---
title: External Storage
description: Understand Enterprise external storage controls for self-hosted OpnForm
---

External Storage is an Enterprise area for teams that need storage controls beyond the instance-wide default.

<Info>
    Instance-wide file storage configuration, including local and
    S3-compatible storage, is configured separately and does not require an
    Enterprise license by itself.
</Info>

## Instance-wide storage vs Enterprise external storage

Self-hosted OpnForm can use Laravel filesystem configuration to store uploads locally or in S3-compatible storage. This is the default storage configuration for the whole instance.

Enterprise external storage features are workspace or organization-level controls that go beyond the default instance storage setup.

## Configure instance-wide file storage

See [AWS S3 Configuration](/configuration/aws-s3) for the standard self-hosted storage setup.

## Related pages

-   [AWS S3 Configuration](/configuration/aws-s3)
-   [Self-hosted License](/deployment/self-hosted-license)
-   [License Activation](/deployment/license-activation)
