What is the difference between domain name and web hosting?
Are you planning to create a website? Are you confused between the two most important elements namely Domain name and Web Hosting? We all know that to own a website you will require its 3 major elements such as Domain Name, Web Hosting and of course a well-developed website.
Generally, many hosting companies offer you to buy Domain Name and hosting together. This creates confusion in the mind of customers that whether they are the same or not.
However, they have a bit different a Domain Name is the registered address on the web, and hosting is a powerful engine that helps your website to run.
In this article we will try to solve the doubt of similarity between Domain Name and Web Hosting.
What is a Domain Name?
A Domain Name is the name of your website. This name works as an address by which a visitor can land on your platform. A person in a web browser enters a web address in the URL bar to visit your website for example www.Google.com, www.facebook.com or www.hostnetindia.com, and so on.
Now let’s get deep why these domain names where invented? So, the answer to this question is a computer system has its own language which is different than the language which humans use. Different computers are in connect with each other over a network and each of them has their own unique IP Address. An IP Address is a combination of numbers it generally looks like 192.158. 1.38. These IP addresses are easy to remember by the computers but are difficult to remember by humans. That’s the reason why domain names where invented. A person doesn’t require entering a series of numbers separated by dots. But they have to only remember a specific domain name. And that’s the only reason why website owners want to keep their domain name simple and easy to remember.
All domain names are unique and cannot be same.
A Domain Name consist of two different parts the first one represents you brand name and the other one represents its extension such as .in, .com, .uk, .org etc.
To get a domain name you need to firstly register it under the guidelines of ICANN. Your extension highly depends on your needs but people generally buy Top-Level domains for example .com, .net, .org and many more.
In short, A Domain Name is website address that lands you on a particular website.
What is a Web Hosting?
To run our website over World Wide Web you will require a web hosting. Just like a Domain Name is the address of the website, a Web Hosting is the actual home of a website.
A web hosting stores all your important file elements that are require to run a particular website. All these files are located at a server or a computer that is assigned by a hosting provider. A hosting companies stores and serves your website to the visitors. Whenever a visitor enters a domain name in the web browser it gets convert into IP address and is sent to the server.
The server re-sent the desired result (files) to the visitor’s computer. These hosting service providers demand a minimal fee to store your files over the server. By which they can host your website over internet and your visitors can access it.
A Web Hosting company offers different types of hosting plans such as Shared Hosting, Managed Hosting, Unmanaged Hosting and Dedicated Hosting etc.
These types of hosting allot you different features like security, flexibility, scalability and full control. Moreover, a managed hosting makes it easy to handle your website operations.
After you have a Domain Name you will get a space by your hosting provider. If you don’t have a domain name you can buy from the same hosting provider. However, it is recommended buying it separately from other service provider.
What is the difference between a Domain Name and Web Hosting?
Both domain name and hosting are relating closely to each other, but there are some major differences between the two. They both are require to launch a website over internet. Both of them are purchased together. A domain name generally comes for the period of one year. You need not to renew it before its expiration on the other hand hosting is offered by a web hosting provider with different plans. After purchasing a domain name you can install software like word press and add content to it and buy a suitable hosting plan.
In simple words a Domain Name is address to your website. And a web hosting is a space where your files are stored so that when demanded they can be viewed online. The confusion begins when a web hosting company offers free domain services to the user while buying a hosting plan but they are certainly different.
In short, the major difference between the two is a web hosting is the actual home for a website. Therefore, it stores web related files on contrary a domain name is the address of a website.
Hence, to become the owner of the website you need to first have a registered domain name.
Conclusion
In conclusion, so we finally know the difference between a domain name and a web hosting. Both of them are essential elements for a website. A website cannot operate in absence of any if these elements. A domain name works as a home address by which people can find you with ease. A domain name should be short and easy to remember so that you visitors can find you easily. On the other hand a web hosting is just like booking a plot where you can keep all your furniture and other items. A web hosting company rents some space to a customer where all the files relating to website operations are store.
