Hosting 101: domain name vs website vs email

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We invited our friend David Tranter from TranTech Computers back to chat hosting with us, and he actually agreed – despite our heckling back in episode 18 on our top 5 cyber security secrets.

We asked him to demystify (aka try to dumb down) the different types of hosting that we encounter as a business. It’s a question we get asked a lot by clients and we had some questions ourselves for David to clarify.

Where to start? Well, as David explains, there are three separate products you will have for ‘hosting’.

Your domain name is your .com.au address (aka www.rebelnation.com.au), which we’ll refer to here as one digital product. Then off that you can have two other digital products - your website hosting and your email hosting.

What is domain name hosting?

Everyone needs a domain name if you’re in business – at least, it’s strongly recommended as it forms the basis of your digital identity, your branding and is a cornerstone of your marketing.

When you buy a domain name, you are securing that name and it’s no longer available for public purchase. David recommends purchasing a .com.au domain, being that we’re based in Australia. You can get more domain names that link to your address – eg. a .com address, .org, .net etc.

Purchasing a domain name is as simple as asking your IT crew to secure one for you or purchasing it yourself from a domain provider. This will then generally be an annual or biannual subscription fee that will come from your domain name hosting provider.

If you’ve purchased this yourself, you will want to make note of your provider and your domain login details for future reference. One of our mostly commonly asking client questions is; “Why am I getting a bill from these guys if my website is with you?”. In this case, they are confusing domain name and website hosting. These login details are something that your web developer will need if building or redirecting your website.

What is website hosting?

Website hosting is like renting a house – your website hosting is essentially where your website lives on the internet. Website hosting charges come in all different shapes and sizes, and can vary depending on what platform is used to build your website.

Things to consider when choosing a website hosting provider include your site traffic volume, your requirements (basic site through to ecommerce capabilities) and site security. Website hosting is available from many providers so ensure you’re choosing a reputable supplier and, again, keep track of your details.

When developing websites in-house, we at Rebel primarily use the platform Squarespace – as they provide a thorough range of capabilities to suit our client’s needs for the site development, as well as site hosting.

What is email hosting?

Email hosting is the fee you pay for your business email. By owning your domain name, you’re able to purchase email hosting – which pretty much means you can look the goods and email from your business name (e.g action@rebelnation.com.au). Depending on the package you purchase, you can set up as many email addresses as you need.

If you decide you don’t need email hosting, that’s fine – no one else can purchase email addresses with your business name when you own the domain name.

Just like domain name and website hosting, you can purchase email hosting from a number of providers. Once you’ve purchased your email hosting, you many have further software costs to access your new email address via the likes of Microsoft Outlook etc. David goes into some techy sounding stuff here in the podcast about set up, so if you are into that, be sure to listen in.

A common pitfall David sees many clients experience is trying to keep all hosting packages with one provider. While this may make keeping track of your account details and bills easier, it’s best to find individual service hosting packages that suit your business needs. When in doubt, ask your trusted IT crew!

In the event you have security issues with your domain name hosting, website hosting or email hosting, the first question your IT provider will ask is; “Who is your hosting provider?”. So knowing those details and having them saved on hand will save you time, money and headaches. 

Not sure where your domain name is hosted? You might be able to find some details via a quick Whois Domain lookup at https://whois.auda.org.au/. Yes, it looks a bit jargony but often you can see who the registrant contact is, and maybe even a contact to help you out on your hunt. 

Hopefully this has taken some of the mystery and confusion away from the various hosting costs, what your business needs and where to find it!