Web Hosting vs. Domain: What Is the Difference? – CNET

What is web hosting, what is a domain, and how are they different? You’ll need both web hosting and a domain to publish a website. Web hosting is the space your website occupies, and a domain is the address used to find that space.

There’s a lot more to understand about web hosting and domains if you want to publish a website. Let’s explore web hosting and domains so you can understand the differences — and how they connect.

What is web hosting?

A domain is the name used to find a website. For example, our domain is CNET.com. 

The domain consists of two parts:

• The name or second-level domain. In our example, this is CNET. The most common approach to choosing a domain name is to use your company name. This ensures consistency in branding, which helps you avoid confusion and maximizes audience trust.
• The domain extension or top-level domain  — TLD for short. This is the .com in our example. Many TLDs exist to signify the type of company a website belongs to (like .org for nonprofits). Others, like .com, are used by all types of companies or even individuals.

Domains are distributed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. You don’t purchase domains directly from ICANN. Instead, you purchase them from domain registrars, which are companies that register domains with ICANN for you.

Domains are typically purchased annually and cost $10 to $50 per year.

Types of domain

The various types of domains are defined by the TLDs they use. Most websites use one of two types of TLDs: country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, and generic top-level domains, or gTLDs. Some websites, such as government websites, also use sponsored TLDs, like .gov or .edu.

ccTLDs

Country code TLDs consist of international country codes, such as “in”for India. This signifies that a website operates in the country associated with its ccTLD. Many ccTLDs are available only to people or businesses with an address in the appropriate region.

ccTLDs include:

• .ca for Canada.
• .co.uk for the United Kingdom.
• .in for India.
• .se for Sweden.

You should use a ccTLD if you intend to cater to customers in a specific country. If you have an international audience, a gTLD is your best choice.

gTLDs

Generic top-level domains aren’t restricted to a specific country or type of business. Anyone can purchase them and they can be used for any type of website. However, some gTLDs are associated with particular kinds of companies, including:

• .net is associated with internet service providers and other companies dedicated to creating or improving internet infrastructure.
• .org is associated with nonprofits.
• .io and .tech are associated with tech companies.
• .ai is associated with companies that build AI tools.

You can use one of these more specific gTLDs (there are over 1,500 of them) to signify the industry in which you or your company operates. 

You can also stick with the generic .com instead. I often recommend the latter option, as .com is easier for visitors to remember. The .com extension is also the most trusted domain extension, according to Growth Badger.

You should use a gTLD if you want to attract an international audience. Companies with international branches may use a gTLD for their main website and ccTLDs for branches in specific countries. For example, Amazon.com is the original site, but there’s also Amazon.ca.

Sponsored TLDs

Sponsored top-level domains are restricted TLDs created by sponsor organizations. To get these TLDs, you must prove that your website belongs to a specific type of organization or company. This helps establish legitimacy and preserve trust in key institutions.

Sponsored TLDs include:

• .edu for post-secondary educational institutions in the US. Other countries have their own equivalents, like .ac.uk for colleges and universities in the UK.
• .gov for government institutions. The standard .gov domain is typically reserved for branches of the US government. Branches of government in other countries can add a country code to signify where they operate, creating a TLD that looks like .gov.uk.

Most websites won’t use a sponsored TLD, but it’s still good to understand what they are.

Subdomains

A subdomain appears before the second-level domain and is used to partition part of a website from the rest. This allows the domain and subdomain to function as separate websites with different information and layouts while maintaining consistent branding.

Subdomains are most often used to partition parts of one company’s website. For example, if your company has an e-commerce store, you might use a subdomain like “store.yourdomain.com” to separate it so you can use a specialized store layout.

The other use for subdomains is to provide free web hosting. In these instances, your site name will be a subdomain of the host site, like this: