Which one matches your needs?

Online hosting is SaaS (Software as a Service) type which allows you to access your Odoo database from the cloud. Through a web browser, you simply need to connect to www.odoo.com with your credentials to access your database. With this type of hosting, you have no responsibility to maintain your database as everything is managed by Odoo.

The On-Premise hosting (local) hosting requires you to download the software and install it, either on your computer or on your server. With this type of implementation you are responsible for everything related to the running of the software. You must purchase the network infrastructure, power, servers, operating system, etc. You also need to maintain all necessary infrastructures to keep it running, safe, and up to date. The On-Premise hosting gives you full control and autonomy of your installation. You do need to have fairly advanced technical knowledge in order to implement and maintain this kind of hosting.

Odoo S.A. also offers Odoo.sh as a PaaS (Platform as a Service), which is a mix between the two hosting types mentioned above. It allows you to create your cloud-based database whilst having custom developments or third-party apps installed. Odoo Community is NOT supported in the cloud-version, only local access where Odoo is installed on your computer or server.