{"id":28889,"date":"2023-07-27T14:18:59","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T21:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=28889"},"modified":"2023-07-27T14:18:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T21:18:59","slug":"hub-vs-dock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/hub-vs-dock\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Difference Between a Hub and a Dock?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"OWC
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a>While on the road to Macstock, I asked Dave Hamilton a question that\u2019s been festering at me for a very long time: What\u2019s the difference between a Hub and a Dock? I\u2019ve seen a lot of explanations on the web, but in every case, I could counter their theory with an example that proved the opposite. For example, someone would say that docks are powered and hubs are not, but there also are powered hubs and unpowered docks.<\/p>\n

When I asked Dave, I got a surprising answer. He said he didn\u2019t know a definitive way to explain the difference either. We just happened to be on our way to go on a tour of Other World Computing<\/a>, aka OWC, who make docks and hubs, so we decided to ask them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad we did because we got a great answer from Rick in sales. He prefaced it by saying this is how OWC differentiate the two terms and that he wasn\u2019t saying this was everyone\u2019s definition.<\/p>\n

Rick said that a hub<\/strong> multiplies an existing port protocol into more of the same, and a dock adds<\/strong> different<\/em> ports to a machine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so simple and makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

For example, if you buy the Satechi Type-C Multi-Port adapter that gives you HDMI, USB-A, SD, and microSD slots in one bus-powered device, that\u2019s a dock<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Satechi
Satechi Dock<\/strong> with USB-C cable 2 USB-A 1 USB-C HDMI SD microSD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But if you buy the Satechi 4-Port USB-C Hub<\/a> that and adds four USB-C 3.0 Gen 1 data ports, that\u2019s a hub<\/strong> because it multiplies the existing port.<\/p>\n

\"Satechi
Satechi 4 Port USB-C Hub<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Likewise, the OWC 11-port Dock<\/a> is indeed a dock<\/strong> because it adds a plethora of ports from USB-A to C to Ethernet and more.<\/p>\n

\"OWC
OWC Thunderbolt Dock<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But to get more Thunderbolt ports, you need to get a hub<\/strong>, like the OWC Thunderbolt Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"OWC
OWC Thunderbolt Hub<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t point out that while I think OWC\u2019s explanation is clear and concise, Satechi seem to use a random set of nouns to describe their devices. Satechi have devices that are clearly docks<\/a> but they call them hubs, and the dock I just described is called an \u201cadapter\u201d. They sell devices they call docking stations<\/a>, but they only use that term when referring to big powered devices appropriate for a desk.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder we have trouble knowing which one is which, but I\u2019m going to stick with OWCs terminology because it makes me happy to have a definitive answer to this question, even if it isn\u2019t official and not everyone follows the convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While on the road to Macstock, I asked Dave Hamilton a question that\u2019s been festering at me for a very long time: What\u2019s the difference between a Hub and a Dock? I\u2019ve seen a lot of explanations on the web, but in every case, I could counter their theory with an example that proved the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[1172,2148,531,5996,1174,329],"class_list":["post-28889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-dock","tag-hdmi","tag-hub","tag-port-multiplier","tag-ports","tag-usb-c"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Hub-or-Dock-1040x520-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28889"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28893,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28889\/revisions\/28893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}