What’s the Difference Between a Domain Name, Website, and Web Hosting?

MonsterPost Editorial

6 years ago

For those who are just starting out on the Internet, you’ll most likely come across some terminologies that might be confusing to you. To help you navigate through a few terminologies, we’re going to talk about the differences between a website, domain name, and web hosting.

Now, you might be thinking, “aren’t they all the same thing?”

While they are all linked together to provide an online service that you need to have a working website, they are all different regarding what they do.

Without further ado, let’s start with domain names.

Domain Names

A domain name is what you put on an internet browser’s address bar to access a website. An example is our website: templatemonster.com

You should have a domain name ready when you’re about to start a website. However, it might be hard to find a good one since millions of domain names have already been registered.

You might be tempted to use weird spelling or add unnecessary words for your domain name, but we highly advise against it. You should always use something short, easy to spell, and catchy so that people can remember and type it easily.

It’s essential that you use a good domain name for your website as it will make your site appear more professional and trustworthy for people to find content on your site.

Buying A Domain Name

So where do you get a domain name? Well, you would have to go to a domain registrar sites to purchase your domain name. Usually, a domain name will cost you about $10 a year and will require renewal after every year (or after two years, depending on your initial purchase).

There some domain name registrars available online but the two we recommend are:

Websites

A website consists of a page or a series of related pages that loads after you enter a domain name in an internet browser. A web page can be built using HTML, PHP, Java, and other programming languages.

However, with the advent of website builders, you can easily create a website without having any knowledge of coding or programming. You can also easily stylize and customize the look of your website by using templates, such as the ones that Template Monster makes.

How Do You Build A Website

Back in the day, you would need to know how to code or hire a developer to build your website. These might still give you the ability to create a customized or unique website, but with the tools available today, you can build a great-looking website without having any technical experience.

The process of creating a website might be different depending on which website builder you choose, but generally, the steps will look like this:

Pick and choose a template
Choose and customize the text, colors, fonts, and images.
Install additional functionalities and widgets (such as maps, music players, galleries, etc.).
Add more pages (if necessary)

Generally, that’s all there is to it. Depending on how much effort or customization you want to put into it, each step could take minutes or even days. It shouldn’t take long to get a website up and running.

Choosing A Website Builder

If you’re looking for a website builder, there are plenty that you can choose from. Here is a handful of website builders that we recommend you check out:

Weebly - Millions of people have found Weebly to be surprisingly easy to use and quite affordable for creating a unique looking website.

Shopify - For those who want a complete eCommerce solution, Shopify lets you easily create an online store to sell your goods online.

Wix - Similar to Weebly, Wix offers a web builder that’s easy to use and suitable for all kinds of website. Best of all, they are super affordable.

Strikingly - If you want to build a one-page website, Strikingly has been recommended by marketing guru Seth Godin for creating a professional single-page website that also works on mobile devices.

Web Hosting

When you’ve created your website already, you’ll need a place to store all the files in it. A web host, as it names suggest, will host all your website’s content and make it accessible to people over the internet. While your website might be digital, it still requires a physical hard drive to be stored and remain accessible to the internet via a server.

Just like website builders, there are plenty of web hosting companies available to choose from. Depending on the needs of your website, you can choose to host on a shared server for blogs or small websites or even a dedicated server for an eCommerce site.

Choosing A Web Host

Since there are too many web hosts available, it can be hard trying to find the right web host for your website. There are few factors that you should consider before signing up, which are uptime rates, server performance, pricing, features, and customer support, to name a few.

To help narrow down your search, we recommend checking the following web hosts as they are currently the best in the business.

InMotion Hosting - With a track record of 15 years, InMotion Hosting offers the best performance and pricing for small-to-medium websites.
SiteGround - A dependable hosting company with innovative server features and top-class support. Renewal price might be a little steep, but you get what you paid for.
Hostinger - For those in need of a budget web host, Hostinger offers a ton of premium hosting features at a low price.
Kinsta - Kinsta is a great web host for those who are using WordPress and is often considered one of the best-managed WordPress hosting available today.

Wrap up

By now, you should understand how different these three services are and how they all integrate with each other to create an online presence for your brand or business.

While you can find a service provider that’s capable of providing a domain name, website and web host under one platform, you can still get a domain, website and host separately and have an excellent website running.

Just be sure to use a really good website template while you’re at it!