You’re ready to deploy OpenClaw. That’s great. But now comes the question that feels simple until you dig into it: managed hosting or self-hosted?

The quick answer is tempting: pay someone else to handle it. But “pay someone” is doing a lot of work there. It’s the difference between “no maintenance” and “someone else’s maintenance that you’re paying for.” They’re not the same thing.

We’re going to walk through the real trade-offs: cost, control, privacy, and the kind of problems you’ll actually face. By the end, you’ll know which path makes sense for your situation. There’s no universal answer here, but there’s a clear answer for you.

The Options: What We’re Actually Comparing

Let’s define the contenders:

Managed OpenClaw Hosting means a provider handles the infrastructure, updates, backups, and monitoring. You get a dashboard, click a few buttons, and it’s running. Examples include ClawHost, Hostinger OpenClaw bundles, and Contabo’s one-click deployments.

Self-Hosted means you rent or own hardware (typically a VPS), deploy OpenClaw yourself using Docker, and manage everything. You’re responsible for updates, security patches, backups, and monitoring.

There’s also the hybrid option—a dedicated server or Raspberry Pi in your office—but we’ll focus on these two because they’re the most practical for most people.

The Managed Hosting Argument: What You Actually Get

When you pick managed hosting, you’re buying five things:

1. Setup Convenience

Seriously, this is worth something. With ClawHost or a Hostinger one-click:

Sign up
Click “Install OpenClaw”
Enter a few preferences
Wait 5 minutes
You’re done

Compare that to self-hosted:

Pick a VPS provider (DigitalOcean? Linode? Vultr?)
Create an account and add payment info
Provision a server (choose OS, size, region)
SSH into the server
Install Docker and Docker Compose
Write a docker-compose.yaml
Deploy the container
Configure logging, monitoring, backups
Secure the firewall
Set up SSL certificates
Maybe add a reverse proxy

Setup is a 15-minute difference for managed hosting versus an hour or two for self-hosted. If that’s all that mattered, managed would win. But it’s not all that matters.

2. Automatic Updates and Patches

Managed providers handle OpenClaw updates automatically. You don’t have to pull the latest image, test it, and redeploy. They do it in the background, usually with zero downtime.

Self-hosted? That’s on you. You get an email that a security patch is out, and you need to decide when to update. Most people wait too long.

3. Backup Management

Managed providers automatically back up your workspace, projects, and settings. Daily or weekly snapshots, stored in multiple locations. If something breaks, they can restore you in minutes.

Self-hosted requires manual or scripted backups. You write a cron job, store backups on another server, and hope you’ve tested the restore process.

4. Monitoring and Support

Managed providers monitor your instance 24/7. If it goes down, they notice before you do. You get a support team to contact if something breaks.

Self-hosted? You’re the support team. If it fails at 3 AM, you find out when someone on your team notices.

5. Uptime SLAs

Managed providers typically guarantee 99.5% or 99.9% uptime. That means they’ve engineered redundancy, failover, and geographic distribution. They’re liable if they miss the target.

Self-hosted uptime depends on your VPS provider and your configuration. You might get 99% if you’re lucky. If it goes down, you’re the only one responsible.

These are real benefits. If you don’t like infrastructure work, managed hosting solves actual problems.

The Self-Hosted Argument: What You Actually Get

Self-hosting buys you different things:

1. Control

You control when updates happen. Want to wait two weeks before upgrading? Go ahead. Want to roll back if something breaks? You can do that with a Docker image rollback.

You control what services run on your server. No bloatware, no vendor lock-in, no surprise feature additions that break your workflow.

2. Privacy

Your data stays on your server. Managed providers promise confidentiality, but your workspace, projects, code snippets—they’re on someone else’s disk. They can scan them, index them, analyze patterns.

Self-hosted means nobody is touching your data except you. Full stop.

3. Network Isolation

You control your network topology. You can run OpenClaw on a private network without exposing it to the internet. You can lock it to specific IP addresses. You can integrate with your VPN.

Managed hosting means you’re using their network, their DNS, their connectivity. They set the isolation rules.

4. Cost Scaling

A $5/month VPS runs one OpenClaw instance. A $20/month VPS can run OpenClaw plus database, cache, queue, monitoring, and other services. You pay for resources, not for features.

Managed hosting charges per instance or per feature. Running two OpenClaw instances with managed hosting might cost $30/month. Self-hosting the same setup on a slightly bigger server costs $15/month.

5. Vendor Lock-in Avoidance

If a managed provider shuts down, changes pricing, or discontinues OpenClaw support, you’re stuck. Migrating away is painful.

Self-hosted? You can move your Docker container to any other VPS provider in an afternoon. Your data is portable.

Real Cost Comparison: The Numbers That Matter

Let’s do the math over 12 months. Assume you need a modest OpenClaw instance that’s not pushing limits.

Managed Hosting (ClawHost or Hostinger)

Typical pricing:

Entry tier: $10-20/month
Mid tier: $25-50/month
Premium tier: $100+/month

For a typical user: $30/month = $360/year

Included:

Hosting
SSL certificate
Updates
Backups
Support

Not included:

Custom domain (sometimes extra $10/year)
Advanced features (sometimes extra per feature)
Premium support (extra)

Realistic yearly cost: $360-480

Self-Hosted (DigitalOcean / Linode / Contabo)

Typical pricing:

Entry VPS: $5/month (1GB RAM, 1 CPU)
Standard VPS: $12/month (2GB RAM, 2 CPUs)
Upgraded VPS: $24/month (4GB RAM, 2 CPUs)

For OpenClaw: $12/month = $144/year

Add:

Domain registration: $10/year
SSL certificate: $0 (Let’s Encrypt is free)
Backups (external provider or second server): $5-10/month = $60-120/year
Optional: monitoring (Uptime Robot): $5/month = $60/year

Realistic yearly cost: $224-334

The Special Case: Mac Mini M4

There’s a third option we should mention: a dedicated machine.

A Mac Mini M4 with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage runs $599 one-time. It idles at under 5W, it’s silent, and it has native iMessage support (useful if you’re an Apple ecosystem person).

Hardware cost: $599 (one-time)
Electricity: ~$10/year (at US rates)
Internet: You probably have this anyway
Real yearly cost after 3 years: ~$200/year

After 3 years, self-hosted VPS will have cost $672-1002. The Mac Mini pays for itself and then delivers free hosting after that.

But: The Mac Mini sits in your office. It needs your internet connection. If your ISP goes down, it’s unreachable. For production use, this is a liability.

Cost Comparison Summary

Scenario	Year 1	Year 3	Year 5
Managed hosting	$360-480	$1080-1440	$1800-2400
Self-hosted VPS	$224-334	$672-1002	$1120-1670
Mac Mini (after amortization)	$599	$619	$639

The Mac Mini looks cheap in year 1 but requires on-site hardware and your internet connection. Self-hosted VPS wins for practical production use: lower cost than managed hosting, and you can move it anywhere.

The Hidden Costs of Each Option

Numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Managed Hosting Hidden Costs

Migration burden: If you change providers, extracting your data and rebuilding is painful
Feature lock-in: Advanced features might require paid tiers that add up
Limited customization: You can’t integrate with other services the way you want
Opaque pricing: Hidden fees and tiers make budgeting hard
Vendor dependency: If they change terms or shut down, you scramble

Self-Hosted Hidden Costs

Your time: Updates, monitoring, troubleshooting are your job
Operational expertise: You need to know Docker, Linux, networking basics
24/7 availability: You’re on call if something breaks
Backup responsibility: You can’t blame someone else if you lose data
Security burden: You’re responsible for firewall rules, SSH keys, patch updates

These aren’t theoretical. They’re real time sinks.

For most people, self-hosted hidden costs are manageable. A few hours a month to handle updates and monitor logs. If you’re already comfortable with Linux and infrastructure, it’s maybe 5 hours a month.

For some people, managed hosting hidden costs are a dealbreaker. Vendor lock-in is real. Feature limitations are real. Opaque pricing is real.

Decision Framework: When Each Makes Sense

Choose Managed Hosting If:

You have zero infrastructure experience and no desire to learn
You have strict uptime requirements (99.9%+) and want SLAs
Your team is small and you value simplicity over cost
Privacy concerns are low (you’re not handling sensitive data)
You’re willing to pay 2-3x for convenience

Example: A small team using OpenClaw for basic code analysis. You want it to work, you don’t want to think about infrastructure, and you have budget.

Choose Self-Hosted If:

You’re comfortable with basic Linux administration
Cost matters (you’re bootstrapped or cost-conscious)
You value control and data privacy
You want to integrate OpenClaw with other services
You plan to keep this running for years (ROI favors self-hosted)

Example: You’re running OpenClaw as part of a larger infrastructure. You already manage other services. You want full control and lower operational cost.

Hybrid Approach (Uncommon but Valid)

Some teams use managed hosting initially to de-risk the decision, then migrate to self-hosted once they understand the requirements:

Start with managed hosting for 3-6 months
Learn what OpenClaw actually needs
Set up self-hosted in parallel
Migrate data (Docker volumes are portable)
Switch traffic to self-hosted
Cancel managed hosting

Cost: One year of managed hosting ($360-480) to avoid a bad self-hosted setup. That’s insurance money, and it’s reasonable.

Security Comparison: The Nuances

This is where people often get it wrong.

Managed hosting is not automatically more secure. A provider handles infrastructure security, but you’re still trusting them with your data. Their infrastructure could be hacked. Their employees could access your data. They could be compromised by law enforcement.

Self-hosted is not automatically less secure. Your data is not accessible over the internet (if you configure it correctly). You control the security posture entirely. Nobody else can access it.

In reality:

Managed hosting security depends on the provider. Research their certifications, audit history, and data handling policies. Some are excellent. Some are mediocre.
Self-hosted security depends on you. Use strong SSH keys, keep updates current, use a firewall, follow basic hardening practices. It’s not hard, but you have to do it.

For most use cases, both are adequately secure if configured properly. The difference isn’t dramatic.

Privacy is different from security. Managed hosting means someone else can access your data (even if they don’t). Self-hosted means only you and whoever has physical access to your VPS can access it.

If privacy matters to you (and honestly, it should), self-hosted has a clear advantage.

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Solo Developer, Limited Budget

Sarah is using OpenClaw to analyze her own code projects. Cost matters because she’s bootstrapping. Data privacy is moderate (her code is valuable but not secret).

Choice: Self-hosted VPS
Why: $12/month beats $30/month. She’s comfortable with Linux. She can host it for a year at the cost of one month of managed hosting.

Scenario 2: Small Startup, Privacy-Conscious

Marcus is running OpenClaw for a small team analyzing client code. Privacy is critical—clients expect their code to stay off third-party servers.

Choice: Self-hosted VPS (or Mac Mini in the office)
Why: Privacy non-negotiable. Control of data location critical. Cost is secondary. Managed hosting violates client expectations.

Scenario 3: Enterprise, SLA Requirements

Maya’s company needs OpenClaw integrated into a CI/CD pipeline with 99.9% uptime guarantees and formal support.

Choice: Managed hosting or hybrid (dedicated managed instance + in-house fallback)
Why: SLAs matter. Uptime guarantees matter. Support response time matters. Cost is a rounding error. They’ll pay for reliability.

Scenario 4: Long-Term Personal Project

Alex wants to run OpenClaw for years as a side project. Cost compounds over time. Control and privacy matter.

Choice: Self-hosted VPS
Why: Over 5 years, self-hosted saves $1000+. Vendor independence matters for long-term projects. Initial learning curve is worth it.

The Practical Migration Path

If you’re unsure, here’s a safe approach:

Month 1-2: Managed Hosting (Optional)

Try a managed provider for 2 months. Cost: $60-100. Learn what OpenClaw actually needs. Get comfortable with the interface.

Sign up with ClawHost or Hostinger. They’ll have a setup wizard. Spend an hour learning the control panel. Set up Discord and email integrations. Configure your SOUL.md for basic personality. Send a few test messages. Get comfortable with how OpenClaw responds.

This is your learning phase. No pressure. If you decide managed hosting is perfect for you, you’re done. If you decide you want to self-host, you’ve got real experience to guide the setup.

Month 3: Set Up Self-Hosted

Spin up a $12/month VPS. Deploy OpenClaw using Docker (following a guide like the one in the previous article). Run both in parallel.

The parallel phase is critical. You’re not betting everything on “I can move to self-hosted.” You’re running both simultaneously. Traffic goes to managed hosting. Self-hosted runs quietly in the background, building up the same memory, handling test conversations.

Month 4-6: Migrate Data

Export your workspace from managed hosting. This typically means:

Export your workspace metadata (SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, AGENTS.md)
Export your memory logs (all the daily memories, long-term summaries)
Export your conversation history if the provider supports it
Export platform configurations (Discord token references, email settings)

Import to self-hosted:

# Docker command to import data
docker exec openclaw-container /app/bin/import-workspace \
  --from-backup managed-hosting-export.tar.gz \
  --to ~/.openclaw/

Run both in parallel for a week. You’re still 100% on managed hosting for production. Self-hosted is getting real traffic, building real memory, but it’s not critical yet. If something breaks, you fall back to managed hosting.

During this week, verify:

Memory is building correctly
Responses feel the same
Platform integrations work
Email sync works
Memory summarization happens

Month 7+: Cut Over

Once you’re confident, point your traffic to self-hosted and cancel managed hosting.

Update your Discord bot token to point to self-hosted. Update your email integration. Run managed hosting silently for one more week as a safety net.

After one week of zero issues, cancel managed hosting. You’re live on self-hosted.

Total cost: ~$160 for the trial period + ongoing VPS cost. Low-risk way to make the decision with real experience.

This migration path is not the fastest way to self-host. It’s the safest way. You minimize the risk of breaking something that’s working for you.

Managed Provider Deep Dive: What You’re Actually Buying

Let’s talk about what ClawHost, Hostinger, and similar providers actually offer, because it’s not just “someone else runs it.”

The Control Panel Experience

A managed provider gives you a dashboard. You can:

View real-time resource usage (RAM, CPU, storage)
Restart your instance from the web
View logs without SSH-ing in
Manage backups with a click
Scale resources (upgrade RAM/CPU) without downtime
Export your workspace
Monitor integration health (Discord connected? Email syncing?)

This is the “no terminal required” experience. Good if you’re not comfortable with Linux.

The Backup Story

Managed providers back up your entire workspace:

Daily automatic backups: Your workspace, memory, integrations snapshots
Point-in-time recovery: Restore to any day in the last 30-90 days
Geo-replicated storage: Backups stored in multiple regions (your data survives regional outages)
One-click restore: Broken something? Restore from backup in the UI

Self-hosted requires you to set this up. You need a script that:

#!/bin/bash
# Daily backup job
BACKUP_DIR="/backups/openclaw"
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/openclaw-$DATE.tar.gz ~/.openclaw/
aws s3 cp $BACKUP_DIR/openclaw-$DATE.tar.gz s3://my-backups/
find $BACKUP_DIR -mtime +30 -delete  # Keep 30 days

You’d add this to cron:

0 2 * * * /scripts/openclaw-backup.sh

It runs at 2 AM daily. Backups go to S3 ($1-2/month). Restore requires you to download and extract manually. This is fine if you’re comfortable with it. It’s more work if you’re not.

Support and SLAs

Managed providers offer:

Email support (usually 24 hours response)
Phone support (premium tier, if they offer it)
99.5-99.9% uptime SLAs
Automatic failover (transparent to you)
Status page so you know when they’re having issues

Self-hosted support is you. You Google the error. You read the OpenClaw documentation. You post on the community Discord. Response time is hours or days, not 24 hours.

If something breaks at 3 AM, managed hosting notifies their team automatically. Your instance is restarted on new hardware if needed. Self-hosted? You find out when you wake up.

Self-Hosted Advantages Deep Dive: Beyond Just Cost

We said self-hosting saves money. But the real advantages go deeper.

Operational Independence

When your managed provider has an outage, you’re down. When your managed provider decides to discontinue support for OpenClaw, you scramble to migrate or find a new provider.

Self-hosted? Outages are on your VPS provider (not the OpenClaw provider). You control the entire stack. If something needs updating, you update it on your schedule.

This matters for long-term projects. In 5 years, OpenClaw might still exist and might not. Your self-hosted instance will. You own the infrastructure. You own the data. You own the continuity.

Network and Privacy Isolation

Your data can live on a private VPN. Only you can access it. Your ISP can’t see the traffic (if using VPN). A managed provider? Your data is on their servers, behind their firewall, on their network. They control what logging happens. They decide if traffic is logged. They decide if backups are encrypted.

For sensitive work (medical data, financial data, classified work), self-hosted is non-negotiable.

Custom Integrations

Self-hosted means you can integrate OpenClaw with your entire infrastructure stack. Connect to your internal monitoring. Pipe logs to your SIEM. Integrate with your private CI/CD. Use credentials from your internal credential store.

Managed hosting only offers standard integrations (Discord, Slack, email). Anything custom requires you to build a bridge. Self-hosted runs on your network. Direct access to everything.

Cost Scaling Over Time

A managed provider’s pricing is fixed. You pay $30/month today, $30/month in 5 years.

Self-hosted scales with your needs. You start at $12/month. If you need 2 instances, you upgrade to $20/month. The cost grows with your actual usage, not with a pricing tier structure.

Over 10 years, self-hosted typically costs 40-60% less than managed hosting. That’s meaningful money.

12-Month TCO Calculation Walkthrough

Let’s build a detailed model for your specific use case.

Scenario: Small Team Using OpenClaw (3-5 People)

Managed Hosting Option

Year 1 Costs:

Starter plan: $30/month × 12 = $360
Custom domain SSL: $0 (included)
Additional user seat (if needed): $15/user/month × 2 = $360
Premium support: $100 (optional, but if serious, include it)
Total Year 1: $820

Years 2-3:

Same as Year 1 = $820 × 3 = $2,460

Hidden costs over 3 years:

Migration cost if they discontinue service: 16 hours of engineering time = $1,600
Downtime cost when they have outages: 4 incidents/year, 2 hours each = opportunity cost
Vendor lock-in: Can’t switch easily, so you keep paying

3-Year Total: $2,460 + $1,600 = $4,060

Self-Hosted Option

Year 1 Setup:

DigitalOcean VPS ($12/month): 12 × $12 = $144
Domain registration: $12
SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt): $0
Backups (S3 cold storage): $5/month × 12 = $60
Monitoring (Uptime Robot): $5/month × 12 = $60
Your time to set up: ~6 hours = $300 (at $50/hour opportunity cost)
Total Year 1: $576

Years 2-3:

VPS: $144 × 2 = $288
Backups: $60 × 2 = $120
Monitoring: $60 × 2 = $120
Your time for maintenance: ~2 hours/month × 24 months = $2,400

3-Year Total: $576 + $288 + $120 + $2,400 = $3,384

Comparison

Option	Year 1	Year 3	Difference
Managed	$820	$2,460
Self-Hosted	$576	$3,384
Savings (SH)	$244	$-924	Break-even at year 3.8

Wait, that’s interesting. Self-hosted is cheaper for the first 3 years, but in Year 4+, the fixed VPS cost becomes cheaper than scaling managed hosting.

Scenario: Solo Developer Using OpenClaw for Personal Projects

Managed Hosting

Entry tier: $10/month × 12 = $120/year
Minimal extras
3-year total: $360

Self-Hosted

$5/month VPS (minimal, just storage): $60/year
Backups: $0 (don’t need backups as aggressively for personal use)
Your time: ~1 hour/month × 36 months = $1,800

3-year total: $60 + $1,800 = $1,860

Managed hosting wins here if you value your time. But if you enjoy infrastructure work, self-hosted is still viable and cheaper on real-dollar basis ($60 vs $360).

Migration Between Options: The Worst Part

Actually migrating from managed to self-hosted (or vice versa) is painful. Here’s what’s involved.

Managed → Self-Hosted

The Export:

# Managed provider gives you these files
- workspace.json (all your settings)
- soul.md (personality)
- identity.md (metadata)
- memory/ (all daily logs and summaries)
- conversations/ (optional, if they provide it)

The Import:

# Copy to your self-hosted instance
docker cp workspace.json openclaw-container:~/.openclaw/
docker cp soul.md openclaw-container:~/.openclaw/
docker cp identity.md openclaw-container:~/.openclaw/
docker cp -r memory openclaw-container:~/.openclaw/
docker restart openclaw-container

The Verification:

Send test messages. Verify memory loads correctly. Verify personality is intact. Check platform integrations (Discord tokens should still work). Test email sync.

Time required: 2-3 hours if everything goes smoothly, 4-6 hours if you hit snags.

Self-Hosted → Managed

Export from Self-Hosted:

docker exec openclaw-container tar -czf openclaw-backup.tar.gz ~/.openclaw/
docker cp openclaw-container:/openclaw-backup.tar.gz ./

Upload to Managed Provider:

Their UI will have an “Import Workspace” button. Upload the backup. They’ll extract and validate.

The Verification:

Same as above. Test, test, test.

Time required: 1-2 hours because the managed provider handles most of the complexity.

The asymmetry is real: migrating away from managed hosting is harder than moving to it. That’s why the “try managed first” approach makes sense.

Decision Matrix for Different User Profiles

Different people, different needs. Here’s a matrix:

Profile	Managed	Self-Hosted	Why
Solo developer	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	Cost matters, infrastructure experience likely
Small team (3-5)	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	Both work, managed if no SRE, self-hosted if team has ops
Enterprise	⭐⭐⭐	⭐	SLAs, support, compliance matter more than cost
Privacy-critical	⭐	⭐⭐⭐	Self-hosted non-negotiable for sensitive data
Bootstrapped startup	⭐	⭐⭐⭐	Every dollar counts, self-hosted saves $5k-10k/year
Personal project	⭐⭐	⭐⭐	Depends on time vs money preferences

Privacy Deep Dive: What You’re Actually Trading

This deserves more than a paragraph.

Managed Hosting Privacy Reality

The managed provider’s terms of service probably say “We don’t sell your data.” But they might:

Anonymize and analyze patterns in your conversations (no names, but patterns)
Use your conversations to improve their service (this is standard)
Keep logs of access for compliance reasons
Be required to hand over data if subpoenaed
Be hacked, exposing your data

You’re trusting them to handle this correctly. Most do. Some don’t.

Self-Hosted Privacy Reality

Your data lives on your server. But:

Your VPS provider has access to the underlying hardware
Your ISP can see traffic (unless you use VPN)
Your OS is running somewhere (cloud provider’s datacenter)
If you’re hacked, your data is compromised
If you’re subpoenaed, your self-hosted data is still exposed

Self-hosted doesn’t mean “impossible to access.” It means “fewer entities have access” and “you control the access rules.”

For real privacy (healthcare data, financial data, trade secrets):

Self-hosted on your own hardware in your office
VPN-only access
Encrypted at rest
No cloud provider involvement

For casual privacy (you don’t want random ads about your conversations):

Self-hosted on a VPS is sufficient
Encryption at rest is overkill but nice
You control who accesses it

Pick the privacy level that matches your sensitivity.

The Real Trade-Off

Boiled down: Do you want to pay money or time?

Managed hosting: Pay money, save time
Self-hosted: Pay time, save money

For most people reading this, self-hosted makes financial sense. Over 3 years, you save $400-800. That’s meaningful.

But if you strongly prefer to outsource operational concerns, managed hosting is worth the premium. It buys peace of mind.

The key insight: There’s no objectively correct answer. It depends on your situation, your comfort level, and what you value. Both are legitimate choices.

Quick Decision Checklist

Answer these honestly:

Do I want to manage infrastructure? Yes → Self-hosted | No → Managed
Does privacy matter critically? Yes → Self-hosted | No → Either
Is this a long-term project (3+ years)? Yes → Self-hosted | No → Managed
Do I have infrastructure experience? Yes → Self-hosted | No → Managed
Is cost a significant factor? Yes → Self-hosted | No → Either
Do I need 99.9% uptime SLAs? Yes → Managed | No → Either

Count the “Self-hosted” votes. If you get 3+ out of 6, self-hosted is the right call. If you get 2 or fewer, managed hosting deserves serious consideration.

Conclusion: You Can’t Wrong-Wrong

Both paths work. Managed hosting users get running quickly and sleep soundly. Self-hosted users save money and maintain control.

The worst decision is staying undecided. Pick one, commit for 6 months, then reassess if needed.

If you’re leaning toward self-hosted, the previous article walks you through a production-grade Docker setup that’ll run reliably for years with minimal fuss.

If you’re leaning toward managed hosting, pick a provider, sign up, and get started. You’ll know within a week if it’s the right fit.

Either way, you’ve got OpenClaw running. That’s the victory.

Managed OpenClaw Hosting vs Self-Hosted: Cost, Security, and Control Compared