Self-hosting migration checklist

A one-page pre-flight list for moving a team off a paid tool and onto a self-hosted one. It covers the steps that decide whether the move is boring or a disaster: the data export, the sizing, the backups, and the rollback plan that most people skip.

1. Before you install anything

• Export a real copy of your data from the current tool, today. Not a test account: your actual workspace. Some exports are partial, rate-limited or only available on higher tiers. Find out now, not on the day your contract ends.
• Open the export and check what is missing. Attachments, comments, history, user mentions and permissions are the usual casualties.
• Confirm the replacement can import that format. If it cannot, budget the time to convert it. This cost is not in any figure on this site.
• List the integrations you rely on. SSO, chat notifications, webhooks, calendar sync. Check each one exists for the self-hosted tool.
• Check the licence. Several popular tools are source-available rather than open source, with limits on commercial use. Each tool page on this site flags it.
• Name one owner. Self-hosted software without a named person responsible for updates is the most common way these projects fail.

2. Sizing and setup

• Size the server from the tool's cost page for your team size, and keep the 25% memory headroom. A server sized exactly to its working set tends to fall over during its first upgrade.
• Use the project's own Docker Compose file rather than a third-party one, and pin the image version instead of using latest.
• Put it behind HTTPS on its own subdomain from day one. Changing the URL later breaks links, OAuth callbacks and mobile clients.
• Configure outbound email through a transactional provider. Password resets and notifications silently fail without it, and most tools will not warn you.
• Close every port except 80 and 443, and never expose the database directly.
• Turn on SSO or at least enforced two-factor authentication before inviting anyone.

3. Backups, tested

• Back up both the database and the uploaded files. A database dump without the uploads directory restores a tool full of broken attachments.
• Keep at least one copy off the server, with a provider or region different from the server itself.
• Automate it, and alert when it fails. A backup job that stopped three weeks ago is the normal way people discover they had no backup.
• Restore it onto a fresh server before go-live. Time how long it takes. That number is your real recovery time, and until you have it you do not have backups, only files.

4. Cutover

• Pick a quiet day and announce a content freeze on the old tool for the migration window.
• Take a final export after the freeze, import it, and spot-check a sample of records, attachments and permissions against the old tool.
• Move a small group first for a week of real work before moving everyone.
• Redirect or bookmark the new URL everywhere the old one was linked: docs, chat, browser bookmarks, mobile apps.

5. The rollback plan most people skip

• Write down, before cutover, what would make you go back. Data loss, a missing feature the team cannot work without, or repeated outages. Decide the threshold while you are calm.
• Keep the old subscription for one more billing cycle after go-live, even though it feels wasteful. It is the cheapest insurance you will buy.
• Know how to export back out of the new tool into something the old one can read.
• Only cancel the old subscription once a restore test has passed, the full team has used the new tool for real work, and nobody has asked for the old one back.

6. After go-live

• Put updates in the calendar. This site budgets 0.5 to 3 hours a month depending on the tool. If it is not scheduled, it does not happen.
• Read release notes before upgrading, especially for major versions with database migrations.
• Add uptime monitoring so you hear about an outage before your team does.
• Repeat the restore test every few months.

Before you start

If you have not priced the move yet, check whether self-hosting actually saves money at your team size. For some tools it does not, once the hours above are counted. See every comparison or read how the costs are calculated.