Self-hosting
What self-hosting TabSlate Server means, how it relates to TabSlate Cloud, and what you take on by running it yourself.
What you're running
TabSlate Server is the same Go backend that powers TabSlate Cloud, released separately as free software under AGPL-3.0. Self-hosting means running that server yourself — on your own machine, VPS, or infrastructure — instead of using the TabSlate Cloud service.
The AGPL-3.0 license permits free self-hosting for personal or internal use without limit. It does not permit using the software (or a modified version of it) to operate a paid commercial sync or cloud service for third parties without a separate commercial license from TabSlate.
Same sync, different operator
The TabSlate extension talks to the same sync API whether it's pointed at TabSlate Cloud or a self-hosted server — see Cloud Sync for how that sync behaves from the extension's side. The OSS server doesn't gate any API route behind a Cloud-only check: it runs the same route table, and its billing provider always reports the full-featured plan with no purchase flow, so a self-hosted account has the same feature access as a paid Cloud one.
That said, an OSS instance registers new accounts up to a small built-in verified-user limit rather than an unlimited number — see Requirements for what governs registration on your instance.
What you take on
Running your own server moves several responsibilities from TabSlate onto you:
- Infrastructure — a place to run the container and (unless you use a managed provider) a PostgreSQL database for it to connect to.
- Upgrades — pulling new server images and applying them; see Upgrade & Backup.
- Backups — your PostgreSQL database and your
.envfile are the only state that matters; TabSlate doesn't back either of them up for you. - TLS — a valid certificate for whatever hostname your extension connects to; see Docker Compose Deployment.
- Email delivery — verification and password-reset OTP email only sends if you configure a provider; see Environment Configuration.
- Availability — TabSlate doesn't monitor or restart your instance for you.
Where to go next
- Requirements — what the server needs, and what's optional.
- Docker Compose Deployment — the documented way to run it.
- Environment Configuration — every environment variable, grouped by purpose.
- Connect the Extension — pointing the extension at your instance.
- Upgrade & Backup — keeping an instance current and recoverable.
- Troubleshooting — checks to run when something isn't working.
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