Choosing between a managed SaaS service (TVL, Preset.io) and self-hosting on public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP, OVH) is a structuring decision for an Apache Superset instance. This guide compares the two approaches in 2026 with concrete figures.
1. Three main options
| Option | 36-month TCO | Internal effort |
|---|---|---|
| Managed SaaS | Low | None |
| Self-hosted public cloud | Medium | Part-time SRE |
| Self-hosted on-premise | High | Full-time SRE |
If you want European SaaS, TVL Managed Superset from €29/month with OVH France hosting.
2. Public cloud costs
| Provider | Monthly cost for standard Superset |
|---|---|
| AWS | ~€300-500 (EKS + RDS + ElastiCache) |
| Azure | ~€300-500 (AKS + Azure DB + Redis) |
| GCP | ~€250-450 (GKE + Cloud SQL + Memorystore) |
| OVH | ~€150-300 (Managed K8s + DB) |
3. Hidden public cloud costs
- Setup: 5-15 initial engineering days;
- Maintenance: 4-8h/month recurring;
- Updates: 2-3 days/year;
- Incidents: 8-16h/year on average;
- Audits: €5-10k/year if compliance.
See detailed self-hosted cost analysis.
4. SaaS costs
- TVL Managed Superset: €29-499/month depending on plan;
- Preset.io: ~$200-1000/month;
- Hex: ~$100-500/month (Superset extension);
- All-inclusive: infra, updates, backups, support.
5. When to prefer SaaS?
- No internal SRE team;
- Volume under 1000 users;
- Critical time-to-market (3 min vs 1 week);
- Predictable opex preference;
- Easier GDPR compliance (pre-signed DPA).
6. When to prefer cloud self-hosting?
- SRE team already in place;
- K8s cluster already operated for other workloads;
- Specific customizations (plugins, version);
- Contractual cloud purchase constraints (reservations);
- Very high volume (1000+ users) where dilution plays.
This configuration is applied by default on TVL Managed Superset, which follows community best practices.
7. 3-year TCO comparison (50 users)
| Approach | 36-month TCO |
|---|---|
| SaaS Pro €199/month | ~€7,200 |
| OVH self-hosted | ~€30-50k |
| AWS self-hosted | ~€50-80k |
| On-premise + SRE | ~€200-300k |
8. Sovereignty
- EU SaaS (TVL): OVH France, native GDPR;
- US SaaS (Preset): AWS US, CLOUD Act applicable;
- OVH/Scaleway self-hosted: EU sovereign;
- AWS/Azure/GCP self-hosted: exposed to CLOUD Act even if in EU region.
9. Migrations
Migrating between the two approaches is technically feasible:
- SaaS → self-hosted: export Postgres + YAML dashboards, redeploy;
- Self-hosted → SaaS: same, in reverse;
- Count 2-5 engineering days for clean migration.
10. Conclusion
For 90% of organizations under 1000 users, European SaaS remains the most rational option: cheaper in TCO, simpler, GDPR-compliant natively. Public cloud self-hosting is relevant only when the organization already has the infrastructure and SRE team to absorb the marginal cost.
Want the benefits of Apache Superset without the friction of installation and maintenance? Deploy your instance in 3 clicks with TVL Managed Superset, hosted in Europe (OVHcloud, Roubaix, France).
For more: managed vs self-hosted, detailed self-hosted cost, how to host.