Self Hosted CAD/MDT: The Honest Cost in Hours, Not Dollars

The pitch for self hosting is always the same. You already pay for a box, the software runs on it, and you stop paying a subscription.

That is true, and it is not the part that decides the outcome. A self hosted CAD/MDT is not expensive in money. It is expensive in the specific evenings where something is broken, forty people are waiting, and you are the only person who can fix it.

Some communities should absolutely self host. Here is how to tell whether you are one of them.

What Does Self Hosting a CAD/MDT Involve?

Self hosting a CAD/MDT means running the web application and its database on a server you control, usually a VPS, and taking on every operational job that comes with it: the initial install, a domain and certificate, backups, security updates, database maintenance, and being the on call engineer when it breaks. The software cost is often zero. The work is continuous.

The install is the easy part

An afternoon. Web server, database, the application, a domain, a certificate. If you have set up a game server, none of it is unfamiliar.

This is why self hosting looks cheaper than it is. The setup goes well, you feel good, and the actual cost has not started yet.

The work that never ends

Backups, taken automatically and restored occasionally to prove they work. Security patches on the operating system, the web server, and the database. Certificate renewal. Watching disk usage, because a records database plus logs grows quietly for eight months and then fills a small volume on a Friday night.

None of these are hard individually. All of them are recurring, and the failure mode is that they stop happening around month four when the person who set it up gets busy.

Should You Self Host or Use a Hosted CAD/MDT?

Self host if all three of these are true

You already run and patch a VPS for something else, so this is not a new responsibility.

You have a second person who could restore from backup without you. One administrator is a single point of failure, and communities lose their entire record history exactly this way.

You want the data on infrastructure you control, for reasons you can articulate. That is a legitimate requirement, and it is the strongest case for self hosting there is.

If any of those three is missing, the maths stops working.

Use hosted if any one of these is true

You are choosing self hosting to save a subscription. Fifteen dollars a month is roughly one hour of your time, and you will spend far more than an hour a month on this.

Your community is under about fifty members. The operational overhead does not scale down, so it is proportionally worst at small sizes.

You are the only technical person. A hosted system means the 2am outage is somebody else's job, which is the entire product being sold.

A web based CAD/MDT that someone else runs also removes the install question completely. PlateNet CAD/MDT runs in a browser outside the game with no script and no server install, so there is nothing added to your game server and nothing on your box to patch, which the FiveM setup guide covers in context.

If You Self Host, Do These Four Things

Restore a backup before you need to

An untested backup is a guess. Take one, restore it onto a second machine, and open five records.

Do it once at setup and once a quarter. Communities that skip this discover the backup was empty at the worst possible moment, and there is no version of that story that ends well.

Put a second person on the keys

Access, documentation, and a written runbook for the three things most likely to break. Where the application lives, how to restart it, how to restore a backup.

One page. If the community cannot recover without you, you have built yourself a job you cannot resign from.

Patch on a schedule you keep

Once a month, the same day each month, operating system and application updates. Anything less structured turns into nothing within a quarter.

A CAD holds member accounts, so an unpatched box is a real exposure rather than a theoretical one. Treat authentication and access control as the part you never defer.

Confirm you can still export

Whatever you run, verify data export works and produces a file you can open. Self hosting does not automatically mean your data is portable, and the ability to leave your own setup matters as much as leaving a vendor.

The migration guide covers what a usable export looks like and how to move records without losing your roster.

The Cost Comparison Done Honestly

Write down two columns. On one side, the subscription. On the other, the VPS, the domain, and an honest estimate of hours.

Two hours a month is conservative once you include patching, the occasional outage, and the evening you spend on a database problem. Price your own time at anything above minimum wage and the columns are not close.

That still does not settle it, because the hours are not the whole argument. Control over your own infrastructure is worth something real to some communities, and nobody else can price that for you.

What settles it is the second person. If you have one, self hosting is a reasonable choice and the administration guide covers structuring permissions once you are running. If you do not, a self hosted CAD/MDT is a community wide dependency on one volunteer's availability, and volunteers get busy.

Still weighing systems rather than hosting models? The selection checklist covers what to test either way, and what a free plan actually includes covers the option most small communities should take first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a self hosted CAD/MDT cheaper?

In money, usually yes. In total cost, rarely, once you price the recurring hours for backups, patching, certificate renewal, and outages. Two hours a month is a conservative estimate and it exceeds the value of most subscriptions.

What do I need to self host a CAD/MDT?

A VPS you already maintain, a domain with a certificate, a database, automated backups you have tested by restoring, and a second person who can recover the system without you. The last item is the one communities skip and regret.

Is self hosting more secure?

Not by default. Security comes from patching, access control, and tested backups, and a hosted provider does those on a schedule while a busy volunteer does them when they remember. Self hosting gives you control, which is different from safety.

How much does hosted CAD/MDT hosting cost?

Free plans cover small communities with no time limit, and paid plans generally run from a few dollars to a few tens of dollars a month depending on member count. The subscription buys uptime and somebody else being on call.

What happens to my records if I stop self hosting?

They are on your box, so nothing is lost as long as data export works and produces a file you can read. Verify that before you need it, since owning the server does not automatically mean the data is portable.

Does a self hosted CAD affect my game server performance?

Not if it runs on separate infrastructure. A web based CAD has no resource inside the game, so frame times do not change. Running it on the same box as your game server is the one arrangement worth avoiding.