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

# Core Concepts

> Understand the building blocks of InstaPods — pods, presets, plans, regions, and teams.

## Pods

A **pod** is a persistent Linux container running on InstaPods infrastructure. Pods are full system containers — all files, installed packages, and configurations survive restarts. Think of it as your own tiny server.

Each pod gets:

* A public URL (e.g., `my-app.nbg1-1.instapods.app`)
* A dedicated SSH port for remote access
* A pre-installed development stack based on its preset
* Its own filesystem at `/home/instapod/app`

Pods can be started, stopped, restarted, resized, and deleted. When stopped, your data is preserved — you only lose the running processes.

## Presets

A **preset** defines the software stack pre-installed in a pod. InstaPods offers four presets:

| Preset      | Stack                                      | App Port | Use Case                         |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- | -------------------------------- |
| **Static**  | nginx                                      | 80       | HTML/CSS/JS sites, landing pages |
| **PHP**     | nginx + PHP-FPM 8.3 + Composer             | 80       | PHP applications, APIs           |
| **Node.js** | Node.js 22 + npm + systemd service         | 3000     | Express, Next.js, any Node app   |
| **Python**  | Python 3.12 + pip + venv + systemd service | 8000     | Django, Flask, FastAPI           |

Presets use pre-built images, so pod creation takes just 1-2 seconds. See [Presets Overview](/presets/overview) for details on each.

## Plans

**Plans** determine the resources allocated to your pod:

| Plan       | CPU    | Memory | Storage | Price   | Services |
| ---------- | ------ | ------ | ------- | ------- | -------- |
| **Launch** | 1 vCPU | 512 MB | 10 GB   | \$3/mo  | No       |
| **Build**  | 2 vCPU | 2 GB   | 25 GB   | \$7/mo  | Yes      |
| **Grow**   | 2 vCPU | 4 GB   | 50 GB   | \$15/mo | Yes      |
| **Scale**  | 4 vCPU | 8 GB   | 100 GB  | \$25/mo | Yes      |
| **Turbo**  | 6 vCPU | 12 GB  | 150 GB  | \$49/mo | Yes      |

All plans include SSH access, custom domains, automatic SSL, and the web IDE.

<Note>
  The Launch plan does not support database services (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis). Upgrade to Build or higher to install services.
</Note>

## Regions

A **region** is a geographic location where your pods run. Each region has one or more servers. When creating a pod, you can optionally select a region — if you don't, InstaPods automatically picks the closest server based on your location.

List available regions via the CLI or API:

```bash theme={null}
instapods regions
```

This shows each region and how many servers are available. You can also view regions at [app.instapods.com](https://app.instapods.com) or via the API at `GET /api/regions`.

## Teams

A **team** is the organizational unit for billing and access control. Every user belongs to at least one team.

* Pods belong to teams, not individual users
* Billing (subscriptions, invoices) is per-team
* Team members can manage all pods within the team
* You can create multiple teams and switch between them

See [Teams](/dashboard/teams) for more on managing teams and inviting members.