Domain vs hosting: what is the difference?

The domain is what people type. The hosting is where the files live.

You can own an address with nothing built at it — people register names years before they build anything. You can also have files on a server with no name pointing at them, reachable only by an IP address nobody will type. A working website is a domain pointed at hosting.

The domain

• Exclusive use of the name while you keep renewing it
• DNS control, so you decide where it points
• Unlimited subdomains at no extra cost
• The right to move it to another registrar

The hosting

• Disk space for your files and database
• A web server that answers when somebody visits
• Email on your domain
• A control panel, SSL certificate and backups

Yes, and plenty of people do it that way. A domain registered here points at hosting anywhere, and hosting here works with a domain registered anywhere — you change either the nameservers or the A record and it works.

Keeping them together is not technically better. It is simply fewer logins, one renewal date, one invoice, and one support team when something is wrong — which matters at 11pm when you cannot tell whether the problem is the name or the server.

They are priced differently because they are different things.

A domain is a yearly fee set largely by the registry — .co.ke is {TLD_PRICE} a year here, and every extension is listed on the [registration page](route:domains).

Hosting is a recurring charge for resources, from {Ksh 1,550} a year, and it varies with how much space, bandwidth and capability you need.

A free domain is included with our hosting from the second plan up, which is the cheapest way to get both.