What Is Web Hosting? How Websites and Apps Stay Online
Web hosting means running your site or app on computers that are always online so anyone can reach it. The types, key terms, and what an AI-built app needs.
Mythex Team · · 5 min read
Web hosting is running your website or app on computers that are always on and connected to the internet, so anyone can reach it at any time. The hosting provider stores your files, runs your code, and sends pages and data to visitors' browsers when they ask. Your laptop could technically do this, but hosting providers do it reliably, securely and at scale.
Why it matters when you build with AI
When you build with an AI app builder, your app first runs in a preview: a private copy that you (and maybe collaborators) can use. Hosting is what turns that into a live app on a public address that customers can open.
The type of hosting your app needs depends on what it does. A landing page needs very little. An app with logins, a database and payments needs a server running your code, somewhere to keep data, and HTTPS. Understanding the difference helps you choose a builder, estimate running costs, and know what happens if your app suddenly gets busy — or if you want to move it elsewhere one day.
An everyday analogy
Think of hosting like premises for a business.
- A market stall is static hosting: cheap, quick to set up, great for showing and selling a fixed range of things.
- A shared office is shared hosting: you rent a desk in a building with many other businesses, sharing the lift, the internet and the kitchen. It's affordable, but a noisy neighbour affects you.
- Your own serviced office is a virtual private server (VPS): your own space with guaranteed resources, but you're responsible for what goes on inside.
- Your own building is a dedicated server: full control and full responsibility.
- A managed workspace that grows and shrinks with your team is cloud or platform hosting: you use what you need, pay for what you use, and the landlord handles maintenance.
Your domain name is the street address on the sign. DNS is the map that tells visitors which building that address belongs to.
Types of hosting
| Type | What it is | Good for | You manage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static hosting | Serves fixed files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images), often from a CDN | Landing pages, portfolios, marketing sites, frontend-only apps | Almost nothing |
| Shared hosting | Many sites on one server, often with a control panel | Small WordPress or PHP sites | Some settings |
| VPS | A virtual machine with dedicated resources | Custom apps, if you're comfortable running a server | The operating system, security updates, deployments |
| Dedicated server | A whole physical machine | High, steady workloads with specific needs | Everything |
| Platform as a Service (PaaS) | You provide code; the platform builds, runs and scales it | Most web apps and APIs | Your code and configuration |
| Serverless | Code runs on demand per request; nothing runs when idle | Spiky or low traffic, APIs, background tasks | Your functions |
Most AI app builders that host for you work like a PaaS: you press publish, and the platform handles servers, scaling and certificates.
A worked example: what a booking app needs to go live
Take a salon booking app with a public booking page, customer accounts and an owner dashboard. To be live, it needs:
| Piece | What it does | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | The pages and buttons in the visitor's browser | Static hosting / CDN |
| Backend | Checks availability, saves bookings, enforces who can see what | A server or container |
| Database | Stores services, customers and bookings | A managed database |
| File storage | Holds uploaded photos | Object storage |
| Domain + DNS | book.yoursalon.com pointing at the app | Your registrar / DNS provider |
| HTTPS certificate | Encrypts traffic; shows the padlock | Issued by the host or a certificate authority |
| Secrets | API keys for email and payments | The host's environment variables |
If you deployed this yourself, you'd set up each piece. A platform that hosts for you bundles them. Either way, it helps to know the pieces exist — the frontend vs. backend guide explains the split.
Common terms explained
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Server | A computer that responds to requests over a network. |
| Deploy / publish | Putting a version of your code onto the hosting so it's live. |
| Uptime | The share of time the site is reachable. |
| Bandwidth / egress | The amount of data sent from your app to visitors. Often billed. |
| CDN | Content delivery network: copies of your files on servers around the world, so they load faster. |
| SSL/TLS, HTTPS | Encryption between browser and server. TLS is the modern protocol; "SSL certificate" is the common name. |
| Scaling | Handling more traffic: bigger machines (vertical) or more of them (horizontal). |
| Scale to zero / cold start | Idle apps stop to save money; the first request after a pause takes a little longer while it wakes. |
| Environment variables | Configuration and secrets given to your app at runtime, kept out of the code. |
| Logs | Records of what the app did, used to diagnose errors. |
| Container | A packaged app with everything it needs to run, often built from a Dockerfile. |
Common mistakes and misconceptions
- Confusing the domain with the hosting. Buying
yourname.comdoesn't put a site on it. You also need hosting and DNS records that point to it. - Assuming "unlimited" is unlimited. Plans that advertise unlimited bandwidth or storage usually have fair-use terms. Read them.
- Forgetting running costs. Building an app is one cost; hosting, database, storage and third-party APIs are ongoing. Check how each is billed before launch.
- Saving files to the server's disk. On most modern hosting, the server's local disk is temporary and can be wiped on each deploy or restart. Uploaded files belong in object storage.
- Treating the preview as production. Previews may pause, use test data or be visible only to you. Publish before sharing.
- Ignoring where you can move. If your hosting is tied to one platform, check whether you can export the code and run it elsewhere later.
What to ask your AI builder for
- "What does this app need to run once published: static files only, or a server and database too?"
- "Where are uploaded files stored? Make sure they don't live on the server's local disk."
- "Keep all API keys in environment variables."
- "Add caching headers for images and static files."
- "Show me the logs for the last failed request."
- "If I wanted to host this elsewhere, what would I need?" — see how to export and self-host an AI-built app.
Hosting on Mythex
On Mythex, hosting is part of the builder. When you publish, Mythex snapshots the project and deploys it to yourname.mythex.ai: static frontends go out as static sites, and backends run on managed machines that sleep when idle and wake on the next visit. The database and file storage come with the project when your app needs them. Hosting, bandwidth, database and storage spend from the same credit balance as building, and Pro pays half the Free rate for them; static sites don't spend credits while they sit idle. Pro adds custom domains with HTTPS issued automatically. The docs cover publishing and hosting limits, and pricing compares the plans.
Questions
What is web hosting in simple terms?
Web hosting is renting space and computing power on servers that are always switched on and connected to the internet, so your website or app can be reached by anyone at any time. The host stores your files, runs your code and sends pages to visitors' browsers.
Is a domain the same as hosting?
No. A domain is the name people type, like example.com. Hosting is where the site actually runs. DNS records connect the two by pointing the domain at your host. You can buy them from the same company or from different ones.
Do I need separate hosting for an app built with AI?
It depends on the builder. Some AI app builders, Mythex included, host the app for you when you publish. Others generate code you have to deploy yourself to a hosting provider.
What's the difference between static and dynamic hosting?
Static hosting serves files that are the same for every visitor, such as a landing page — it's simple, fast and cheap. Dynamic hosting runs server code that builds responses per request, which apps with logins, databases and payments need.