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SaaS vs Self-Hosted

Core Concepts

SaaS vs Self-Hosted

  • SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) means the application is hosted and maintained by the vendor. Example: GitGuardian SaaS is hosted on GitGuardian's servers, start for free!
  • Self-Hosted or On-Premise means the application is hosted on the customer's servers. Example: GitGuardian Self-Hosted is deployed on the customer's servers, choose your installation method.

Deployment

  • SaaS: GitGuardian manages and controls the servers, databases, and infrastructure.
  • Self-Hosted: GitGuardian ensures compatibility with the customer’s environment.

For more details about self-hosted, refer to the System Requirements page.

Versions and Upgrades

  • SaaS: GitGuardian controls version releases and can quickly address issues with hotfixes or rollbacks. (SaaS Release Notes)
  • Self-Hosted: The customer decides when to deploy new versions. GitGuardian provides support when needed and sends newsletters with each new release. (Self-Hosted Release Notes)

For more details about self-hosted, refer to the Upgrade page.

Maintenance

  • SaaS: GitGuardian monitors the platform and handles alerts.
  • Self-Hosted: GitGuardian has no direct visibility and includes self-monitoring capabilities within the platform, managed by the customer.

For more details about self-hosted, refer to the Health Checks page.

Support and Debugging

  • SaaS: GitGuardian has full access to data and logs, enabling quick bug identification and fixes.
  • Self-Hosted: GitGuardian relies on customer-provided data ("support bundle") to investigate issues, potentially lengthening the resolution process.

For more details about self-hosted, refer to the Support page.

Feature Matrix

The software running in our SaaS and Self-Hosted solutions is essentially the same. However, some features are not available in Self-Hosted versions due to significant differences in environments, requiring more effort for them to work in a self-hosted setup. The tables below highlight some of the differences between our SaaS and Self-Hosted offerings.

  • ✅ available
  • ⌛ coming soon
  • ❌ not available

Platform

For more details, refer to the Platform page.

Scan source nameGitGuardian SaaSGitGuardian Self-HostedAdditional Details
GitHub.com
GitHub Enterprise Server
GitLab.com
GitLab Self-Hosted Community Edition
GitLab Self-Hosted Premium/Ultimate Plan
Bitbucket Cloud✅ (2025.2.0)
Bitbucket Server/Data Center
Slack✅ (2024.3.0)
Microsoft Teams✅ (2024.3.0)
Jira Cloud✅ (2024.4.0)
Jira Data Center✅ (2024.12.0)
ServiceNow✅ (2025.5.0)No historical scan
Confluence Cloud✅ (2024.7.0)
Confluence Data Center✅ (2024.11.0)
Azure Container Registry✅ (2025.6.0)
Google Artifact Registry✅ (2025.6.0)
JFrog Artifactory✅ (2025.6.0)
DockerHub✅ (2025.6.0)
AWS Container Registry (ECR)

Alerting and Notifications

For more details, refer to the Alerting and Notifications page.

Notifier nameGitGuardian SaaSGitGuardian Self-Hosted
Slack
PagerDuty
Splunk
Discord
Jira Cloud✅ (2024.5.0)
Jira Data Center✅ (2024.12.0)
Microsoft Teams✅ (2025.1.0)

Honeytoken

For more details, refer to the Honeytoken page.

Feature NameGitGuardian SaaSGitGuardian Self-HostedAdditional Details
Honeytoken
Honeytoken Deployment Jobs✅ (2024.4.0)
Honeytoken "Publicly Exposed" Detailed LocationThe “Publicly Exposed” tag exists for both, but exact location on GitHub.com is available only for SaaS.

Other Features

Feature NameGitGuardian SaaSGitGuardian Self-HostedAdditional Details
AI Filters✅ (2024.3.0)
Remediation Tracking✅ (2025.1.0)
False Positive Remover (ML)✅ (2025.1.0)
Secret "Publicly Leaked" TagOnly available on SaaS because it uses information from our Public Monitoring solution.
Secrets Analyzer✅ (2025.4.0)
Advanced AnalyticsReach out at support@gitguardian.com if you are interested by this feature on Self-Hosted.
Secrets Manager integration (CyberArk)Reach out at support@gitguardian.com if you are interested by this feature on Self-Hosted.
Certificate-based authentication✅ (2024.8.0)Reach out at support@gitguardian.com if you are interested by this feature on SaaS.
IP allowlistThis feature is not available on self-hosted environments, as there are alternative methods to restrict access.