The choice between self-hosting and managed services depends on your specific requirements, capabilities, and priorities.

Self-hosted advantages:

• Complete control over infrastructure, performance tuning, and customization
• Optimal cost optimization for large-scale deployments
• Specific security and compliance requirements that require direct infrastructure control
• Custom configurations for tools like Kafka or Snowplow that require specialized performance tuning

Managed services benefits:

• Reduced operational overhead and simplified maintenance
• Professional support and SLA guarantees from service providers
• Automatic scaling, patching, and infrastructure management
• Faster time-to-value for teams wanting to focus on analytics rather than infrastructure

Decision factors:

• Consider your team's operational capabilities and infrastructure management expertise
• Evaluate the importance of customization versus operational simplicity for your use case
• Assess long-term costs including both licensing and operational overhead