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

# Overview

> Horizon is a central component of the Stellar platform: it provides an HTTP API to data in the Stellar network.

Horizon is a central component of the Stellar platform: it provides an HTTP API to data in the Stellar network. It ingests and re-serves the data produced by the Stellar network in a form that is easier to consume by the average application relative to the performance-oriented data representations used by Stellar Core.

This guide describes how to administer a production Horizon instance (refer to the [Developers' Blog](https://stellar.org/blog/developers/a-new-sun-on-the-horizon) for some background on the performance and architectural improvements of this major version bump). For information about developing on the Horizon codebase, check out the [Development Guide](https://github.com/stellar/stellar-horizon/blob/main/internal/docs/DEVELOPING.md).

Before we begin, it's worth reiterating the sentiment echoed in the [Run a Core Node](/docs/validators.md) guide: **we do not endorse running Horizon backed by a standalone Stellar Core instance**, and especially not by a *validating* Stellar Core. These are two separate concerns, and decoupling them is important for both reliability and performance. Horizon instead manages its own, pared-down version of Stellar Core optimized for its own subset of needs (we'll refer to this as a "Captive Core" instance).

## Why Run Horizon?

Running Horizon within your own infrastructure provides a number of benefits. You can:

* Have full operational control without dependency on the Stellar Development Foundation for network data and transaction submission to networks;
* Run multiple instances for redundancy and scalability.