Hosting Models & Deployment Patterns
Use this guide to choose how your MCP server runs in development and production. Each option includes pros/cons and a minimal config example.Quick Comparison
| Option | Setup | Control | Cost | Scale | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-Hosted | High | Full | You pay | You manage | Large-scale products |
| Pylee-Managed | Low | Shared | Usage-based | Automatic | Most teams (coming soon) |
| Package-Based | Low | User | Free | N/A | OSS / local tools |
| Hybrid | Med | Mixed | Varies | Flexible | Enterprise solutions |
Self-Hosted (Remote HTTP/SSE)
You operate the server (cloud/infra of your choice), exposing an HTTP/SSE endpoint. When to choose- You need full control, custom scaling, or specific compliance controls.
- You already have an ops platform and observability in place.
- Maximum control and customization
- Fine-grained scaling and performance tuning
- DevOps burden (uptime, security, on-call)
- You pay infra costs directly
Pylee-Managed (Hosted) — Early Access
Pylee runs the server for you. You provide the package/endpoint; Pylee handles infra, scaling, and monitoring. When to choose- You want zero DevOps and fast team-wide adoption.
- You value integrated secrets, monitoring, and CDN.
- No infrastructure to manage
- Automatic scaling and built-in observability
- Integrated secrets management
- Less low-level control than self-hosted
- Availability phased (early access)
Interested in early access? Contact support@pyleeai.com.
Package-Based (Local stdio)
Users run the server on their own machines (npm/PyPI/Docker). Great for development, personal workflows, and OSS. When to choose- Local development and prototyping
- Data must stay on the user’s machine
- No hosting cost
- Works offline; user data stays local
- Version fragmentation across machines
- Limited to local resources; not shared by default
Hybrid Patterns
Mix models by environment:- Dev: Package-Based local stdio
- Staging: Pylee-Managed (or Self-Hosted small cluster)
- Prod: Self-Hosted with autoscaling and hard SLOs
- Different teams/environments need different guarantees
- You’re migrating from local to managed/remote over time
- Right-sized tradeoffs by environment
- Smooth migration path
- More configurations to track
- Requires clear version and rollout discipline
Decision Guide
- Need strict control/compliance/SLOs? → Self-Hosted
- Want zero DevOps and fastest org rollout while balancing security? → Pylee-Managed (when available)
- Prototyping or OSS tooling? → Package-Based
- Different needs across envs? → Hybrid
Whatever you choose, keep secrets out of code. Prefer environment variables or the Pylee Secrets Vault.