> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gradial.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Hosting

> ACI orchestrates publishing but your live site runs on battle-tested infrastructure you already trust.

ACI is not a hosting provider. Your live site runs on infrastructure that already delivers ultra-high availability and ultra-low latency at global scale. ACI orchestrates the build and publish pipeline, then hands off to your hosting platform for serving.

Your users never hit an ACI server. They hit your CDN, your edge network, your infrastructure. ACI leverages the platforms that are already best at this rather than building another one.

## How It Works

ACI publishes through **hosting adapters**, lightweight integrations that know how to deploy rendered artifacts and routing configuration to a specific platform. The adapter receives the output of the publish pipeline (static HTML, compiled JSON, route tables, and CDN configuration) and deploys it to your infrastructure.

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
    A["ACI Publish Pipeline"] --> B["Hosting Adapter"]
    B --> C["Your Infrastructure"]
    C --> D["Your Users"]

    A -.->|"orchestration\n(not in serving path)"| E["ACI Server"]

    style A fill:#6366f1,color:#fff
    style C fill:#22c55e,color:#fff
    style D fill:#22c55e,color:#fff
    style E fill:#94a3b8,color:#fff
```

Once deployed, your hosting platform takes over entirely. The CDN serves your content with global edge caching. The edge functions run in your account. You get the full performance and availability of these mature platforms without building anything new.

## Available Adapters

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="AWS CloudFront + S3" icon="aws">
    Static pages and release artifacts served from S3 through CloudFront's global CDN, with active-release pointers and edge routing handled by AWS-native infrastructure. Battle-tested infrastructure trusted by millions of sites.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Vercel" icon="triangle">
    Deploy to Vercel's edge network with SSR-oriented release support. ACI stages the page JSON and route metadata your Vercel-hosted frontend reads at request time, so if you already use Vercel, ACI plugs into your existing setup.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Local Filesystem" icon="folder">
    Run the full release lifecycle on your own machine, no cloud account required. Perfect for local development, smoke testing, and validating a new adapter against the same publish flow production uses.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Why This Matters

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="World-class serving infrastructure" icon="shield-check">
    When a user loads your site, the request goes to your CDN and your edge functions. These platforms are purpose-built for high availability and low latency at global scale. Your site's performance comes directly from their infrastructure, with no extra hops or intermediaries.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="You keep your existing infrastructure" icon="server">
    Already using CloudFront? Vercel? ACI deploys to what you have. No migration to a proprietary hosting platform. No new vendor in your serving path. Your ops team manages the same infrastructure they already know.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Proven scale" icon="chart-line">
    CloudFront and Vercel handle billions of requests daily across millions of sites. Your site gets the same global distribution, edge caching, and availability guarantees that these platforms provide to everyone. ACI leverages that scale rather than replicating it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Immutable releases on your infrastructure" icon="rotate-left">
    Every release is an immutable artifact deployed to your hosting platform. Previous releases remain available on the CDN, making rollback a simple pointer change. Your ops team can manage releases with standard infrastructure tooling.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

*Next: [Customer-Owned Data →](/aci/platform/customer-owned-data)*