How to read the market
Coverage is a spectrum, and every number states which end it sits on. The three headline tiers, from ceiling to floor:
A domain-level classification — not a count of companies, customers or legal entities. The denominator travels with every number.
| Population or layer | Definition |
|---|---|
| Web-provisioned universe | Domains observed configured to serve the web at least once. A broad ceiling, not a count of current hosting customers. |
| Web-active series | Domains meeting the current published activity definition. The definition version and any series break are visible — the v2 definition (2026-07-18) is a declared break from the withdrawn v1. |
| Confirmed-active business book | A stricter observed floor: verified operating email, live content or platform provisioning; parking, registrar placeholders and dead pages excluded under the published rule set. |
| Control plane | The nameserver operator — the relationship and registrar/control-plane position. It is not automatically the host. |
| Hosting origin | The network observed serving the site. Cloud and CDN masking can prevent brand attribution, and that limit is stated where it applies. |
| Web platform | A detected third-party platform or builder at the front door. A subset, not the entire web market. |
| The provider carrying mail for domains that publish an operating mail configuration. |
Public signals, reconciled across layers
HostingBrain uses publicly observable DNS, HTTP, TLS, website technology, pricing and company-ownership information. It normalises operators and brands, resolves current owners, defines analytical populations and carries coverage limitations into the answer.
Source categories
DNS and nameserver configuration · HTTP, TLS and publicly served website signals · website technology and platform fingerprints · public storefront pricing and promotional terms · public company, sponsor and acquisition records · registry and market calibration sources where available.
How a number is built
Five signal layers — registration, DNS control plane, web serving, platform provisioning, ownership — and never a host attribution from one signal alone. Observe → classify → attribute → calibrate → answer, with as-of date, denominator, attribution layer, confidence and caveats on every answer.
What HostingBrain does not claim
- A domain is not automatically a customer or a unique company.
- Nameserver control is not automatically website hosting.
- An observed technology is not automatically a paid subscription.
- Directional provider movement is not calibrated customer churn.
- Origin attribution can undercount cloud-hosted or CDN-masked operators — stated as a caveat, never mistaken for a small hosting business.
- A confirmed-active count is a defined observed floor, not a registry total.
When we don't know, the answer says so. That's the trust anchor of the whole product.
Every answer belongs to a release
The website and product read from one versioned, immutable release: the numbers on this site, the answers in the product and the definitions behind them trace to the same snapshot. When a definition changes materially, HostingBrain declares a series break rather than presenting the change as market movement.
| Field | Where you see it |
|---|---|
| Release ID | This page, the changelog and answer details — currently 20260719T230332Z-f32d1d94. |
| As-of date | On every product example and result — currently 2026-07-20. |
| Definition version | Population definitions are versioned; series breaks are declared in the changelog. |
| Coverage | Shown where it changes interpretation, not buried in a global disclaimer. |
| Warnings | Clear states: insufficient coverage direction-only field withheld series break |
| Changelog | Plain-English release notes for data additions, fixes and definition changes. |
Known-bad values are withheld
Materially invalid fields are quarantined rather than returned with a cosmetic footnote. Series changes carry a release note and never masquerade as market movement. Evidence remains inspectable: answers retain the as-of date, coverage, caveat and supporting source path.
Public-source intelligence, with clear boundaries
HostingBrain is built from publicly observable technical and commercial information. It does not use private customer billing databases, credentialed access, leaked data, intrusive scanning or personal-data enrichment. Research confidentiality: your query subjects are never visible to other customers and never sold.