Hosting Categories

Build the mental model

Once you know your app needs to be deployed, the next question is where. Hosting is a spectrum of categories that trade convenience for control.

• Static / Managed platforms (Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages) -- handle almost everything, little control
• Serverless (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions) -- no server to manage, pay only for usage
• Containers (AWS ECS, Google Cloud Run) -- run consistently anywhere, more runtime control
• VPS (virtual private server) -- full OS access, maximum control, maximum responsibility
• Shared hosting -- many customers on one server, cheap, limited control

None of these categories is universally best. A tiny personal blog and a large multi-service backend have completely different needs, and later lessons and projects in this course will teach how to choose between them.

HOSTING CATEGORIES: MANAGED VS CONTROL
--------------------------------------
 MOST MANAGED                                    MOST CONTROL
 LEAST CONTROL  <-----------------------------> LEAST MANAGED

 Static/Managed    Serverless    Containers    VPS (full OS)
 (Netlify, Vercel,  (Lambda,     (ECS, Cloud   (EC2, Droplet)
  GitHub Pages)      Functions)   Run)

Connect it to a real scenario

The recommendHosting function below is a toy decision-maker, not a rule you should follow blindly in real life, but it captures the spirit of choosing a hosting category. It takes three simple yes-or-no facts about a project, whether it has backend code at all, whether it needs full control over the operating system, and whether the team wants minimal ongoing operations work, and returns one recommended category. A project with no backend at all, like a portfolio site, gets static hosting, since there is no server-side code to run.

A project that explicitly needs full operating system control, like a custom game server, gets a VPS. Everything else that wants minimal ops work gets serverless, otherwise it falls back to container hosting.

Running it against three example projects shows three different, reasonable-looking answers. Remember this is intentionally oversimplified: real decisions also weigh cost, team experience, expected traffic, and how the project might grow, which is exactly what later, more advanced material on this site is for.

• Hosting is a spectrum of categories trading convenience for control
• The main categories are static/managed, serverless, containers, VPS, and shared hosting
• No category is universally best; it depends on the specific project's needs

Hosting Category Cheat-Check

• No backend code at all? -> Static hosting fits
• Need full control over the OS? -> Consider a VPS
• Traffic is unpredictable and you like pay-per-use? -> Consider serverless
• Want the runtime to behave identically everywhere? -> Consider container hosting
• Want minimal ops (server management) work? -> Choose a managed platform or serverless
• Tight budget, small site? -> Shared hosting can work, but know its limits

Try the working example

function recommendHosting({ hasBackend, needsFullControl, wantsMinimalOps }) {
  if (!hasBackend) return "static hosting";
  if (needsFullControl) return "VPS";
  if (wantsMinimalOps) return "serverless";
  return "container hosting";
}

const projects = [
  { name: "Portfolio site", hasBackend: false, needsFullControl: false, wantsMinimalOps: true },
  { name: "Custom game server", hasBackend: true, needsFullControl: true, wantsMinimalOps: false },
  { name: "Small API backend", hasBackend: true, needsFullControl: false, wantsMinimalOps: true }
];

for (const p of projects) {
  const { name, ...needs } = p;
  console.log(`${name} -> ${recommendHosting(needs)}`);
}

Portfolio site -> static hosting
Custom game server -> VPS
Small API backend -> serverless

Wikipedia: Web hosting service — Cloud & Deployment