose the right approach—but we’ll be upfront: for most users, the managed service delivers the best value and user experience.

Timefold Cloud Platform

Our managed services are designed to let you focus on what matters most: integrating Timefold models and its APIs into your application, not managing infrastructure. By choosing our managed services, you get the full power of the platform with none of the operational complexity. Additionally, Timefold Cloud Platform offers a UI that gives you valuable insights into the planning solutions we compute for you.

Benefits of the managed service

  1. Full UI
    Timefold Cloud Platform comes with a UI that visualizes all of the planning problems you send to the platform, as well as visualization (example) and comparison tools for the KPIs of these planning solutions to help you make better business decisions. The UI has developer tools for troubleshooting (see failed runs, explore warnings and errors). Additionally, the UI comes with a management interface that makes it easier to configure your instance.
    The UI makes it easy for teams (including non-technical team members) to interact with the platform and derive insights, reducing the need for extensive API knowledge.

  2. No maintenance required
    Timefold handles all infrastructure maintenance, security patches, scaling, and updates for you. This means you don’t have to worry about downtime, server management, or troubleshooting.

  3. Immediate access to new features
    New features, improvements, and performance optimizations are automatically rolled out, so your team always has access to the latest and greatest. (We make sure stable models on our platform are always backwards compatible, so no worries.)

    (Check our changelog to see how often we improve our platform and models.)

  4. Optimized performance
    Our Cloud Platform is fine-tuned to run efficiently and scale as your needs grow. Our site reliability team monitors the Timefold Cloud Platform environments, ensuring you get the best speed and reliability.

  5. Robust security
    Timefold uses industry-leading security practices, including 24/7 monitoring, regular updates, and proactive threat management, ensuring the Timefold Cloud Platform is secure at all times.

    Check the Trust section of our documentation to learn about our Risk profile, Product security and Data security.

    (In Schedule 1: Data Processing Agreement of our Terms of Use we explain how we treat the data sent to the Timefold Cloud Platform. By default, data is stored in the EU, but if you have strong requirements to have data stored in other locations, please contact us to discuss setting up a managed Timefold Cloud Platform in a different location.)

  6. Cost-effective over time
    The managed services include all infrastructure, maintenance, updates, and security management in one package. For most teams, this translates into significant time and cost savings over managing a self-hosted solution.

Why choose Timefold Cloud Platform?

The managed service is ideal for teams that:

  • Want to get going immediately

  • Prefer to focus on development rather than infrastructure management

  • Need rapid deployment, scalability, and consistent uptime

  • Want an easy-to-use platform with a UI that brings more business value

  • Are looking for a cost-effective solution

Self-Hosted

Self-hosting the Timefold Platform is an option for those who require complete control over their infrastructure, but it’s important to note that this option comes with increased responsibilities and operational complexity. Self-hosting also comes with additional internal costs.

Benefits of self-hosting

  1. More control
    Self-hosting gives you control over your infrastructure, allowing for specific configurations, performance tuning, and integrations that are tailored to your needs. You have the flexibility to decide when/if you want to upgrade to newer versions.

  2. Data privacy and security
    You can manage your own data and security policies, ensuring compliance with internal or industry-specific requirements. (However, if you are in need of compliance with specific security policies, or have requirements about where data needs to be stored, please contact us to discuss these needs.)

  3. Flexibility at scale
    If you have an experienced team (knowledgeable about Kubernetes) and infrastructure in place, you can scale and tweak the platform in ways that align with your existing systems.

Limitations of Self-Hosting

  1. No UI component
    The self-hosted version is API-only, meaning there’s no graphical interface to work with. Any configuration of the platform will have to be done via its API, and any troubleshooting, comparison or insights features are also not be available.

  2. Ongoing maintenance and support
    Self-hosting requires ongoing technical resources to manage updates, scaling, infrastructure issues, and security patches. This can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor, especially for smaller teams or those without dedicated DevOps support. Read about how to install the platform yourself in the installation guide. The platform requirements include, among others, a Kubernetes cluster, an OpenID application, and one of the supported data stores. We recommend not self-hosting if your team is not very familiar with these technologies.

  3. Slower deployment
    Unlike the managed service, where updates are automatic, the self-hosted version requires manual updates and can result in slower access to new features and improvements. Additionally, Timefold only offers limited support on previous versions of the platform and its models. Please refer to the Terms and/or specific contracts/SLA’s for details.

  4. More difficult troubleshooting
    If you run into problems running a self-hosted version of the Timefold Platform, or encounter issues using the platform, it will be more difficult and slower for the Timefold support team to triage these issues. It will be more difficult for our engineering team to resolve possible bugs, and it will be more work for your team to update to a release with bug fixes.

Which option is right for you?

For the majority of teams, the managed service offers the best value, combining ease of use, a powerful UI, built-in security, and automatic updates; all at a predictable cost. You can focus on building on top of the platform while we handle the operational aspects.

However, for teams with specific customization needs, extensive DevOps expertise, and the desire for more control over their environment, the self-hosted option can be a viable (but more resource-intensive) choice.

Before choosing self-hosting, consider the long-term costs and effort involved. Our managed service is designed to deliver the best experience with minimal hassle, allowing you to scale faster and more efficiently.

Before you make a decision, be sure to contact us to discuss your specific needs and find the best solution!