In-House, Service Provider or Hybrid: Choosing Your DPP Infrastructure Model

The ESPR allows manufacturers the freedom to build their Digital Product Passport infrastructure in-house or bring in a third-party service provider. What’s right for the business is left entirely to the operator, and it's arguably the biggest practical decision in the whole DPP project.

We discussed the realities of each  alongside an expert panel at PLASA Show 2026; BishopSound is working with an industry-focused DPP service provider, whereas Instagrid has taken a hybrid approach, combining internal development with external consultancy and expertise. 

There is no single approach to DPP infrastructure. The right model depends on what a business already has in place, and how deeply it wants the DPP to integrate with its existing product and data infrastructure.

Three Routes

In-house

You own the platform: pulling product and supply-chain data together, structuring it against what's required, generating the passport, and keeping it registered and in sync. 

This route suits businesses that already have well-structured product data and the systems to hold it, alongside in-house software, regulatory and technical expertise. Where those foundations are in place, building on them gives a manufacturer full control over how the passport connects to the rest of its operations.

The trade-off is the investment, and it doesn't stop at launch. The infrastructure has to be built and then maintained, and keeping a passport accurate is a lifecycle duty, not a project with an end date. The business also takes on keeping pace with DPP regulation, not only in the EU but internationally, and investing in the standards and certifications required to upload to the EU DPP registry. With resources focused on meeting the regulation, there is also a real risk that an in-house build delivers compliance and little else.

Service Provider

An authorised third party processes your DPP data and makes it available to whoever is entitled to see it, as the ESPR defines it. It puts a specialist between you and a complex ecosystem. While the horizontal API architecture is now locked in under EN 18222:2026, a service provider insulates your business from the upcoming wave of product-specific EU delegated acts, which will dictate varying data payloads and attributes sector by sector.

A service provider also brings a holistic view of the industry and a ready-made team of DPP specialists. The investment in standards and certifications, software, and technical and regulatory capability sits with the provider rather than the manufacturer.

The drawback is that the technology and standards are still emerging. Many DPP service providers are still waiting for certainty on the requirements for specific product categories, so what they offer will continue to develop as those requirements are confirmed.

Hybrid

Internal development combined with external consultancy and expertise, as Instagrid has approached it. Instagrid has its own team of software engineers, but a DPP is not just a technical project, which is why it has blended those in-house capabilities with external expertise. Exactly how that split works will vary business to business, but it's a genuine middle option alongside building fully in-house or handing the platform layer to a service provider entirely. 

What Tips the Decision?

The ESPR permits both routes as a genuine decision, not a default, and the deciding factors are the manufacturer's internal capabilities, available resources, and how deeply they want the DPP to integrate with what they already run. Engineering capacity matters, not just at launch but for as long as the passport needs to stay accurate. So does what's already in place, if product, warranty and repair data already live in systems you're not planning to replace, that shapes how much new infrastructure actually makes sense.

What is the DPP for?

Manufacturers already progressing their DPP projects are not necessarily doing so purely because of EU regulation. Some are looking at how product traceability can help demonstrate provenance, support product registration, make information easier to access for repair and servicing, and provide what's needed for trade-in and circularity programmes. 

Where the passport sits on that spectrum, compliance minimum through to something the business builds value on, is worth being clear on before choosing infrastructure.

Before Committing

There are a few things to consider:

• Who owns this internally beyond go-live, not just for launch. 

• Whether the passport needs to talk to systems already running, or can sit alongside them. 

• Whether product scope is settled, or likely to grow as further delegated acts come into force.

• Whether the target is the compliance floor, or something the business can build on.

Where TAZAAR Fits

AssetID is built as the service-provider layer, structuring product data, generating the passport, and keeping registry interoperability built in as standard.

You can learn more about AssetID and talk through what fits your business here.