Often customers ask us what the difference is between their web hosting service and their domain name. While these two are closely related, and work hand-in-hand, they are separate entities.
It can be helpful to house all of these services under one roof, so you deal with one company for all your websites needs. For example, you can order your web hosting at WEBii.net, and then register your domain at our sister company, SiteReserve.com.
Keep in mind though that your web hosting services and your domain name are all managed and billed separately. Your web host is not necessarily notified or responsible when your domain expires even if all are housed through the same company.
So what is the difference between your domain and your web hosting? Registering a domain simply gives you control over that domain name. Only one party (individual or business) can have a specific name. The actual domain does not have anything to do with website content.
Your web hosting is what hosts your site. By hosting your site that means space is allotted on your web host’s servers. Web hosting is more than just space. Not only does your web host hold a place on their servers for you, but you are also getting bandwidth, and many other features that allow you to manage your website files online. Once you have established your host, your domain name will point to the specified servers and your site will be running.
Don’t forget though that neither one of these develops or designs your website content, so you will have to either find a designer to help you (custom design and development available at WEBii.net) OR if you are savvy enough, you can do it yourself!