Decide your path
Prelay ships in two shapes. Self-hosted is the full product on your own hardware: free forever, where you control the server. Prelay Cloud is the same software hosted for you, with one hard difference: the hosted relay can never read notification contents, because the sender encrypts (Mode B only).
Everything else is identical: the protocol, the API shape, and the Android app. Pointing the app at a different server URL is the entire migration.
Self-hosted
Your own hardwareRun the server in one container on a VPS, NAS, or home server. Free and unlimited.
Prelay Cloud
Hosted for youNo maintenance, zero-knowledge by construction. 14-day Pro trial, no card.
The differences
| Self-hosted | Prelay Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Your server | Ours |
| Encryption | Mode A (server-assisted) default, Mode B optional | Mode B only, zero-knowledge |
| Relay can read contents | Yes, transiently over TLS | No, it receives ciphertext only |
| Cost | Free forever | Plans from Solo; 14-day Pro trial |
| Maintenance | Yours to do (updates, TLS, FCM config) | Ours to do |
| Privacy verifiability | AGPL source, run the code you can read | AGPL source, audited builds |
If you're not sure: self-host for the sovereignty, Cloud for not touching a server. Deployment guide covers the self-hosted install in detail; Prelay Cloud starts the trial.