The Difference Between Hosting & Domain Providers
A website URL and the Web pages that can be accessed at that address may seem integrally linked, but they are technically different types of data. Traditionally, the services you need for each are provided by two kinds of companies: registrars and Web hosts. Registrars are companies from which you purchase a domain name (yourdoman.com), and Web hosts physically hold the data for your website on servers that you rent or lease.
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Basic Services
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The role of a registrar is to provide you with an available domain name, thus these companies are known as domain providers. Registrar services are fairly uniform. They allow you to park a domain name and control access to it. Hosting services and pricing vary greatly between companies and are more complex. The basic services that Web hosts provide are storage for your Web pages, Web access to the page (traffic bandwidth) and administrative access to alter Web page files. It is common for registrars to provide hosting services, and vice versa.
Oversight
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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, is a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure interoperability of the domain names and associated IP addresses across the Internet. The ICANN creates standards and maintains a list of accredited domain providers that meet minimum best practices for issuing and servicing domain names. The goal is to ensure that each website can be found without conflict. Hosting providers, on the other hand, have no official regulatory agency or universal set of standards for the hosting services they provide.
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Costs
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Typically, registrar costs are lower than hosting costs. In fact, many Web hosts will lure customers with free domain names when they purchase more expensive hosting packages. Domain names are less than $10 per year, while the cost of hosting the website for the same domain can range from $50 to $240 and more each year. The difference in cost is associated with the services each type of company provides. Hosts incur higher levels of Web traffic, maintenance and support to maintain customer websites.
Advanced Services
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Web hosts hold massive amounts of data for customer websites and manage access to those sites. The technical requirements necessary for websites to operate leads hosts to offer services beyond those offered by domain providers. For instance, database installation and support, as is necessary for blogs, banking websites and other sites with vast amounts of data, are only provided by hosts. Other services provided by hosts, and not registrars, include website templates, Web email, design services and technical support.
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References
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