Liferay Hosting Explained: SaaS vs. PaaS vs. Self-Hosted
Published on June 18, 2026 by Wasim
What Are Liferay's Hosting Options?
When you adopt Liferay DXP, one of the first big decisions is where it runs and who keeps it running. Liferay's subscription options page frames the choice simply: "Host in the Environment Best for Your Business."
There are three deployment models — Liferay SaaS, Liferay PaaS, and Liferay Self-Hosted — and the difference between them comes down to a single question: how much of the stack do you want Liferay to manage, and how much do you want to control yourself? This guide breaks down each option, what's included, and how to choose.
Liferay SaaS — Let Liferay Handle Everything
"Let Liferay Handle Everything with a SaaS Solution." This is the fully managed, lowest-overhead option. Liferay runs the infrastructure, the application, hosting, and security — you just build and grow.
- Fully managed services — infrastructure and application management, hosting, and security.
- 99.8% SLA of the Liferay DXP application.
- Automatic Liferay DXP updates and fixes — you're always on the latest release; no patching.
- Multi-tenant — you share computing resources with other tenants.
- Customization via Client Extensions only (no OSGi modules).
It was formerly known as Liferay Experience Cloud. Modern SaaS plans are priced on usage metrics — MALU (Monthly Active Logged-in Users) and APV (Anonymous Page Views) — so cost scales with actual traffic. SaaS is the natural fit if you're starting fresh, want to move fast, and can work within Client Extensions.
Liferay PaaS — Offload the Infrastructure, Keep the App
"Offload Infrastructure Management to Focus on Your Application." PaaS is the middle ground: Liferay manages the cloud infrastructure (database, web server, search), while your team owns the application — including DXP upgrades, hotfixes, and customizations.
- 99.95% Infrastructure SLA.
- Built-in CI/CD capabilities for zero-downtime deployments.
- Advanced monitoring features.
- Single-tenant — dedicated computing resources.
- Full customization — both Client Extensions and OSGi modular Java development.
Formerly Liferay Experience Cloud – Self-Managed, PaaS is the right call when you have an existing Liferay implementation with custom OSGi modules to carry forward but still want the cloud infrastructure managed for you. The trade-off: you handle DXP upgrades and patches yourself, so budget for ongoing engineering effort.
Liferay Self-Hosted — Full Control, Your Infrastructure
"Launch Your Solution in Your Own Server or Cloud." With Self-Hosted, Liferay provides the DXP software and an enterprise subscription; everything else — servers, database, search, security, backups, and upgrades — is yours to run, on-premise or in your own cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Access to all Liferay capabilities.
- Enterprise subscription including support, maintenance, and legal assurance.
- New: ready-to-go operating kits for deployment on AWS, GCP, and Kubernetes.
- Single-tenant, with full Client Extensions + OSGi customization.
You can run it on bare metal, a private cloud, or Kubernetes via Liferay's Cloud Native Experience (CNE) toolkit. The self-hosted installation and upgrades documentation is the starting point. Choose this when data sovereignty, compliance, or full-stack control is a hard requirement.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here's how the three models line up on the points that matter most, drawn from Liferay's own comparison matrix:
| Capability | SaaS | PaaS | Self-Hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| All DXP capabilities | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Client Extensions | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| OSGi customization | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cloud infrastructure | Liferay's Cloud | Liferay's Cloud | On-prem / your cloud |
| CI/CD (DevOps tooling) | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Tenancy | Multi-tenant | Single-tenant | Single-tenant |
| Infrastructure management | Liferay | Liferay | You |
| DXP upgrades & patches | Liferay | You | You |
| SLA | 99.8% (application) | 99.95% (infrastructure) | Your responsibility |
A useful way to remember the cost shape: SaaS is subscription-only (no infra cost, lowest entry point); PaaS is subscription + cloud infra usage + your DXP engineering effort; Self-Hosted is the DXP license + your own infrastructure + ongoing internal IT cost.
No matter which you choose, Liferay notes the platform complies with ISO, CSA, and SOC 2 through independent verification.
Which One Should You Choose?
- Choose SaaS if you're starting fresh, want minimal operational overhead, need to launch quickly, and can do your customization through Client Extensions.
- Choose PaaS if you have existing custom OSGi modules to bring forward and want managed cloud infrastructure (with CI/CD) without handing over the whole application.
- Choose Self-Hosted if data sovereignty, strict compliance, or complete control over the stack is non-negotiable — and you have the IT capacity to run it.
For a deeper conceptual primer, Liferay's own explainer on the difference between SaaS and PaaS is worth a read, as is the Liferay deployment options course on Liferay Learn.
Final Thoughts
There's no single "best" Liferay hosting model — only the one that best matches your team's appetite for operational ownership. The spectrum runs from Liferay handles everything (SaaS) to you handle everything but the software (Self-Hosted), with PaaS splitting the difference. Map your decision to three things — customization needs (OSGi or not), compliance/data-residency requirements, and how much infrastructure your team wants to run — and the right tier usually becomes obvious.
Compare the full matrix on the Liferay subscription options page.
Related Reading
For teams already building on Liferay, these guides and tools help on the implementation and upgrade side:
- Liferay Low-Code: Build Business Apps Without the Hand-Coding — a core DXP capability across every hosting model.
- Liferay Personalization: Deliver the Right Experience to Every User — another out-of-the-box DXP capability.
- Liferay Upgrade Planner — plan a DXP version upgrade (especially relevant on PaaS and Self-Hosted, where you own upgrades).
- Liferay Portal Properties Diff — compare
portal.propertiesacross versions when migrating environments. - Browse all Liferay tools — generators and reference utilities for Liferay developers.
