Difference Between Website Hosting and a Domain Name Registry!

To start a web project, you need to consider three points: a domain name, web hosting, and a developed website itself. But what is a domain name registry? What is website hosting? Aren’t domain registration and hosting the same? This article will answer these questions. Learn about the main difference between domain and hosting before moving on to creating websites. 

Tip #1: You can use complex solutions offered by many well-known companies. In this case, you can consider the NameCheap vs GoDaddy battle and choose the most appropriate options for your own projects.

What are a domain name and web hosting? – In simple words…

Imagine that you are in the tangible space of the virtual world. Hosting is a home where you can place “furniture” – these will be your site files (HTML, documents, images, videos, etc.) If there are a lot of these files, then accordingly we need more space in the house. As a result, you need more computer hard disk space and computer memory from web hosting. The term “web hosting” refers to a company that provides its computer/servers to store websites. Due to the fastest WordPress host provider, other users can access files on your website with ease. 

To find your home with ease in the virtual world, you need an address. This is a domain. Surely you’ve heard Google.com, WordPress.org, Harvard.edu, etc. Without a domain name, people would have to remember the IP addresses of the hosting servers to get to the site. So choose a domain that is memorable to find your online project. When you register a domain, you receive exclusive ownership of the name of your site. Nobody except you has access to your domain. This is regulated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Tip #2: When registering, you must indicate your real name, address, and email address. This will make it easier to prove ownership of the domain if someone else tries to impersonate the owner. 

Website hosting – How does it work?

Typically, a hosting company does more than store and provide access to sites. Today, the range of their services varies from tariff package to package, which you can choose based on your own requirements for performance, speed, bandwidth, memory, etc.

Here are some additional services and features that you can expect from your hosting provider:

  • Domain registration. Most often, you can buy and manage domains and hosting services from the same provider. Some of them offer this service for free (albeit if purchased for a 12, 24, or 36-month period). 
  • Website builder. You no longer need to look for an easy way to create a website somewhere. Select the required web editing tool and create a website by dragging and dropping objects.
  • Email hosting. You can set up your own mail account using your own domain – email@yourdomain.com, for example. 
  • Qualified hardware support and software management (CMS, server OS, etc.) Configuring and further administration of servers includes many settings to ensure the performance of vital web services. Behind this is a team of professionals who can be ready to help at any moment of the day or night.

Domain name registration – How does it work?

Without going into all the technical details of this process, here’s how domain registration works from the user’s point of view:

  • You come up with a good name for your site. Remember that it should be memorable? Also, it must be unique. Prepare several variations in case the name has been adopted by others.
  • You need to search one of the registrar websites to verify the status of the name. If it is already registered, you will be offered similar options.
  • You pay a registration fee of $ 10-35 per year depending on the domain zone (usually by PayPal or credit card).

So, the registration process is complete for those who order a domain and hosting on the same platform. If you purchase a domain from a third-party provider, then you will need to specify the domain name for the web host (by changing its DNS record).

After choosing a domain name and hosting service, you can start building your own website. It will now have a name and location where all of its files will be stored. Of course, in case of problems, you can always switch to another domain or to a different hosting provider. But it is better to approach the choice very carefully and choose the best of the best based on your needs.