---
title: Self Hosting DEV
---

## Hosting your own DEV instance

We envision that the DEV codebase will eventually be generalized to the point
where it can be used to power other communities and ecosystems. We're excited
for the project to mature to that point, but we're not quite there yet.

This page is designed to serve as an FAQ and a checklist of considerations that
are relevant to the goal of eventually hosting your own version of our community
platform.

### Current limitations

- We do not currently have a versioning system that will allow us to share fixes
  and improvements with modified versions of the code.

### License restrictions

- Certain aspects of the app are currently hardcoded. For instance: logos,
  certain elements of content, etc. If you were to host the current version of
  the app, you would be inadvertently impersonating the core dev.to project.
- DEV has commercial licenses for certain design components as described in our
  [Design License
  Info](https://docs.dev.to/design/branding/#design-license-info) section. These
  licenses are specific to the dev.to project, and may not extend to self-hosted
  versions.

### I want to stand up my own entity using the DEV codebase, how can I help?

- You can help us generalize the code, removing DEV-specific language and images
  and replacing them with environment variables or database tables as
  appropriate
- You can commit to staying in very close coordination with us as we navigate
  the process together.

The long-term benefits of doing this the right way far outweigh the short-term
gains of spinning something up without consulting us. If you are interested in
getting started with this process, let us know in [this
thread](https://dev.to/ben/so-you-want-to-stand-up-your-own-instance-of-dev-help-thread-1elo).
