We’ve seen that it’s possible to use Urbit on your local machine. In this article, we’ll show the more convenient and practical option, which is to hire a hosting service.
Hosting providers are companies that will do the work of setting up your Urbit in the cloud, ensuring it’s up to date, and that you don’t need to perform any technical steps or maintenance.
Additionally, they will also provide the necessary disk space and internet connection so you can install all applications and browse Urbit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
One of the significant advantages of this method is that you can access Urbit from any device, at any time, by logging in with your account.
Usually, you’ll get a new Urbit ID by signing up with a hosting provider, but some allow you to bring your own Urbit ID if you already have one.
Although hosting providers offer convenience and customer support, hosting means entrusting your data to your provider, just like you would with any internet service company. However, unlike typical internet services, Urbit allows you to change servers at any time (or self-host), taking all your data with you.
Similarly, if your hosting service eventually disappears, you can place your ship in another location as if nothing happened, since you own the credentials for that ship.
We will then show which are the best companies to host your Urbit.
Red Horizon
Red Horizon is an initiative by Chorus One, a company focused on full node blockchain hosting services. The Red Horizon initiative aims to bring managed Urbit hosting to its customers, leveraging their expertise in cryptography-related matters.
Chorus One is known for its blockchain validation services on various networks, including Cosmos, Polkadot, and Solana, and is now expanding its services to the Urbit platform. Red Horizon offers a managed Urbit hosting solution that provides high availability and security, as well as backup and technical support resources.
Their current plans offer a free start, as you can see here.
Tlon
Tlon is currently the leading company responsible for creating the source code and maintaining Urbit, as well as being the creator of some popular applications like Landscape, Groups, and Talk.
They also offer hosting services that integrate seamlessly with the rest of their products. Tlon hosting offers plans around $20/month, as you can see here.
Planet One
Planet One is a service owned by Tirrel Corporation, the creator of some Urbit ecosystem applications like Planet Market, Urbit Studio, and Scene.
Planet One offers Urbit hosting for $15/month. You can also get hosting through their native desktop app, Scene. Check out their website.
ThirdEarth
ThirdEarth is a hosting provider that allows you to join an existing Urbit ID and Pier, meaning a planet you’ve already initialized elsewhere. If you don’t have a planet yet, they can also provide you with one. The hosting plans are:
Permanent ID: A permanent ID is your key to the Urbit universe. You’ll be able to join groups, publish content, and interact with the Urbit network using your Permanent ID. This plan can be obtained for $11.99/month.
BYOP (Name and Key): If you already have a planet with an unused network key or a factory reset network key, you can host your own planet for $9.99/month.
BYOP (Pier): If you already have a planet in use that you’d like to migrate to another hosting environment, BYOP (Pier) is the right choice, providing consistent availability and automatic weekly maintenance for $9.99/month.
Check out their website.
Oracle Cloud
Oracle offers a free hosting plan through the Oracle Cloud VM, which acts as a cloud in a datacenter. Although limited, the resources provided are sufficient to run an Urbit ID. This option is attractive due to its high availability and good connection speed, as well as the fact that most people do not have a Linux or Mac computer at home that is always on.
This article explains how to set it up.