How much does hosting really matter when running a small SaaS?

One thing I’ve been thinking about with small SaaS projects is how much attention should actually go into the hosting side. When the product is still small, it’s easy to focus almost entirely on features, users, and getting the first few customers.

I’ve been looking more closely at the hosting side of a small project, and it got me thinking about the less exciting parts of running a SaaS, keeping the site available, managing domains, handling updates, and making sure there’s a reasonable setup when something goes wrong.

It seems like the right hosting choice becomes more important as the product grows, but I’m not sure where the point is where it actually starts making a noticeable difference.

For those running a small SaaS, how much attention do you give to hosting and infrastructure compared with product development and growth?