What self-hosting involves
A complete stack may involve downloading and importing data, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, replication, storage, Overpass queries, routing, geocoding and search, tiles, monitoring, scaling, backups and engineering time. Each subsystem has its own update and reliability needs.
When self-hosting makes sense
Self-hosting can fit teams that need deep control over data pipelines, infrastructure, query behavior or deployment constraints, and have engineering capacity to operate those systems.
When managed infrastructure makes sense
A managed service can fit teams that want OSM-powered APIs without making imports, updates and service operation an internal platform project. Mapsource offers selected query, routing, place, tile, terrain and analysis APIs; review capability documentation and limits for your workload.
Compare the services you need
Teams can also adopt one capability first, such as hosted Overpass or routing, while continuing to run other components themselves.