To publish a web site once you have designed and developed it, you basically need 2 things:
- Register a domain name with a registrar company.
- To acquire a Hosting or Web Hosting plan.
Many people tend to confuse the concepts of Domain and Hosting, and mistakenly believe that only by having one of the two, it is possible to publish a website. I will try to explain briefly each concept and put an end to the confusion:
Domain
A domain is a unique name that identifies a website and allows easy access to it from a web browser. For example tutorialeshosting.com is a domain, i.e. the name that identifies this website so that you can access it.
There are many types of domains (or TLDs) and each of these types is administered by a registrar, which in turn allows accredited registrars to create new names and renew them for their customers. If you want to know more about domains, visit What is a domain?
Hosting
Hosting (also called web hosting or web hosting) is the place where the files that make up your website are published so that they are available to your audience; a virtual space where you can upload files, create your email accounts, and perform many other functions related to the content of your website.
When you purchase a hosting, you are basically acquiring a space that gives you all the facilities for your website to be online and to be accessed. Once you have your hosting account, you can then upload your Web files to it and they will automatically become public.
Domain-Hosting Relationship
At first glance the two concepts seem very different, right? They are, but the confusion arises because hosting and domain need to be related for a web to work and many people think that they are the same. I will explain this relationship in a simple way and without going into a lot of technicalities:
When you register a domain, it is “saved” in the registrar’s database, and you can access an administration panel where you can change some of its configuration data. One of these data are the name servers or DNS.
The name servers or DNS are addresses that are used to point the domain to a specific machine or computer on the Internet, or in short, is the way to “tell” a domain where the files of a website are so that it can display them.
When you sign up for a hosting service, your provider will give you at least 2 DNS names that represent the address of the machine where your files will be hosted. You simply place those DNS in your domain settings at the registrar and that’s it! Your domain will now be linked to your hosting and when you access it from your browser, it will show your website.
Now that you know what services you need to publish a website and you have a basic idea of what is a hosting and a domain. I invite you to see some other articles that could be useful to you when publishing your Web:
- How do I know which hosting to choose for my web?
- How can I choose and register a domain?
- I already have my hosting and my domain, now what?