---
title: "Self-Hosting Overview"
description: "Self-hosting Rivet gives you complete control over the actor orchestration platform and infrastructure."
skill: false
---

export const imgArch = { src: "https://assets.rivet.dev/website/docs/self-hosting/images/architecture.png", width: 2088, height: 744, format: "png" };
export const imgByocVsSelfHost = { src: "https://assets.rivet.dev/website/docs/self-hosting/images/byoc-vs-self-host.png", width: 2430, height: 1472, format: "png" };

## Self-Host vs BYOC

<img alt="Rivet BYOC vs self-hosting" src={imgByocVsSelfHost.src} />

Rivet supports both BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) and self-hosting to fit your deployment needs.

| | Self-Hosting | BYOC with Rivet Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| **You Manage** | Full stack (your backend, engine, Rivet Engine, database) | Only your backend |
| **Complexity** | Higher (full stack deployment) | Lower (connect and deploy) |
| **Cost** | Higher operational overhead | Usually lower usage-based cost |
| **Supports Serverless** | Requires extra infrastructure | Yes |
| **Air-Gapped Deployments** | Yes | No |
| **Best For** | Air-gapped environments, strict compliance, custom security policies | All other production deployments |
| **Support** | [Contact sales](/sales) or community | Community, Slack, and email (varies by plan) |
| **Documentation** | Continue below | [See connect guides](/docs/connect) |

## Architecture
#
<img alt="Rivet self-hosting architecture" src={imgArch.src} />

Rivet has 3 core components:

- **Your Backend**: Your application server that handles user requests and includes a runner component that executes actor code
- **Rivet Engine**: Main orchestration service that manages actor lifecycle, routes messages, and provides APIs
- **Storage**: Persistence layer for actor state and messaging infrastructure for real-time communication


## Storage Backends

Rivet supports multiple storage backends:

- **File System**: Recommended for smaller single-node deployments today
- **PostgreSQL**: Recommended for multi-node deployments today, but still experimental
- **FoundationDB**: Best scalability and performance for production-ready deployments ([requires enterprise](/sales))

## Deployment Platforms

Deploy Rivet on your preferred platform:

- [Docker Container](/docs/self-hosting/docker-container)
- [Docker Compose](/docs/self-hosting/docker-compose)
- [Railway](/docs/self-hosting/railway)
- [Render](/docs/self-hosting/render)
- [Kubernetes](/docs/self-hosting/kubernetes)
- AWS Fargate
- Google Cloud Run
- Hetzner
- VM & Bare Metal

_Self-hosting guides coming soon._

## Next Steps

- [Install Rivet Engine](/docs/self-hosting/install)
- [Connect your backend](/docs/general/endpoints)
- [Configure your deployment](/docs/self-hosting/configuration)
- [Multi-region setup](/docs/self-hosting/multi-region)
