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
Secrets scanning sources
For more details, refer to the Secrets Scanning Integrations Overview page.
| Scan source name | GitGuardian SaaS | GitGuardian Self-Hosted | Additional 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) | Recurrent scanning instead of webhooks from 2026.6.0 |
| 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 Container Registry | ✅ | ✅ (2025.6.0) | |
| DockerHub | ✅ | ✅ (2025.6.0) | |
| AWS Container Registry (ECR) | ✅ | ✅ (2025.8.0) | |
| Microsoft SharePoint Online | ✅ | ✅ (2025.9.0) | |
| Microsoft OneDrive | ✅ | ✅ (2025.9.0) | |
| Bring Your Own Sources | ✅ | ✅ (2025.9.0) |
Alerting and Notifications
For more details, refer to the Alerting and Notifications page.
| Notifier name | GitGuardian SaaS | GitGuardian 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 Name | GitGuardian SaaS | GitGuardian Self-Hosted | Additional Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honeytoken | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Honeytoken Deployment Jobs | ✅ | ✅ (2024.4.0) | |
| Honeytoken "Publicly Exposed" Detailed Location | ✅ | ❌ | The “Publicly Exposed” tag exists for both, but exact location on GitHub.com is available only for SaaS. |
Other features
| Feature Name | GitGuardian SaaS | GitGuardian Self-Hosted | Additional Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Filters | ✅ | ✅ (2026.6.0) | |
| Remediation Tracking | ✅ | ✅ (2025.1.0) | |
| False Positive Remover (Machine Learning) | ✅ | ✅ (2025.1.0) | |
| Secret Enricher (Machine Learning) | ✅ | ✅ (2025.3.0) | |
| Similar Incident Grouping (Machine Learning) | ✅ | ⌛ | Not supported on self-hosted yet but will be added in a future release. |
| Incident Prioritization Risk Score (Machine Learning) | ✅ | ⌛ | Not supported on self-hosted yet but will be added in a future release. |
| Public Monitoring | ✅ | ✅ (2026.7.0) | Detects secrets leaked on public sources. On self-hosted, requires outbound network access to reach GitGuardian's Public Monitoring service. |
| Secret "Publicly Leaked" Tag | ✅ | Partial | Self-hosted: "Source publicly visible" is always available; "Public incident linked" additionally requires the Public Monitoring feature (available from 2026.7.0); "Outside perimeter" is not available on self-hosted. SaaS: all three exposure types are visible with a Public Monitoring subscription. |
| Secrets Analyzer | ✅ | ✅ (2025.4.0) | |
| Advanced Analytics | ✅ | ✅ (2025.12.0) | |
| Analytics Overview | ✅ | ⌛ | Coming soon... |
| Secrets Manager integration | ✅ | ✅ (2025.3.0) | ggscout is deployed on the GitGuardian Self-Hosted cluster |
| IP allowlist | ✅ | ❌ | This feature is not available on self-hosted environments, as there are alternative methods to restrict access. |
| GG Bridge | ✅ | ✅ (2026.9.0) | On self-hosted, you install the bridge server yourself and declare bridges in your Helm values: see GitGuardian Bridge Self-Hosted. |
| GitGuardian Assistant | ✅ | ⌛ | |
| Generic Detectors for non-VCS sources | ✅ | ⌛ | |
| GitGuardian MCP server | ✅ | ✅ (2026.7.0) |
