Certain apps require that you use hosted feature layers. There is also specific functionality that is available only when you use a hosted layer.
Apps
The following Esri apps require hosted feature layers:
- Story Map Tour configurable app
- ArcGIS GeoPlanner
- ArcGIS Insights
- ArcGIS Workflow Manager web app
- ArcGIS Workforce
If you use the ArcGIS Survey123 web designer to create a survey that includes layers from ArcGIS Enterprise, the survey will use hosted feature layers.
Functionality
Some functionality in the portal is only available when you work with hosted feature layers. See Feature layers for information on the differences in functionality among different types of feature layers.
When you publish scene layers or vector tile layers, they are always hosted layers.