What is the difference between a domain and Hosting?
You must understand that they are two concepts that relate to two very different services but that today continue to raise many doubts.
Is a Personal Hosting Plan the same as a domain? Why do I have to renew my domain if I have already renewed my web hosting?
To resolve all these doubts, we will see what each of these concepts is, and we will understand that both must coexist together or else neither one nor the other will be useful for your Business.
What exactly is Hosting or Web Hosting?
Web hosting (in English web hosting ) is the service that provides Internet users with a system to store information, images, video, or any content accessible via the web. That is why we will generally know it as “Web Hosting,” although in the case of a Web, it may mean an Application, Intranet, Business Billing System, Online Store, Email, business mail, etc.
Therefore, it is the SPACE that we need to store files of our Web application (HTML documents, PHP, CSS style sheets, images, PDF documents, JavaScript…) and that these are available on the Internet.
Types of Hosting
Each web or application is a world even; sometimes, a type of management or storage is required for more extensive solutions that need specific resources to be served on the Internet, including providing a resolution at the same time so that a user can rent part of the Hosting in question to host hundreds of domains.
Since a PERSONAL BLOG is not the same as a BIG ONLINE JOURNAL or ONLINE STORE, there are different types of hosting for each project.
Shared Hosting
It is the most basic service, but that does not mean that it is a low-resource server; instead, it is a service that is limited to many corporate websites, personal blogs, or online businesses that still do not have a large consumption of resources (visits, space, memory consumption…). This hosting usually costs more than 100 domains, so they are very powerful and have significant resource capacity. However, these are shared with other server users, even if they are managed in totally independent accounts. In other words, you will have your management panel with all the resources for your website, but the processing power, RAM, and storage are shared and limited. A block of flats with common areas and independent accounts (households).
There are different hosting plans according to the needs, among which we can highlight SSD Hosting or Traditional Shared Hosting. We will always recommend having more modern disks, such as SSD disks, since higher performance is achieved and the reading speed is much higher, resulting in a higher web load.
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VPS servers
It is a more advanced service focused on businesses with a growing project, online stores, or high-traffic businesses.
A VPS server (Virtual Private Server) or Virtual Private Server is a physical server divided into different virtual machines independent of each other.
By having your machine, its resources are guaranteed and are for the exclusive use of your web project, unlike shared Hosting, where resources are delegated based on the demand of each Web Space. Therefore a VPS Server gives you flexibility and independence.
Dedicated Hosting
The most advanced and complete solution is a physical Web Server intended for a single client who can use and manage it according to the needs of their project.
In other words, it is a computer specifically designed to be used as a web server due to the size and way in which it has been created.
Dedicated servers can be used for shared hosting and dedicated hosting services and managed by the customer.
With this type of Server, you have all the machine’s resources, the configuration of the Server can be wholly adapted to the client’s particular needs, and there is greater control over the applications that are executed on the Web server.
In addition, with the services of delegated administration, maintenance and security updates are carried out with greater ease and control.
What is a domain?
For a HOSTING to use the web access functions in our browser and the mail or email service to work, it must be associated with a DOMAIN.
A domain is a unique name that identifies a website on the Internet, and any user can visit that. A domain is made up of a name and an extension.
A domain name aims to identify or translate the IP (Internet Protocol) or internet protocol addresses of each active Server on the network. Therefore, it is memorable and easy to find. Can you imagine having to type an address full of numbers and letters for each website you want to visit? IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!
Why do we say it is impossible? It is simple; first, it is quite complex to have to memorize so many numbers and find what we are looking for based on an IP address of the type 46.21.176.89; on the other hand, on a web server, we can host several web pages and can reach up to 150 websites on a single server.
From here is born the concept of the DNS or the domain name system. The DNS is responsible for translating the domain into one or specific IP address.
Last conclusions
We have seen that Hosting and domains are completely different services. Still, both need to work together if we want our web application to be accessible from anywhere globally via the Internet 24 hours a day.
Therefore, Hosting is similar to an apartment block, where there are different homes, and we make life in it, where we have our furniture, kitchenware, clothes… and nobody could visit us if we don’t have an address. The same thing happens with a website. The block of flats is the IP address of the Server, and the DNS is in charge of indicating to us on which Floor and which door is our HOME (DOMAIN).
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