Domain name or hosting: what is the difference?
A domain name is the address of your website and your email; hosting is the server where the site and the mailboxes actually live. They are two separate services, each with its own contract and its own expiry date. You can take them from the same provider or from two different ones, and you can move them independently of each other. What ties them together is the nameservers and the DNS records of your domain name.
Three parts, not two
- The domain name is the name people type in and the part after the at sign in your email address. You do not buy it: you register it a year at a time through a registrar. The name itself says nothing about where your site runs.
- The hosting is the space on a server that holds the files and the database of your website. Without hosting the domain name still exists, but there is nothing to see.
- The email consists of mailboxes on your own domain. They usually come with the hosting, but they can also sit with a separate service such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. At WWW4 the mailboxes are part of the hosting plan; there is no standalone email plan. More about that on email hosting.
Nameservers: the link between the two
Every domain name has nameservers set for it. Those nameservers hold the DNS records: the A record points your website to the IP address of the hosting, and the MX records say which server accepts your mail.
That gives you two ways to move a site without the domain name itself changing provider. You change only the A record, and everything else stays as it is, mail included. Or you change the nameservers, and the new provider takes over all the records. In that second case every existing record has to be in place at the new provider first, otherwise your mail stops. Read changing the nameservers of your domain before you start.
What you can buy and move separately
- A domain name only. That is possible, for instance to secure a name for later. The name is then registered to you, but does not show a website yet.
- Hosting only. Your domain name stays with your current registrar and you point the DNS to the new hosting.
- Moving the domain name only. For that you request a transfer code from your current registrar. The site and the mail stay where they are, as long as the DNS records remain the same. How it works is explained on transfer a domain name.
- Moving the hosting only. First you copy the site and the mailboxes across and test everything; only then do you change the DNS. The steps are on migrate hosting.
If you are moving both, do it in two steps with a few days in between. If something goes wrong, you know straight away which change caused it.
What happens when the domain name expires
Your website and all your email addresses go down at the same time, even though the hosting is paid for and everything is still sitting neatly on the server. Mail sent to your addresses no longer arrives. After the expiry date there is a period in which only you, as the previous holder, can still have the name restored; for a .be domain name that is a 40-day quarantine. After that the name is released and anyone can register it. How to avoid this is covered in preventing a domain name from expiring.
What happens when the hosting expires
The domain name is still yours, but it points to a server with nothing on it. The site is unreachable and the mailboxes no longer accept mail. After a while the provider deletes the files, the database and the mailboxes; how long that takes differs from one provider to the next. So make sure you have your own copy of your site and your mail before you let a hosting contract run out.
The classic mistakes
- Cancelling the hosting while the domain name is in the same contract. With some providers the name then lapses along with it. Check your invoice or your customer account to see where the domain name is registered before you cancel anything.
- Changing the nameservers and forgetting the mail. The site works, but the MX records were not copied across and no mail comes in any more.
- Assuming that moving the hosting takes the domain name with it. It does not. The renewal invoice for the name keeps coming from the old registrar until you transfer the name itself.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to get my domain name and hosting from the same provider?
No. Technically it works just as well with two providers. Having everything in one place is simpler, though: one invoice, one point of contact, and you do not have to point DNS records to another provider yourself.
Is my email part of the domain name or of the hosting?
Neither, automatically. The MX records of your domain name decide where your mail is delivered. Usually that is the hosting; if you use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, they point to that service.
How do I find out where my domain name and my hosting are?
You will find the registrar on the renewal invoice for the domain name, or through a WHOIS lookup of your domain, which shows the registrar and the nameservers. You can identify the hosting from the invoice for the hosting plan and from the IP address the A record points to.
Still stuck?
Not sure where your domain name or your hosting is, or do you want to move one of them without downtime? Send us your domain name via contact and we will look into it with you.