If I got a £ for every time people have asked us, what’s the difference between a domain and a website, I would be a millionaire. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. So in this post, you will learn the difference between a domain name, a website and hosting.
So in order to have an online presence, you need a domain name.
A domain name represents your online address. Some people might also refer to is as your web address.
For example: Businessname.com / .co.uk / . or the new ones like .digital, .london, etc..
People always get confused when I give them my email address. [email protected] / .com or .co.uk? NO. .digital.
Registering a domain name does not automatically give you a website. Even though these two are highly related, they are actually two different things.
I’ve explained this analogy to all my clients, so let’s see if it works here.
Think of a house. That is a website. In order for me to come and visit you, I need to know where you live, right? I need to know your address. That’s your domain name.
But we’re not done yet. The house is built on a piece of land, right? That’s your hosting.
Your website is a package of files, and a database, but it needs to sit somewhere in the cloud.. Online. So that’s where your hosting comes in.
A domain name is something you can buy anytime, even if you’re not planning to build a website just yet. So if you’re thinking of a new business, buy that domain name right away, before someone else does.
I normally purchase all my domain names from namecheap.com.
A domain name will allow you to build a website, and also create a professional business email address. For emails, I recommend G Suite, as I quite like how Gmail looks like. + very easy to use and setup.
As for hosting, Siteground it’s a very good option or if you’re looking for something more premium, have a look into Kinsta. I’ll leave some links in the description below.