Hosted Services (like The Graph, SubQuery, or Covalent) excel at rapid development and operational simplicity because they abstract away the complexities of node infrastructure, indexing logic, and data availability. For example, The Graph's hosted service historically served over 1,000 subgraphs with a 99.9%+ uptime SLA, allowing projects like Uniswap and Aave to launch complex queries in weeks, not months. This model converts capital expenditure into predictable operational spend, ideal for startups and projects needing to iterate quickly.
LABS
Comparisons
Hosted Service vs Self-Hosted Indexer
A technical and strategic comparison between using a managed indexing service like The Graph Hosted Service and running your own Graph Node infrastructure. We analyze cost, performance, control, and operational overhead for CTOs and protocol architects.
Chainscore © 2026
introduction
THE ANALYSIS
Introduction: The Core Infrastructure Decision for Data-Intensive dApps
Choosing between a hosted service and a self-hosted indexer is a foundational architectural decision that defines your application's cost, control, and scalability profile.
Self-Hosted Indexers (using frameworks like Substreams, TrueBlocks, or a custom Rust/C++ setup) take a different approach by providing full sovereignty over your data pipeline. This results in a trade-off: significantly higher upfront engineering cost for ultimate control over performance, data schema, and privacy. A self-hosted indexer for a high-throughput chain like Solana (peak 5,000+ TPS) can be fine-tuned for sub-second latency, but requires a dedicated team to manage infrastructure, chain reorgs, and storage scaling.
The key trade-off: If your priority is speed-to-market, cost predictability, and avoiding DevOps overhead, choose a Hosted Service. If you prioritize data sovereignty, custom performance optimization, and have the engineering bandwidth to manage infrastructure, choose a Self-Hosted Indexer. The decision hinges on whether your core competitive advantage is in application logic or in the underlying data pipeline itself.
tldr-summary
HOSTED SERVICE VS SELF-HOSTED INDEXER
TL;DR: Key Differentiators at a Glance
The core trade-off: speed-to-market versus long-term control and cost. Choose based on your team's expertise, budget, and roadmap.
01
Choose Hosted for Speed
Zero infrastructure management: Services like The Graph's Hosted Service, Alchemy's Supernode, and Chainscore's APIs abstract away node ops, database scaling, and query optimization. This matters for prototyping a new dApp or launching an MVP in weeks, not months.
02
Choose Self-Hosted for Control
Full data sovereignty and customization: Running your own indexer (e.g., Subgraph on a dedicated server, or using Subsquid) allows for custom logic, proprietary data transformations, and direct database access. This matters for high-frequency trading bots or protocols needing real-time, sub-second data not available via generic APIs.
03
Choose Hosted for Predictable Costs
Pay-as-you-go pricing: Services like Goldsky and Covalent offer tiered plans based on request volume, capping operational risk. This matters for startups with variable traffic or teams wanting to convert infra CAPEX into predictable OPEX.
04
Choose Self-Hosted for Scale Economics
Lower marginal cost at high volume: After the initial setup cost (engineering time, hardware), the per-query cost of a self-hosted indexer can drop significantly below hosted fees. This matters for established protocols with >100M monthly queries where infrastructure is a core cost center.
INFRASTRUCTURE DECISION MATRIX
Head-to-Head Feature Comparison: Hosted Service vs Self-Hosted Indexer
Direct comparison of operational, financial, and technical trade-offs for blockchain data indexing.
| Metric / Feature | Hosted Service (e.g., The Graph, SubQuery) | Self-Hosted Indexer |
|---|---|---|
Time to Production (Initial Setup) | < 1 hour | 2-4 weeks |
Monthly Operational Cost (Estimate) | $500 - $5,000+ | $0 (Infra) + 2 FTE Eng |
Query Performance (P99 Latency) | < 100 ms | Varies (Your Infra) |
Uptime SLA Guarantee | 99.9% | Your Responsibility |
Protocol & Chain Support | 20+ chains (EVM, Cosmos, etc.) | Your Implementation |
Custom Logic & Schemas | Limited (GraphQL) | Fully Customizable |
Data Ownership & Portability |
pros-cons-a
Hosted Service vs. Self-Hosted Indexer
Pros and Cons: The Graph Hosted Service
Key strengths and trade-offs at a glance for CTOs deciding between managed and self-managed GraphQL APIs.
01
Hosted Service: Speed to Market
Zero-ops deployment: Deploy a subgraph in minutes via the Graph Explorer dashboard. This eliminates weeks of DevOps work for setting up indexer nodes, Postgres, and IPFS. Critical for rapid prototyping or startups needing to validate a product-market fit without infrastructure overhead.
02
Hosted Service: Cost Predictability
Free for most queries: The hosted service is subsidized by The Graph Foundation, offering a generous free tier. This provides predictable $0 operational costs for early-stage projects, unlike a self-hosted setup which requires capital for hardware/cloud and ongoing engineering maintenance.
03
Self-Hosted Indexer: Performance & Control
Tailored infrastructure: Run your indexer on dedicated hardware (e.g., AWS r6i.32xlarge) for sub-second query latency and 99.9%+ SLA. Full control over indexing rules, database tuning, and upgrade schedules. Essential for high-frequency DeFi apps like Uniswap or Aave that cannot tolerate multi-second API latency.
04
Self-Hosted Indexer: Data Sovereignty & Future-Proofing
Decentralized readiness: The hosted service is being sunset. Self-hosting is the only path to the decentralized network, requiring GRT tokenomics understanding. It guarantees uninterrupted service and allows custom data pipelines, crucial for protocols like Liquity or Balancer managing billions in TVL.
05
Hosted Service: Limited Scalability & Sunset Risk
Constrained resources: Query performance is shared and can throttle under load (> 100k req/day). The service is officially in sunset, with a planned migration to The Graph Network. A hard dependency for production apps is risky, as seen with dApps like PoolTogether planning their migration.
06
Self-Hosted Indexer: Operational Complexity
Significant DevOps burden: Requires expertise in managing indexer components, Graph Node, Postgres, and Ethereum/Gnosis/Polygon archive nodes. Initial setup costs can exceed $15k in engineering time and cloud credits. A major consideration for teams without dedicated infrastructure engineers.
pros-cons-b
HOSTED SERVICE VS SELF-HOSTED INDEXER
Pros and Cons: Self-Hosted Graph Node
Key strengths and trade-offs at a glance for teams choosing between The Graph's hosted service and running their own Graph Node.
02
Hosted Service: Cost Predictability
Fixed, usage-based pricing: Pay per query with the GraphQL endpoint. No surprise AWS bills for compute or database scaling. Ideal for applications with variable or unpredictable query volumes, allowing precise unit economics.
04
Self-Hosted: Long-Term Cost Efficiency
Lower marginal cost at scale: For high, consistent query volumes (>100M queries/month), operating your own indexer cluster can be 60-80% cheaper than the hosted service. Requires upfront engineering investment but pays off for established protocols like Uniswap or Aave.
05
Hosted Service: Managed Performance
Automatic scaling and uptime SLAs: The Graph Foundation manages node health, query load-balancing, and database optimizations. Provides ~99.9% uptime without your team on-call. Essential for consumer-facing dApps where reliability is non-negotiable.
06
Self-Hosted: Protocol Flexibility
Multi-chain and custom chain support: Index any EVM chain (Arbitrum, Polygon) or even non-EVM networks (NEAR, Solana via Firehose) without waiting for hosted service support. Critical for projects building on emerging L2s or alternative ecosystems.
CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITY
Decision Framework: When to Choose Which Solution
Hosted Service for Speed
Verdict: The clear choice for rapid prototyping and deployment. Strengths: Zero infrastructure setup time. Services like The Graph's Hosted Service, Covalent, and Goldsky provide instant API access to indexed blockchain data. This allows development teams to focus on core application logic for DeFi protocols like Uniswap or NFT marketplaces like Blur, shaving weeks off the development cycle. Trade-off: You accept the service's data schema and availability SLAs, with less control over indexing logic for complex events.
Self-Hosted Indexer for Speed
Verdict: Slower initial setup, but enables custom, high-performance queries later. Strengths: Once deployed, a self-hosted indexer using Subsquid, Envio, or a direct RPC-based solution can be optimized for specific, latency-sensitive queries (e.g., real-time leaderboards for a game on Immutable X). It avoids the network hop to a third-party endpoint. Consideration: The engineering cost of building, maintaining, and scaling the indexer infrastructure is significant.
HOSTED SERVICE VS SELF-HOSTED INDEXER
Technical Deep Dive: Architecture and Operational Overhead
Choosing between a hosted indexer service and managing your own infrastructure is a critical architectural decision that impacts cost, control, and scalability. This section breaks down the key operational trade-offs.
A hosted service like The Graph or Subsquid is dramatically faster to deploy. You can have a production-ready indexer queryable via GraphQL or gRPC in hours, not weeks. Self-hosting requires provisioning hardware, configuring blockchain nodes (e.g., Geth, Erigon), syncing the chain from genesis, and writing complex indexing logic, which can take months for a full historical sync. For rapid prototyping or MVPs, hosted services win on speed.
verdict
THE ANALYSIS
Final Verdict and Strategic Recommendation
Choosing between a hosted service and a self-hosted indexer is a fundamental decision between operational agility and architectural sovereignty.
Hosted Services (like The Graph's Hosted Service, SubQuery Managed Service, or Goldsky) excel at developer velocity and operational simplicity because they abstract away infrastructure management. For example, The Graph's hosted service historically processed over 1 billion queries daily, offering a turnkey solution that allows teams to launch a production-ready subgraph in days, not months. This model is ideal for startups or projects like Uniswap or Aave that need to focus on core protocol development rather than DevOps, providing predictable costs and built-in scalability.
Self-Hosted Indexers (running Graph Node, Subsquid, or Envio) take a different approach by granting full control over the data pipeline. This results in a trade-off of significant operational overhead for ultimate flexibility and cost predictability at scale. You can customize indexing logic, optimize for specific chains like Solana or Sui, and avoid vendor lock-in. However, this requires dedicated engineering resources for node maintenance, database tuning, and achieving the high uptime (99.9%+) expected by dApp users.
The key trade-off: If your priority is time-to-market, reduced operational burden, and a fixed cost structure, choose a Hosted Service. This is optimal for MVPs, applications with variable query loads, or teams without dedicated infrastructure engineers. If you prioritize data sovereignty, custom chain support, long-term cost control at massive scale, or complex data transformations, choose a Self-Hosted Indexer. This path is strategic for established protocols with predictable, high-volume needs and the engineering capacity to own their data stack.
ENQUIRY
Get In Touch
today.
Our experts will offer a free quote and a 30min call to discuss your project.
NDA Protected
Confidentiality24h Response
Time to ValueDirectly to Engineering Team
No Sales Fluff10+
Protocols Shipped
$20M+
TVL Overall