Poll: VTT Users - Do you prefer self-hosted or cloud-based VTTs?

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, that's probably true. I do think many people have a preferred category, but it's probably not fixed "once and for all".

Its not hard edged by nature, I think. As I said, I find a lot of desire for automation overkill (I handled this stuff manually face to face, what makes it suddenly harder over the Net)?), but then, that doesn't answer the question whether it wouldn't be desirable having some things automated if I wasn't running remotely? I've run off my laptop for years before I was playing remotely, wouldn't it have been nice to have digital initiative tracking for many of the games I was running?

So you can question whether its sometimes "Now that we're running via computer anyway, why not automate some more of this?"

 

[LordEntrails]

Let's hope Fantasy Grounds stays afloat forever, otherwise I hope you love your current OS and its version! (I say that as someone who was on Windows back in the day and moved to Mac OS where Fantasy Ground wasn't).

You're not thinking very openly.

First, if FG shuts down, I still have all my content. Sure I'll have to decrypt some of it, but that's not hard, and not illegal. And if they shutdown it won't be unethical either.
Then, given how you can get free virtual machine software and Windows O/S, you will always be able to have a VM or container of an old version of FG to use. Not much of a challenge. The only thing lost is cloud brokered connections, which a lot of VTTS don't even have.

Finally, that's attitude is about as useful as saying I hope your house doesn't burn down, or flood or get hit by a tornado. Because then you are going to lose all your printed books. Sure, we all hope that, but it's pretty much beyond our control. You can mitigate it though, by not living in areas known to be at high risk for disasters. And you can pick a VTT like FG that has decades long track record of being in business and supporting past data.

 

[Heilemann]

You're not thinking very openly.

First, if FG shuts down, I still have all my content. Sure I'll have to decrypt some of it, but that's not hard, and not illegal. And if they shutdown it won't be unethical either.
Then, given how you can get free virtual machine software and Windows O/S, you will always be able to have a VM or container of an old version of FG to use. Not much of a challenge. The only thing lost is cloud brokered connections, which a lot of VTTS don't even have.

Finally, that's attitude is about as useful as saying I hope your house doesn't burn down, or flood or get hit by a tornado. Because then you are going to lose all your printed books. Sure, we all hope that, but it's pretty much beyond our control. You can mitigate it though, by not living in areas known to be at high risk for disasters. And you can pick a VTT like FG that has decades long track record of being in business and supporting past data.

You found something that works for you, and that's great. I had to roll for SAN on reading it, but that's me!

 

[aramis erak]

Not if it is self hosted, because now all the files are on my computer. So they can never be taken away from me. And if the company goes out of business, I still have everything I bought, and more importantly, everything I've created.

Maybe. The thing is, the VTT may need to be reinstalled at some point, and if you can't authenticate your copy...

I'll note that the authorization for Foundary is at install.

The other nicety of self-hosting? I can set up a lan if I want.

 

[tetrasodium]

even better than a vtt that I need to"host" as a GM & former unix SA of a webhosting company is a VTT that comes with a nice & simple .exe I can just launch

 

[LordEntrails]

Maybe. The thing is, the VTT may need to be reinstalled at some point, and if you can't authenticate your copy...

I'll note that the authorization for Foundary is at install.

SmiteWorks has stated publicly that if they ever go out of business their last act will be to remove the need for authentication. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. But they've been a pretty honest company to date.

The other nicety of self-hosting? I can set up a lan if I want.

Agreed!

 

[doodlegames]

I lean pretty heavily toward self-hosting when possible. Having control over your data, uptime, and customization just feels more in the spirit of tabletop gaming to me. Especially if you like tinkering with systems or running long-term campaigns where portability matters.

Cloud VTTs are great for convenience, but self-hosting avoids the “what happens if the service changes pricing / shuts down / locks features” problem.

That said, I do appreciate lightweight web-based tools for quick sessions or onboarding new players. Sites like doodlegames which run directly in-browser with no installs, show how accessible gaming tools can be when friction is low .

For me the sweet spot is:
Self-hosted for campaign infrastructure
Cloud/browser tools for fast, casual, or pickup play

 

[djotaku]

I actually read all 6 pages. Here's what I have to add to that:

1. Self-hosting is a must for me
2. One-time payment is a must for me. I can't with 2026 and everything being a mother-flippin' subscription. Somehow we went through a huge history of computing without everything being a sub. I refuse to believe it's a requirement now. Go the Valve route and run your own "steam" and use that to continue sustainment of the VTT OR take a page from Red Hat. Sell your own self-hosting for those who don't/can't host. (Basically run your own Forge and use that to fund development)
3. For the 3 types of players - I think I'm mostly #2 with some small dips into #3. Something I've learned from Home Automation - the more stuff you try to be clever and automate, the more stuff there is to go wrong. However, computers are essentially calculators that can do other cool stuff, so it's dumb to not have the VTT facilitate subtracting HP during battle, etc. This saves time vs at the table when people are trying to do math in their head and erasing and re-writing their HP.

ALSO, I find that being able to click on the character sheet to do stuff is AWESOME for onboarding folks to the hobby. Otherwise not only do they have to learn how to play pretend with a bunch of other adults (something we unlearned from our time as kids unless you're a theatre kid), understand all the actions you can take during battle (or conversations and exploration), AND figure out the math. It's a lot to ask of folks. I've onboarded people to D&D via VTT and they found it painless to understand to click on things. Now, should they eventually grow a bit and understand ACs and DCs and so on - sure. But just like we don't throw kids into the deep end to teach swimming anymore, we can also ramp people up to the hobby.

4. As I started to read a lot of the replies I looked back and saw that the original question (despite being a "stealth" ad for a new VTT) asked what it would take to SWITCH. At this point, for me to switch it would require a new VTT to do something that's not legal (AFAIK) - bring all the modules I paid for into the new VTT. I ALREADY bought a few books for dndbeyond before realizing it wasn't for me. Now that I've re-bought for Foundry AND bought new stuff ($300+ ... maybe even $400?) - there's no way I'm switching unless Foundry stops working and/or my favored publishers stop putting out material for Foundry.

5. Even if you could legally import all my previously purchased stuff into Realm, you would have to do something better than Foundry. And it would have to appeal to me. Because I have some content for Alchemy that I got as part of kickstarters (and one that I got for free from a publisher giveaway) that I'm not using in Alchemy. I HATE the Alchemy UI. This doesn't mean it's bad. It doesn't mean anything except that I hate it. I don't like it and I won't even use the "free" stuff I have there. So, not only do you need to be self-hosted, bring my content over (from WoTC, Paizo, KP, and others), you also need to have a UI that feels better to me thank Foundry.