Your laptop isn’t a server.
Hosting is renting a computer that's always on and always online. Three families, from simplest to most responsibility.
Static hosting
Simplest
Plain pages, no backend.
Often free for small sites.
App platforms
Most Projects
Frontend plus backend.
Deploy straight from GitHub.
Your own server
Full Control
A cloud VM or an in-house server.
You patch and run it.
Ask before you pick
Where does the data physically live? (POPIA cross-border rules)
What does it cost at 10× the users?
Who gets told when it's down?
Source: POPIA ↗
Match the host to the app, and the data to the law.