A website is made up of files like HTML pages, website builder software, images, etc. It gives you and your business an online presence.
If the domain name is the web address of your website, then the web hosting service is where your website is hosted.
This is the actual computer where your website files are stored. These computers are called servers and are offered as a service by hosting companies.
To build your website, you need both a domain name and web hosting. You need both to build any type of website, whether it's a personal site, small business, or e-commerce store.
However, it's important to remember that these are two separate services and you can buy them from two different companies.
Now you might be wondering how it would work if you bought them from two separate companies? All you need to do is change the domain settings and enter the nameserver information provided by your web host. Nameserver information identifies where to send user requests for your domain name.
We recommend getting both your domain name and hosting from the same company. This allows you to easily manage them in the same account.
For more details see our guide on the difference between domain name and web hosting.
Different types of domain names
Domain names are available in many different extensions. The most popular is .com. There are many other options like .org, .net, .tv, .info, .io, etc. However, we still recommend using the .com domain extension.
Let's take a closer look at the different types of domain names available.
Top Level Domain - TLD
A top-level domain or TLD is a generic domain name extension listed at the top level of the domain name system. They are also known as gTLDs or generic top-level domains.
There are hundreds of TLDs, but the most common are .com, .org, and .net. Other TLDs are less well known and we recommend against using them. For example: .biz, .club, .info, .agency and many more.
Country Code Top Level Domains - ccTLD
Country code top-level domains or ccTLDs are country-specific domain names ending with a country code extension, such as .uk for UK, .de for Germany, .in for Germany. 'India.
They are used by websites that want to target audiences in a particular country.
Sponsored Top Level Domains - sTLD
Sponsored top-level domains or sTLDs are a category of TLDs whose sponsors represent a specific community served by the domain name extension.
For example, .edu for education related organizations, .gov for US government, .mil for US military, etc.
Second level domain - SLD
Second-level domains usually refer to the name that precedes the top-level domain or TLD.
For example, in wpbeginner.com, wpbeginner is the second level domain of the .com TLD.
Domain registries use SLDs to create a hierarchy for their ccTLDs. For example, ccTLD .au, which represents Australia, has com.au, net.au, etc. In this case, the .com is not the top-level domain but the sTLD of the .au TLD.
Similarly, in .co.uk domains, .co is the SLD of the .uk TLD.
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