Difference between Domain and Hosting Explained in Simple Words

If you’re new to the internet, you’re in the right place today. Here’s where you learn a lot about the internet, especially about the difference between domain and hosting. How much do they cost? Are they even related? And some more questions must have been running in your head. Before buying a domain, it is good to learn about both hosting and domain. Let the learning begin.

What Are Domain and Hosting?

Before you start learning about the difference between the domain name and hosting, it is good to understand each term first. First of all, you need to understand what the domain is. Then you better learn about the types of web hosting. Then you’ll be ready to understand what makes them different. Let’s begin with the domain first.

1. Domain Definition

A domain name is the website name. It is actually an address that’s used by internet users to access your own website. If your friends don’t have your address, they can’t find your house. It is just the same as the domain name. If visitors don’t know your domain name, how come they visit your website? The domain name needs to be typed in URL’s bar so they will find your website.

Here’s how you apply for domain registration: you make a good name for your own website. Your domain name should be unique. Prepare some variations of the domain names. You will then pay the registration fees that range between ten and thirty-five dollars depending on TLD. You can pay using your credit card or PayPal. The registration process is done.

Later, you’ll have to point your name of the domain to DNS hosting.

2. What Is Hosting

If the domain is address, hosting will be the house. Hosting is a place that carries all your website files. The entire websites around the world need web hosting. The companies of web hosting are working by serving and storing websites. They come with many hosting plan types for customers. You must choose the right web hosting that meets your website needs.

For example, there’s shared web hosting that’s placing many websites at once. The entire websites or domains in this hosting will share the same server resources like CPU and RAM. The cost of this hosting is really low. Then there’s also Virtual Private Server Hosting. This one divides the server into some virtual servers. It is like every website hosted on a dedicated server.

The third hosting is called Dedicated Server Hosting. This one lets you rent a whole server. Your site is going to be the only one that’s stored on that server. Finally, there’s cloud hosting that’s offering the unlimited ability for you to handle the traffic spikes or high traffic. There’ll be one team of some servers that work together in order to host several websites. Which one do you need?

Difference between Domain and Web Hosting

By now, you should have seen the difference between domain and hosting. But if you still can’t tell, let me make it clear. About the domain name, it is your address. And about web hosting, it is your house, the building with furniture. The furniture itself represents the data files saved in the hosting. The domain name doesn’t have area code and street name, it has words and sometimes numbers.

The hosting, or your ‘house’, has furniture inside it. Hosting has computer memory and hard disk that works just like steel and woods: processing and storing your data filed. This difference between domain and hosting is actually easy to learn and remember. What makes you confused is the website builder.

Website builders or providers usually offer both web hosting and domain registration at once. Domain registrars that are conventional usually offer only domain registration. But today they also offer web hosting. So many companies of web hosting today can facilitate those who want to register their domain name. They even offer a free domain way in order to gain new customers.

How Domain Name and Web Hosting Related

Though web hosting and domain names are totally different, they can’t be separated if you want to make a good website. With no domain name, people cannot go to your own website. With no web hosting, it is impossible to have a website. So both services are crucial. Can I use a domain name with no web hosting? Sure, but only for a year.

You need something to store the files of your website and the best place is the web hosting. Once you get the hosting, you’ll have to update the settings of the domain name and then point the domain name to the provider of web hosting. Usually, the domain name requires you to pay fifteen dollars a year while web hosting requires you to pay eight dollars a month. But it depends on the providers you choose.

If you’re starting a new website, you may want to get both domain names and web hosting from the same company. But you can, of course, buy them from different companies. There are some places where you can get the domain registration. They’re SharkHosting, NameCheap, DreamHost, GoDaddy, and Domain.com.

Then there are also some web hosting providers you where you can get the right hosting for your website. They’re Bluehost, SiteGround, InMotion Hosting, and HostGator. A domain name usually has TLD or Top Level Domain. This part cannot be chosen freely. Some famous TLDs are .co, .org, .net, .com, and some more.

You can also add regional to the TLDs like .co.uk for the United Kingdom or .id for Indonesia. What else you need to know about web hosting and domain? You’ve got the definition of either domain name or web hosting. You’ll see the difference explained in illustration about house and address. You also learned about the connection between web hosting and domain name. Isn’t everything clear?

Since you’ve got enough details, it is time to get your website ready. Pick the simplest yet stunning name for your domain. It must be something everyone can easily remember. Then register your domain before you point it to your web hosting. If you’ve understood the difference between domain and hosting and done the steps, your website is now ready.