Domains, Hosting, and Email Explained in Four Minutes
These are four separate things you buy from up to four separate companies. Confusing them is how businesses lose control of their own website.
Your website depends on four separate things, and you can buy them from four different companies. Confusing them is how businesses lose control of their own website.
The domain is the name
`yourbusiness.com` is the name people type. You rent it, usually one to ten years at a time. Nobody sells it to you permanently.
If the renewal lapses, the name goes back on the market. This happens to real businesses every year.
The registrar is who you rent the name from
A registrar is the company licensed to register domain names. Namecheap, GoDaddy, and Google Domains are registrars.
The account holding your domain is the single most important login your business owns. Whoever controls it controls your website and your email. Make sure that account is in your name, with your email, and protected by two-factor authentication.
Hosting is where the site lives
Hosting is the computer that stores your pages and sends them to visitors. Your domain points at your host.
The domain and the host are independent. You can change host without changing your name, and you can move your name to a new registrar without touching the site. That independence is worth understanding, because it is what stops any single supplier holding you hostage.
Email is a fourth service
Business email is separate again. `you@yourbusiness.com` can run through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 while your website sits somewhere else entirely.
Email routing is controlled by DNS records attached to your domain. This is why email breaks when somebody moves a website carelessly. The website change wipes the mail settings.
If you take one thing from this post: before anyone touches your domain settings, get a copy of the current records.
The checklist worth running today
- Log in to your registrar yourself. If you cannot, that is the problem.
- Confirm the account is in your business name and your email address.
- Turn on two-factor authentication.
- Turn on auto-renew.
- Write down who hosts the site and who handles the email.
Five minutes now prevents the worst week you will ever have with your website.
If you are not sure who holds what, I will audit it for you. Email jon@delcaromedia.com.