What’s the Difference Between Domain and Website Host?

As you know, one of the most important aspects of your business is your web presence. Online shopping and transacting continue to grow in leaps and bounds. Obviously, there’s a lot that goes into establishing your website, both the content and technical aspects.

In this article, we will be addressing a key technical area: your website domain registrar and website host. We have worked with many business owners and have found that there is often confusion surrounding domain vs. hosting, which are two very different things.

Domain: This is the address of your website, such as www.komaya.com. The website domain is purchased and maintained with a domain registrar (Google domains, GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc.). The domain registrar contains the necessary settings to direct incoming traffic to the proper location of your website, aka your website host’s servers.

Website Host: The website host is where your website actually resides and serves up your content to website visitors. Your web pages, images, PDF documents, etc. are located at, and managed by, this hosting provider. Internet traffic is directed here by your website domain registrar.

New Website

If you’re setting up a new website, you will want to first acquire a website domain for it. With the billions of websites in existence today, don’t be surprised if the domain you really want is not available. It’s a good idea to get this figured out sooner rather than later so that you are ready to move on with the website hosting portion. To check if the domain is available, you should go directly to the domain registrar’s website to search. It is not advisable to do this directly in your browser or search engine as this can trigger someone else to buy that domain and try to resell it to you at a premium price.

There are numerous website domain registrars to choose from, and you really can’t go wrong here. However, a bit more thought should go into selecting your website hosting provider as this could impact your website performance, security, scalability, and level of support you may receive. Other factors come into play as well when assessing which provider to use, such as what type of products/services will you be offering, the expected volume of website visitors and transactions, etc. Even though some website domain registrars also offer website hosting services, this may not be the best choice for your business.

Existing Website

As a business grows, there will come a point where a website redesign will most likely be undertaken. As a part of this process, a new website hosting provider may be recommended based on your specific business needs. All the same factors mentioned above for a new website, will need to be assessed for your website redesign project. If a new hosting provider is recommended, this often involves rebuilding your website on a new platform. And, when all is ready, a small change will be made to your domain registrar’s settings to point to the new location of your website.

At Komaya, we empower businesses with knowledge and support, allowing them to achieve all their online web presence goals. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you.