Blockchain-as-a-Service vs Self-Hosted Blockchain: The 2026 TCO, Control, and Compliance Comparison
· 5 min read
Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) promises the same thing every managed service promises: "Focus on your application. We'll handle the infrastructure." For databases (RDS, Cloud SQL), the tradeoff is clear — you give up some control for dramatically simpler operations. For blockchain, the tradeoff is more complex because blockchain isn't just infrastructure. It's governance.
Here's when BaaS makes sense, when self-hosted wins, and the actual costs of each.