What is the difference between domain names and hosting?

Beginners may still not fully understand the difference between a domain name and the hosting that goes with it. In this blog post we want to explain this and make it understandable for anyone who wants to create their own website for their business or hobby project.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is your address on the internet, just like any other website you visit regularly, be it nu.co.uk, nos.co.uk or your favorite social media site. These all have a domain name under which they can be accessed. As soon as you type it into your internet browser, you know you've landed on the right website. So a domain name ensures that your website can be found through the browser. And it's easy to remember. If you don't have a domain name, but you do have a website, your website can only be reached by entering an IP address or other complicated steps. The darknet takes advantage of this to some extent.

A domain name can be freely registered by anyone as long as it does not infringe on existing trademarks, is immoral or illegal. This is a broad spectrum, of course, but the bottom line is that offering illegal practices or spreading hate can get your domain name deleted. A web hosting provider like MijnHostingPartner.nl does not do this directly, but the administrator behind the domain name extension does. For .nl, for example, the SIDN. More about this in the next section.

Different types of country extensions and other subdivisions

Virtually every country has its own country extension, so the Netherlands has .nl, where Dutch domain names end. Belgium has .be, and France has .fr. Even within countries, there are often subdivisions such as .amsterdam and many other options that refer to a location. There are also general domain name extensions that can relate to the purpose of the website, such as .store specifically for web stores. .com for commercial purposes, although this domain name has become rather the de facto standard for an international website. And .org for non-profit projects like Wikipedia.

So if you want to register a domain name, you should think about what exactly you want to achieve with it and where your target audience might be. For example, for a restaurant in Amsterdam, it doesn't make much sense to register a German domain name. Instead, go for a .amsterdam domain name. Also, look at your competitors and what domain name extensions they use. You can find this out by simply typing a broad keyword into a search engine like Google and see who appears on the first page.

What is hosting?

Hosting is the actual house that is located at the address, which is the domain name. These come in many shapes and sizes, suitable for different technologies. Basically, a hosting package is an open book whose content you determine. We provide you with space and resources in our data centers in Amsterdam and Utrecht, where you can then realize your dream on the Internet.

Not every hosting package is the same, and there are several options available to you. We try to make this as simple as possible, thanks to the total packages we offer.

A hosting package, at MijnHostingPartner.nl a total picture.

A total package at MijnHostingPartner.nl offers you everything you need to start a business, a portfolio or virtually any other type of website. With the two most frequently chosen packages, you will have no less than 25 GB of storage space at your disposal. In this one, you'll be able to further subdivide the space yourself, in terms of mail and website files. In addition, you also have the option to create databases in your package, which are used by many websites to store almost everything, using different techniques. For example, MySQL 5, MySQL 8 and MariaDB.

The domain name is usually associated with a hosting package

So, a domain name alone is not enough in most cases, or you just want to link to an existing website. Read more about this in our previous blog post on this topic. At MijnHostingPartner.nl, we have set up almost all of our products to require a domain name. So a blank check for a hosting package is not allowed, there should always be a domain name attached. Without such a system, it is easy to abuse and cannot be controlled. Something that should be avoided in any case, of course.

So there are some differences between a domain name and hosting, but they often go hand in hand. Both ensure that your website can not only be found. But also accessible. So secure your domain name and hosting package now and start your dream on the Internet!