What is the Difference Between Domain Hosting and Web Hosting?

Domain hosting and web hosting are the two different services that make your website or email work. While they work in conjunction, the two hosting types are very different in their function.

Web Hosting

Web hosting, fundamentally, is a service that stores your website files and databases and allows them to be served to others that access your site through the world-wide-web using your domain name. Your web hosting will house your HTML, CSS, Javascript, images, videos, and other files that your website needs to function. Without a domain name, people can access your website by typing your server's IP address into their browser. For Google, this would be 216.58.194.174.

Web Hosting services may also include your email services so that you can check your email from webmail or an email client. Most web hosting accounts such as Shared and Business web hosting, Cloud VPS, and Dedicated Servers at Hostwinds have the ability to set up email services.

Domain Hosting

As mentioned above, you can get to any website you need using the server's IP address that the website files are hosted on. However, remembering the names of your favorite websites is easier than trying to remember each IP address. Also, what if the IP address changed for your favorite website? You would need to find out what the new address is and remember that one too.

Domain hosting allows you to purchase a domain name on the internet (e.g., Hostwinds.com) for a set period of time, normally one year. After purchasing a domain, you would then set the domain name to point to the authoritative nameservers for the web hosting service that contains the files for your website. Doing this will allow the public to type in your domain name and be served with the files you are storing with your web hosting service or send you an email to your personalized email account.