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Glossary

Serverless vs private server

Serverless shares cloud capacity. A private server is a dedicated machine for your team's apps.

Definition

Serverless and private server describe two ways to host an app. Serverless usually means your code runs on demand on shared cloud infrastructure you do not manage as a machine. A private server means a dedicated machine (or clearly isolated host) for your organisation’s apps. For internal tools, the practical difference is tenancy and control: are you sharing a pool, or do you get a server that is yours to host and share apps on?

Why it matters

AI-built internal tools often hold business data. Teams pick a host based on a live URL and only later learn they wanted private tenancy, company login, continuous backups, and a database that stays with them. Comparing serverless vs private server in plain English helps you choose hosting for how you will share and deploy, not only for launch speed.

How Croft fits

Croft gives each workspace its own private server for AI-built apps, not a shared multi-tenant app pool. You deploy onto that machine with company login, SQLite-backed data, continuous encrypted off-site backups, nightly snapshots, and rollback included. Bring your own AI. Solo from $24/mo annual, Team $99/mo annual, 7-day trial. See Under the hood and Security.

Related terms

  • Private app hosting Hosting where only invited people can open the app, not the open internet.
  • App hosting Running your app on a server with a URL people can open in a browser.
  • Deploy an app Putting your app onto a server so people can open it at a real URL.
  • Backups Continuous encrypted copies of your app data so you can recover after mistakes or failures.
  • SQLite A file-based app database. On Croft it is continuously backed up off-site so your team data lasts.

Keep reading

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is a private server in this context?

A dedicated host for your organisation’s apps, isolated from other customers, where you deploy and share internal tools.

What does serverless usually mean?

Running app code on shared cloud capacity that scales with requests, without you managing a long-lived machine yourself.

Which model does Croft use?

Private server. Each croft is your own machine for hosting and sharing AI-built apps with team access and backups.

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