Domain, hosting, HTTPS: what each one is, in plain terms

A website needs three things before anyone can open it. The domain is the address, like yourbusiness.com. Hosting is the computer the site's files live on. HTTPS is how the browser talks to that computer: encrypted, so nobody along the way can read or change what's being sent. You pay for and manage them separately, even when you buy them from the same place.

The domain: an address you rent

Computers find each other by IP addresses, strings of numbers that are hard to remember. A domain is the easy-to-remember name that points to that address.

One detail MDN's documentation explains well: you don't buy a domain, you rent it. You pay for the right to use it for one or more years, then you renew. You get priority on renewal, but if you forget, the domain can lapse and someone else can grab it. For a business with its domain printed on vans, business cards and invoices, that's a real problem. Turn on auto-renew and use an email address you actually read.

Domains are registered through companies called registrars, which keep track of the link between you and your domain. They'll ask for real contact details, and you should check the name letter by letter: once you've paid, it can't be changed.

DNS: the phone book

When someone types your address, the browser asks a DNS server which IP address it lives at. DNS is a set of records you configure for your domain: where the website is, where email goes, which services are allowed to send email on your behalf.

MDN notes something else useful: after a change, DNS records usually take a few hours to propagate, because servers around the world cache them. If you move your site to new hosting and see the old page on one phone and the new one on another, that's usually why.

Hosting: the site's home

Hosting is a computer permanently connected to the internet, running a program that takes requests from browsers and sends back the pages. You could keep your site on the office PC, but MDN explains why nobody does: a dedicated server is always on, stays connected, keeps the same address and is maintained by someone whose only job that is.

What to look for in hosting, leaving prices aside:

• The kind of site. A simple brochure site needs less than an online store with a database and thousands of products.
• Backups. How often they run and how easily you can restore one.
• Server location. A server close to your customers responds faster.
• Who answers when it goes down. A phone number or a ticket that gets a reply.

What drives the cost: resources (storage, memory, traffic), whether the server is yours alone or shared, and how much of the administration the provider handles.

HTTPS: the padlock in the address bar

HTTPS is the encrypted version of the protocol pages load over. A certificate installed on the server provides the encryption. Without it, whatever someone types into your contact form travels across the network unencrypted.

In 2022 there's no reason left to run a site without HTTPS:

• Since July 2018, with version 68, Chrome shows "Not secure" next to the address of any site without HTTPS. A customer who sees that on your contact page will think twice.
• Google announced back in 2014 that HTTPS is a search ranking signal. A light one, as Google itself said, but it's there.
• The certificate is no longer a cost of its own. Let's Encrypt, a nonprofit certificate authority, gives free, automated certificates to anyone with a domain, and software on the server can obtain and renew them on its own.

Whose name it's in

The domain should be registered to your business, and the registrar account should be yours, even if your agency manages it. Same for the hosting account. The agency can get access, but you stay the owner. Otherwise, the day you want to switch providers turns into a negotiation.

When we build a site, we set up the domain, DNS, hosting and certificate, and the accounts stay in your name. Details on our web services page.