Redmine is self-hosted by design. That gives your team full data ownership and complete control over the environment. Many teams choose Redmine precisely because of that characteristic.
But self-hosting also means your IT team owns everything that keeps Redmine running. Upgrades, backups, plugin compatibility, and every unplanned outage all of that lands on your plate. The software is free; the operational overhead is not.
For some teams, that trade-off works perfectly. For others, it quietly becomes the reason Redmine never gets the attention it deserves. Upgrades get delayed because nobody has bandwidth. Plugins fall behind compatibility. The server runs fine until it does not. And every time something breaks, someone who should be building products spends a day diagnosing infrastructure instead.
Redmineflux Managed Cloud exists for teams that want Redmine the data ownership, the plugin depth, the structured workflow without the infrastructure work that gets in the way.
Self-hosting Redmine is not complicated for experienced engineers. But it requires genuine, ongoing effort that most teams underestimate before they commit.
First, someone needs to provision and maintain the server itself. That means selecting the right environment, installing the correct Ruby and Rails versions, setting up the database, and keeping system dependencies current. Then comes the Redmine installation migrations, configuration files, file storage, and initial setup. None of this is a one-time task. Every time Redmine releases a new version, the upgrade path runs through schema migrations and plugin compatibility checks. If you run a plugin that has not released a compatible version yet, you wait or you upgrade without it and deal with the consequences.
Plugin management deserves its own mention. Installing a Redmine plugin involves placing files, running bundle install, executing migrations, and restarting the server. Doing this across ten or fifteen plugins and keeping them all compatible with each other and with the Redmine version you run is a maintenance project on its own. Backups require a strategy, a schedule, and someone who tests restoration regularly. SSL certificates expire. Email configuration for notifications needs setup and monitoring. And when the server goes down, your team’s project management goes down with it and your IT team owns the incident.
None of this is unreasonable. It is simply honest about what self-hosting Redmine requires from the people responsible for it.
Answer capsule: Redmineflux Managed Cloud provides a fully hosted Redmine environment with all Redmineflux plugins pre-installed. The Redmineflux team handles infrastructure provisioning, Redmine version upgrades, plugin compatibility management, daily backups, SSL, and email configuration. Teams get a production-ready Redmine instance without managing a server.
When your team joins Redmineflux Managed Cloud, the team provisions the environment before you log in for the first time. Your instance arrives with the full Redmineflux plugin suite already installed and ready. Agile Board, Gantt Chart, Timesheet, Workload, Custom Dashboard, Knowledge Base, Helpdesk, CRM all of them sit in your Redmine instance from day one. No installation steps. Skip bundle installs. Forget migration scripts.. Your admin opens the browser and starts configuring projects.
Managed upgrades work differently from what most self-hosted teams experience. When Redmine releases a new version, the Redmineflux team handles the upgrade cycle. They test plugin compatibility across the full suite, run the schema migrations, and move your instance to the new version. Your team notices the version number changed. They do not notice a maintenance window, a compatibility failure, or a broken plugin that someone needs to diagnose. The Redmineflux team treats that process as their responsibility because in Managed Cloud, it is.
Data ownership in Managed Cloud works differently from most SaaS tools. Many SaaS project management platforms store your data in a shared multitenant system where export options are limited and migration is difficult by design. Redmineflux Managed Cloud gives each customer a dedicated environment. You can export your data at any time. If your team ever decides to move to self-hosted Redmine, that migration path exists and the Redmineflux team supports it. Your data belongs to your team the hosting arrangement does not change that.
This is not a question with one right answer. Both options serve real teams with real reasons for choosing them.
Self-hosted Redmine makes sense when your team has in-house DevOps capability and wants complete control over the environment. Teams in regulated industries government contractors, healthcare, finance sometimes require on-premise infrastructure for compliance reasons, and self-hosting is the only path that satisfies those requirements. Teams that want to control the upgrade schedule, hold a version stable for extended periods, or make deep customisations to the Redmine codebase also have good reasons to own the infrastructure themselves.
Managed Cloud makes sense when infrastructure overhead sits in the way of Redmine adoption. Teams without a dedicated server admin, teams that have deferred upgrades for months because no one has bandwidth, teams where the IT director wants to reduce operational load on internal tooling these teams spend less time on maintenance and more time on the work Redmine was installed to manage. It also makes sense for teams that want to start quickly. A self-hosted deployment takes time to provision correctly. Managed Cloud removes that setup project entirely.
The honest framing is this: self-hosting gives you full control, and Managed Cloud transfers the maintenance responsibility without transferring data ownership. Choose based on your team’s actual capacity and compliance situation.
The setup process for Managed Cloud does not involve your IT team standing up a server. The Redmineflux team provisions the instance on their infrastructure after you sign up.
Your admin receives access credentials for a configured Redmine environment. All plugins are already enabled. From there, your admin configures the things that should belong to your team projects, trackers, workflows, custom fields, user roles, and permissions. That configuration work is the same whether you run self-hosted or Managed Cloud. The difference is that everything underneath it the server, the database, the SSL certificate, the email configuration, the backup schedule already works.
Ongoing, your team uses Redmine. The Redmineflux team handles upgrades, backups, and infrastructure. Support is available for configuration questions when your team needs guidance on Redmine settings or plugin behaviour. The goal is a Redmine environment your team maintains for your work, not one that requires ongoing technical management just to stay operational.
The practical advantage of Managed Cloud is not just that plugins are included. It is that every plugin works without the installation friction that delays adoption on self-hosted environments.
Teams that run self-hosted Redmine often delay plugin adoption because installation requires a maintenance window, compatibility checks, and someone technical enough to handle the process safely. On Managed Cloud, that barrier does not exist. The Agile Board Plugin is enabled from day one your team starts sprint planning immediately. The Gantt Chart Plugin is pre-configured your project managers start building timelines without waiting for a deployment. The Timesheet Plugin is ready for time tracking and approval workflows before your first project kicks off.
The same applies to Knowledge Base for documentation, Helpdesk for support tickets, CRM for client and contact management, and every other plugin in the suite. Managed Cloud makes the full plugin suite available on day one not after a sequence of installation projects that stretch across weeks.
For teams looking to go deeper on specific workflows, the guides on how to track time in Redmine and how to create a Gantt chart in Redmine cover the practical setup steps for the tools your team will use most.
Redmine Managed Cloud is a hosted Redmine deployment where the provider handles infrastructure, upgrades, backups, and plugin management on your behalf. Redmineflux Managed Cloud includes the full Redmineflux plugin suite pre-installed. Your team uses a complete Redmine environment without managing any servers.
Yes. Every plugin in the Redmineflux suite comes pre-installed on Managed Cloud. That includes Agile Board, Gantt Chart, Timesheet, Workload, Custom Dashboard, Knowledge Base, Helpdesk, CRM, Issue Templates, Checklist, and more. No separate plugin licences or installation steps.
Yes. The Redmineflux team supports migrations from self-hosted Redmine to Managed Cloud. Your existing projects, issues, users, time entries, and attachments move to the new environment. Contact the Redmineflux team to discuss the migration process for your specific setup.
Your team owns your data. Redmineflux Managed Cloud gives each customer a dedicated environment not a shared multitenant system. You can export your data at any time. If you choose to move to self-hosted in the future, your data goes with you.
The Redmineflux team handles the upgrade. They test plugin compatibility across the full suite, run the required schema migrations, and move your instance to the new Redmine version. Your team sees no planned downtime to manage and no compatibility failures to diagnose.
The licence cost for Managed Cloud is higher than running Redmine on your own hardware. The full cost comparison depends on what you count. Self-hosted Redmine requires a server, IT time for setup, time for each upgrade cycle, and ongoing maintenance overhead. Managed Cloud replaces those costs with a predictable per-user monthly fee. For teams without a dedicated server admin, Managed Cloud is often the more cost-effective option when staff time enters the calculation.
Self-hosting Redmine gives your team full control. Managed Cloud gives your team full Redmine without the infrastructure work that delays upgrades, holds back plugin adoption, and quietly consumes IT bandwidth.
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