If you're trying to decide between the self-hosted eCommerce Builder and managed hosting, the confusing part usually isn't the price. It's working out who actually runs what once you've paid: who patches the server, where your payment details sit, what happens if something breaks. This is the plain version, without the developer jargon.
In this guide: One eCommerce Builder, Two Ways to Run It . Self-Hosted: You Run It . Managed Hosting: I Run It . How Payments Work . Security, Plainly . What's Been Added Since This Was First Written . Which One Fits You
One eCommerce Builder, Two Ways to Run It
There is one core application behind everything on djangify.com: the Djangify eCommerce Builder. It's a Django application built specifically for selling digital products, products, orders, customer accounts, secure file delivery, a blog, and the SEO fields that go with all of it, in one codebase, not a stack of plugins glued together. It's built on Django 5.2 LTS, Python 3.12, SQLite, Tailwind CSS 4, Stripe, Alpine.js and HTMX. I wrote about why it stays digital-only on purpose in Digital-Only Commerce: How It Keeps Things Simple.
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From that one application, there are two ways to run it: self-hosted, where you install and manage it yourself, or managed hosting, where I run it for you. The software underneath is identical. What changes is who's responsible for keeping it running.
Self-Hosted: You Run It
Buy the self-hosted version and you get the complete Django application: source code, deployment files, the Adminita admin theme, and written documentation, installed on a Linux VPS you provision yourself. There's no Docker in this version and no automation running behind it. It's the application, and you run it.
That means you're doing, or delegating: setting up the server, installing Python and Django, configuring your .env file, connecting Stripe, and keeping the whole thing patched and backed up afterward. Every purchase includes a file called DEPLOY_WITH_AI.md, written to be pasted straight into Claude or ChatGPT so it walks you through server setup, keys, HTTPS and your first product, one step at a time. A free AI account is enough to follow it, though a paid one makes the back-and-forth faster.
I cover exactly what's in that download, and what isn't, in What's Included in the Djangify Self-Hosted eCommerce Builder.
This path suits someone who's comfortable on a server, or willing to lean on AI for the parts they aren't. It doesn't suit someone who wants to never think about infrastructure again. That's what the other option is for.
Managed Hosting: I Run It
Managed hosting runs the identical core application, just inside infrastructure I maintain. Two pieces make that work: Docker and something I call the Provisioner.
Docker runs each shop in its own isolated container, sealed off from every other shop on the system. If one shop has a problem, it stays contained to that one shop. It isn't something a managed customer ever needs to touch or understand. It's what happens behind the login screen.
The Provisioner is what turns a Stripe payment into a working shop without me doing anything by hand. Someone pays, the Provisioner receives that confirmation, creates a new shop instance, configures it, makes it live, and emails the new owner their login. No queue, no manual setup on my end.
I take server maintenance seriously because I've been caught out by not doing it properly. I once woke up to 180 error emails in one morning because 75 old Docker images from repeated rebuilds had quietly filled the disk. The fix itself was a one-line prune command, but it's also why automatic image cleanup and disk-usage alerts are now built into how every shop on managed hosting runs, instead of something I have to remember to check.
How Payments Work
Stripe handles the money on both paths, self-hosted and managed. A customer pays, Stripe processes the card and runs its own fraud checks, Stripe confirms the payment back to the shop, the shop unlocks the download, and the order gets recorded. Djangify never sees or keeps a card number. That stays with Stripe either way.
Security, Plainly
Every shop runs over HTTPS. User accounts and logins are handled through Django's own established security practices, not something built from scratch. Card data never touches Djangify's database.
Where the two paths actually differ is patching. On managed hosting, I apply updates and security patches centrally, across every shop at once. On self-hosted, that's your job: you decide when to update, and you're the one applying the patch.
What's Been Added Since This Was First Written
This overview covers the architecture as it stands, but Djangify keeps shipping. Since this was first written, both hosting paths have picked up an AI Assistant that answers questions from your own site data, a direct Claude MCP connection so a shop can be managed by chatting instead of clicking through the admin, Topic Cluster pages for building SEO hub pages, a Shop Setup Wizard that replaced the old emailed spreadsheet, and genuine £0 checkout for free products and lead magnets. The full rundown, feature by feature, is in Everything I Have Added to Djangify Over the Last Six Months.
For every feature, update and architecture decision since, tracked as it happens, see the How the Djangify eCommerce Builder Works hub.
One addition worth calling out here specifically: Hosted Tools, where you upload a single self-contained HTML file (built with Claude or another AI) and sell it, or give it away, as an interactive calculator, quiz or mini-app, sandboxed so it can't touch your shop's data. If you want ideas for what to build, I've written up ten of them in 10 Claude Artifact Ideas You Can Sell as Hosted Tools.
Which One Fits You
Most people don't need to understand containers or deployment pipelines to make this decision. What actually matters is simpler: are you willing to manage a server, or would you rather pay someone else to do it so you can spend that time on your products instead? If you want the longer version of that comparison, including the actual numbers, I've laid it out in Self-Hosted or Managed Hosting – Finding the Right Fit For You. And if the real question underneath all of this is how much you're losing to marketplace fees right now, that's covered on the Sell Digital Products hub page.
Ready to see it before deciding anything? Explore the live demo, or go straight to the self-hosted eCommerce Builder or managed hosting.
