Can you install Base44 on your own servers?
No. Base44 is a cloud service: the editor, the database, sign-in and backend functions all run on its infrastructure, in the United States unless you pay for another region. There’s no installer, no Docker image and no on-premise license, and the official docs don’t mention one.
Companies evaluating the platform ask for it often. In its community, teams ask how to keep data inside the corporate network, and on Base44’s feedback board the self-hosting requests (“self host” and “Full Self-Hosting”) had 11 and 5 votes as of October 2, 2026, with no official reply.
So the useful question is a different one: what it takes for your app to run without Base44, inside your network.
Why exporting the code isn’t enough
It’s the most common mistake, and it was the first one made in the real migration this guide is based on: export the code, copy it to a server and call it done. The screens load, but every time someone saves or looks up a record, the request still goes to Base44’s servers. You’ve moved the storefront, not the app.
The reason: the exported code uses the Base44 SDK for everything that isn’t a screen, and the SDK calls Base44’s API.
| You get | Stays in Base44 |
|---|---|
| The screens (a React app) | The data you’ve already stored |
| The definition of each table (entities and fields) | Users, their passwords and sessions |
| The code of your backend functions | The engine that runs those functions, permissions and integrations (email, AI, connectors) |
What about Base44’s developer tools?
Base44 has a command-line tool with two commands that look like they solve this. They don’t:
base44 ejectdownloads the project, but creates another app inside Base44 with an empty database. It still depends on their cloud.base44 devruns the backend on your machine, but keeps data in memory and wipes it when you stop it, and forwards Google or Microsoft sign-in, email and AI to Base44. It’s for development, not production.
What has to be rebuilt, piece by piece
For the app to run on your server, every piece Base44 provides today needs a replacement. These are the usual ones on the two most common corporate stacks:
| Base44 piece | What it does | On Windows Server | On Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entities | Tables and records | SQL Server | PostgreSQL |
| Users and sign-in | Sign-up, sessions, roles | Custom login with roles, or Windows Authentication on IIS | Custom login, or an identity provider like Keycloak |
| Permissions | Who sees and edits what | Rules in the backend, reviewed table by table | |
| Backend functions | Logic, webhooks, calls to other systems | Node.js behind IIS | Node.js in Docker |
| Uploaded files | Attachments and images | A folder on the server | Disk or MinIO |
| Integrations | Email, AI, connectors | Email through your own SMTP server; AI moves to another provider or gets removed, depending on company policy | |
| Existing data | What’s already stored | Exported table by table and imported once | |
In the real migration, the tables were recreated in SQL Server on one of the company’s virtual machines, the app was served from IIS and access was handled with a custom login (username, password and roles). Single sign-on with company accounts was never solved: it’s the piece that depends most on how your network is set up, so talk it through with IT before you start.
Three ways to run it on your infrastructure
| Option | End result | Who changes the app afterwards | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time exit | The backend is rebuilt once and Base44 is left behind | A developer, working in the code | One project. Whoever built the app loses the Base44 editor |
| Rebuild | Built again with IT’s own tools | IT or the dev team | The most expensive. What already worked gets thrown away |
| Hybrid model | Base44 stays as the workshop, with test data; production runs on your servers and receives the changes | Whoever built the app, in Base44, same as today | The migration plus a monthly maintenance fee |
The real migration ended up as the first option without anyone choosing it: once the app was moved, Base44 was set aside and every change was made directly in the code on the server. It works, but whoever built the app can no longer improve it with the tool they know, and every small request turns into programming work.
Keep44’s view: if the app is stable and barely changes, the one-time exit is the simplest option. If the team keeps asking for changes every week, the one-time exit gets expensive within a few months and the hybrid model pays off.
How the hybrid model works
Base44 can sync the app with a GitHub repository in both directions (Builder plan or higher): every change made in the editor is pushed to the repository automatically. That repository is where the hybrid model picks up changes.
- Whoever built the app keeps working in Base44, with test data.
- Each change lands in the repository. A process on your server compares that version with the one in production and works out what changed: a new field, a table, a screen.
- Before applying anything, it backs up the database and the code. If IT requires it, the change waits for their approval.
- It applies the change to the database and the app. If something fails, it rolls back to the previous version.
One detail IT should know: according to Base44’s docs, once GitHub is connected you can no longer restore versions from before the connection in its history. Connect it when the app is in a stable state.
The hybrid model is the method Keep44 proposes, built on documented Base44 features (checked October 4, 2026). The migration to Windows Server is done and running in production; continuous sync hasn’t been tested in the lab yet. This guide will be updated with the results.
What about Base44’s EU data residency?
On the Enterprise plan, Base44 can store your data in the EU or the UK and doesn’t use it to train AI (on other plans, it may). If that’s all the company asks for, it may be enough. It has limits: it only applies to apps created after April 16, 2026, it controls where data is stored but not where it’s processed, and uploaded files stay in the United States (Base44 docs as of October 4, 2026).
It doesn’t cover you if data can’t leave your network, if the app has to talk to internal systems without opening the firewall, or if approving a new vendor will take months. In the real migration, that approval took more than six months.
Can it run inside your network, offline?
Yes. Once migrated, the production app doesn’t need Base44 to run: it can be served only on the internal network, at an address that isn’t visible from the internet. The app from the real migration runs that way, inside the company network.
The exceptions are features that depend on an outside service (for example, built-in AI or an external email provider). In the hybrid model, the server only needs outbound access to the repository when there are changes; no inbound ports need to be opened. If the network has no internet access at all, changes can be delivered as a reviewed package.
What IT needs to know
- Where the data lives: in your database, inside your backups.
- What stays in Base44: in the hybrid model, only the app’s design and test data. Never real data.
- Access: custom login with roles, or company accounts, depending on your network.
- Who maintains what: IT owns the server and the database; the app and the sync belong to the vendor or your dev team.
- Changes: backup first, rollback, and optional approval of each change.
- Network: no inbound ports open; outbound to the repository only if sync is used.
- If the vendor disappears: the code and documentation are in your repository, and the app keeps running.
- Base44 requirement: Builder plan or higher to export the code.
What’s at stake if nothing gets decided: in May 2026, an analysis of 380,000 AI-built apps (Lovable, Replit, Base44 and others) found around 5,000 exposing corporate data (VentureBeat, RedAccess report).
Sources
- Base44: Privacy and security (data residency, AI training, certifications). Accessed 10/4/2026.
- Base44: GitHub Integration (two-way sync, Builder plan). Accessed 10/4/2026.
- Base44: eject and Local development. Accessed 10/4/2026.
- Base44 feedback board. Accessed 10/4/2026.