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Sphingolipids are essential membrane components involved in a wide range of cellular, developmental and signaling processes. Sphingolipids are so essential that knock-out mutation often leads to lethality. In recent years, conditional or weak allele mutants as well as the broadening of the pharmacological catalog allowed to decipher sphingolipid function more precisely in a less invasive way. This review intends to provide a discussion and point of view on the function of sphingolipids with a main focus on endomembrane trafficking, Golgi-mediated protein sorting, cell polarity, cell-to-cell communication and cell signaling at the plasma membrane. While our main angle is the plant field research, we will constantly refer to and compare with the advances made in the yeast and animal field. In this review, we will emphasize the role of sphingolipids not only as a membrane component, but also as a key player at a center of homeostatic regulatory networks involving direct or indirect interaction with other lipids, proteins and ion fluxes. • Sphingolipids traffic through both vesicular and non-vesicular membrane contact sites • Sphingolipids drive protein sorting at pre- and post-Golgi by segregating subdomains. • Homeostasis of sphingolipids and PI4P is coupled across leaflets during protein sorting. • Sphingolipids act at endoplasmic reticulum/plasma membrane contact sites in plants. • Sphingolipids act in cell signaling at the plasma membrane and immunity response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]