What Is MathWorks Service Host?
MathWorks® Service Host is a collection of background processes that provide required services to MATLAB® and other MathWorks products. Starting from R2024a, all MATLAB installations require MathWorks Service Host.
MathWorks Service Host facilitates communication with MathWorks web services and supports a variety of connectivity functions, including:
Licensing.
Enabling MathWorks Account Sign-in.
Supporting MATLAB Connector for MATLAB Drive. For details, see Install MATLAB Connector for MATLAB Drive (MATLAB).
Enabling REST Function Service. For details on creating REST function services in MATLAB, see Create MATLAB REST Function Services (MATLAB).
Supporting hardware connectivity in MATLAB Online. For example, see Connect to Raspberry Pi Hardware Board in MATLAB Online (MATLAB).
Installation and Updates
MathWorks Service Host is installed into a separate location from MATLAB and other MathWorks products. The MathWorks Service Host installation automatically updates itself when a new version is available (approximately every four weeks).
These automatic updates only update MathWorks Service Host and do not update your MATLAB installation(s). You still control which MATLAB update you want to install for a given release, such as R2024a (see Get Update of Installed MATLAB Release).
The latest version of MathWorks Service Host supports all versions of MATLAB that might be installed on a computer. It includes two processes that run in the background even when other MathWorks products are closed. These processes are low impact, energy-efficient processes (as classified by Windows® and macOS). These background processes are required, so you should avoid stopping them. When you start MathWorks applications, such as MATLAB, they also start another MathWorks Service Host client process. This client process will terminate when you close the application.
MathWorks Service Host is installed in the User Profile on Windows and Home directory on macOS and Linux®.
Security Considerations
MathWorks Service Host is code-signed and has a digital signature verifying its authenticity and integrity. When MathWorks Service Host is installed, or auto-updates to a new version, the code signatures are verified. This checks that the packages are genuine and that they have not been altered or tampered with after they were signed by MathWorks. Code signing enables you to verify and confirm that MathWorks Service Host is a genuine installation from MathWorks (e.g. using standard tools like SignTool or Codesign). On Windows and Linux, the signer is “The MathWorks, Inc.” and the digital signatures use the SHA-256 message digest algorithm. On macOS, the signing authority is “Developer ID Application: The MathWorks, Inc. (94DN422U8R)”.