Learning hardhat. What is the difference between deploying to localhost and hardhat network?

Question

On one hand, when I run "npx hardhat node --network localhost" it tells me that we can only run hardhat node, so i run "npx hardhat node" and it works.

Ok so I am using hardhat network node, not localhost.

On the other hand when I go to deploy with "npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js" nothing happens in the node window (picture below). However when I do "npx hardhat run --network localhost" it shows up on the node window.

Is this not confusing? I am using hardhat node on one side and when I deploy to hardhat I can't see anything, but then when I deploy to localhost all the info shows on on the node window.

What is the difference between localhost and hardhat network?

Answer 1

Hardhat has a local ethereum network that is run in two flavors. The "hardhat" network is run in-process, while the "localhost" version is run as a standalone daemon, enabling JSON-RPC and WebSocket connections. Whenever you run a script, the in-process "hardhat" network is started automatically. Alternatively, you can run the standalone version using the command npx hardhat node.