Managed or Self-Hosted

Two ways to run Seamless Auth

Seamless Auth is available two ways. Both use the same SDKs (@seamless-auth/react, @seamless-auth/express) and the same passwordless auth model. The difference is who runs the auth server and its database.

Path	Who runs the auth infrastructure	Start here
Managed	Seamless hosts a per-application auth instance for you	Managed Quickstart
Self-hosted	You run the auth API, Postgres, and cookies in your stack	Self-Hosted Quickstart

Note

The SDK code is identical on both paths. You only change the auth server URL and where the service token comes from. Moving from one path to the other later is mostly a configuration change, not a rewrite.

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Managed

On the managed path you sign up at the Seamless Auth portal, create an application, and pick a plan. Seamless provisions a dedicated auth instance for that application and gives you its URL and a service token. You point the SDKs at that instance and ship.

Choose managed when you want:

• authentication working without operating a database, signing keys, or an auth server
• a hosted auth instance per application, provisioned in a few minutes
• billing, plan limits, and infrastructure handled for you

The portal lives at https://dashboard.seamlessauth.com. Its own login is passwordless, built on Seamless Auth.

Managed Quickstart

Sign up, create an application, get a service token, and connect a real app to your hosted auth instance. See Managed Quickstart.

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Self-hosted

On the self-hosted path you run the auth stack yourself. seamless-cli scaffolds a full local project (React web app, Express API, the auth server in Docker or local-source mode, optional admin dashboard, and Docker Compose wiring) so you can develop against a production-shaped stack on your own machine.

Choose self-hosted when you want:

• the auth engine, session boundary, and data inside your own infrastructure
• source-visible components you can inspect and modify
• full control over hosting, Postgres, signing keys, and cookie domains

Caution

Self-hosting means you own production hosting and hardening. seamless-cli does not ship a deployment command today, so provisioning production infrastructure is your responsibility. See Running In Production.

Self-Hosted Quickstart

Scaffold a local stack with the CLI, start it with Docker, and complete the first admin bootstrap flow. See Self-Hosted Quickstart.

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Which SDK values change

The only integration values that differ between the two paths are the auth server URL and the source of the service token.

Value	Managed	Self-hosted
React apiHost	Your application’s Auth Server URL from the portal	Your backend API, usually http://localhost:3000
Express authServerUrl	Your application’s Auth Server URL from the portal	The auth API, usually http://localhost:5312
Service token (serviceSecret)	Generated in the portal, shown once	Generated locally by the CLI into your project files

Everything else (the provider component, hooks, middleware, and route protection) is the same.

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Next Step

• New and want the fastest working app? Go to Managed Quickstart.
• Want to run everything yourself? Go to Self-Hosted Quickstart.