FusionHub uses a peer-based licensing model. You purchase a license that supports a maximum number of simultaneous connected devices, with tiers available from a single peer (the free Solo license) up to 4,000 peers for large-scale enterprise deployments. The license is a one-time purchase, but software updates and InControl 2 management access require an ongoing software warranty.

Speedify's self-hosted server is a subscription add-on, licensed per server rather than per client device. Client device licensing is handled separately through Speedify's standard Teams or Enterprise plans.

One notable FusionHub constraint: the license validation mechanism requires the FusionHub server to communicate with Peplink's InControl servers over the internet. Deployments on networks that are fully isolated from the internet — air-gapped networks, restricted government environments, certain industrial networks — cannot use FusionHub without a Private InControl Virtual Appliance (ICVA), which is a separate product.

Speedify's self-hosted server does not have this constraint once licensed; it operates independently of Speedify's infrastructure after activation.

FusionHub deploys as a virtual appliance: an OVF/OVA image that you import into a hypervisor, or a marketplace AMI for cloud deployments. The installation process involves provisioning a VM, importing the image, configuring network interfaces, and registering with InControl 2. For organizations with existing VMware or cloud infrastructure and staff familiar with those platforms, this is standard work. For organizations that prefer simpler deployment paths, the process has more moving parts than a package install.

Speedify's self-hosted server installs as a Linux package on a standard Linux instance. The process is a package install, license activation, and pointing clients at the server's IP address. It does not require a hypervisor or a VM image; it runs directly on bare metal or a standard cloud VM.

• Your clients are a mix of platforms — laptops, phones, tablets, or non-Peplink routers — and you can't or don't want to standardize on Peplink hardware
• You need to run the server on an isolated or air-gapped network without external license validation
• You want a simpler deployment path without the overhead of provisioning and managing a virtual appliance
• You're already running Speedify for client-side bonding and need the server component in a specific location or compliance boundary
• Your use case centers on individual devices bonding multiple connections (cellular + Wi-Fi, for example) rather than site-to-site WAN connectivity

FusionHub and Speedify's self-hosted server are both legitimate answers to the same underlying question: how do I run a bonding server on infrastructure I control? They arrive at different answers because they're built for different network architectures.

FusionHub is designed for organizations building on the Peplink ecosystem — where the hardware on both ends is Peplink, where InControl 2 is the management plane, and where SD-WAN is primarily a site-to-site problem. It's a complete solution within that ecosystem, and within that ecosystem it works well.

Speedify's self-hosted server is designed for organizations where bonding happens at the device level across heterogeneous hardware, where the clients are laptops and phones and embedded systems running Speedify, and where the server needs to live inside a specific infrastructure boundary. It doesn't require buying into a hardware ecosystem to use it.

If you have existing infrastructure, mixed client hardware, or requirements that push against FusionHub's constraints — particularly around client hardware, air-gapped networks, or deployment simplicity — Speedify's self-hosted server is worth a closer look.