Unhosted

Unhosted is a term in information technology used to describe software, services, or data that are not hosted by a third-party provider. In an unhosted model, hosting and control are held by the user or by an infrastructure they manage, such as a personal device, a private server, or a trusted network of peers. This contrasts with hosted or cloud-hosted solutions, where a vendor operates servers and manages availability, updates, and scale.

Common contexts include self-hosted applications (for instance, a calendar or file sync service run on a home server), local-first software that stores most data on the user’s device, and offline-ready systems that can operate without constant internet access. The concept is often discussed in privacy, security, and data sovereignty debates because it can reduce reliance on external data processors and increase user control over information.

Advantages include greater autonomy, potential privacy gains, and portability away from vendor lock-in. Disadvantages include higher setup and ongoing maintenance requirements, security responsibilities for users, limited scalability, and potential interoperability challenges across services.

Usage varies by community; some use unhosted to refer to self-hosted deployments, on-premises solutions, or client-side architectures with user-owned data, while others apply it to any design minimizing external dependencies. The term is not standardized and may be used differently across contexts.