With self-hosted FusionAuth, you are downloading the software, starting up a server (VM in the cloud, in your data center, wherever) and running it yourself. You are responsible for monitoring, backups and everything else to keep your FusionAuth instance available to your customers.

With all the cloud options, we run FusionAuth for you. Each level of cloud has a different set of constraints, as outlined in the pricing links (click on the ? for more details), but in general we take care of operating FusionAuth for you. You still control the upgrade cycle, but much of the other maintenance is handled by us.

FYI a lot more FusionAuth Cloud details are available in the cloud installation guide.

Yes. FusionAuth Cloud starts with Community Edition as the base version.

You can purchase one of our paid editions for both the self-hosted or FusionAuth Cloud. Once you enter the license id for a paid edition, it activates the premium features in FusionAuth (including Breached Password Detection, LDAP support, Advanced Registration Forms).

You always get the same features whatever level you are at no matter where you host. That is to say, if you have a premium plan, you can host or we can, the features are the same. If you use the community edition, the features are the same no matter where you host.

However, there are feature differences between the premium and community plans. More here: https://fusionauth.io/pricing

Yes. You can view our plans here: https://fusionauth.io/pricing

Each plan has the same level of support whether you are hosting with FusionAuth or in your own cloud or data center.