Often, people would ask about the difference between web hosting and domain management. For most beginners trying to set up their website — may they be business owners and marketers — they wouldn’t know that these are completely two different things.

Confused about the difference between web hosting and domain management? Here’s a beginner’s guide looking into these two important elements in creating a website.

What is web hosting?

Simply, web hosting is the place where all your files are housed. You can consider this the home of your website. In addition, it is the physical location of your website — it is like an online storage unit that houses all the information such as images, videos, content, and other things that comprise your website.

A web hosting service provider, on the other hand, maintains the server where your website’s data resides and manages the technology responsible for it to connect to the internet. Web hosting is usually measured in the allotted space you are given the server. Of course, the kind of website you have would determine the number of space you need — if your website lets your visitors download files, you will need more transfer space than those who simply display readable content on their sites.

How does a web hosting service works?

First, when you decide to create your website, you need to find a web hosting company that provides you with a server space you’ll need — this would store your assets, files, and data on the server. So whenever a person types your domain name into their browser’s address bar, your web hosting provider transfers all the files needed to serve their request.

It is important to choose a web hosting plan that would best fit your website’s needs — this is like paying for a house rent on a monthly basis. There are web hosting providers that come with a 30-day money-back guarantee to let you experience their services first and if it would fit your needs.

What is domain management?

Domain management, also known as domain name management is the on-going task of keeping a personal or business domain secure, stable, running, and support related websites. A domain name establishes your business’s presence on the internet and serves as a portal to your website.

There are times when business owners are so focused on setting up and maintaining their website. However, it is important to keep in mind that domain management is another key factor in keeping their website accessible and running.

It requires a few steps to secure a domain, first is finding the right domain name and checking its availability, then registering the domain name with an independent registrar or through a web hosting company.

How does domain management works?

There are different forms of domain management and those would depend on your goals and needs. In general, you should be able to perform important tasks such as renewing or terminating your domain name registration, determining nameservers and web hosting providers, and making changes to your domain names if needed.

Since your domain name establishes your business’s presence and identity on the internet, managing that domain also includes checking for similar names that might harm your brand’s authority or reputation. You should be able to track analytics to see how your domain name performs in searches and check for suspicious access to your domain.

There are times when a business buys multiple related domain names with various extensions which could end up with a large portfolio of domains — some of these domains could lie dormant for a long period of time and some may never be used at all.

Domain management services help in managing a large and diverse collection of domains — this kind of service offers a variety of plans to maintain and track all your active and inactive domains in the portfolio. Domain management services use their own tools to be able to handle your domain name registration and renewal, review your domain portfolio and delete unused ones, and main your domain security.

Conclusion

There are web professionals and business owners who buy their web hosting service and domain name at the provider — and this would depend on your business goals and needs.

If you’d like to learn more about web hosting and domain management, you can download our Web Development ebook for free.

And if you’re looking for help in determining which web hosting provider and domain management service to suit your business, talk to one of our web development specialists now!