When a business first gets online, it is common to think of the domain, website and email address as one thing. They work together, but they are not the same service.
Your domain is the address people use to find you.Web hosting provides the server space and services needed to make your website available. Email hostingprovides the mailboxes used for addresses such ashello@yourbusiness.co.za.
Once you understand that distinction, several common questions become easier to answer. You can have a domain without hosting a website. You can host your website with one company and email with another. And transferring a domain does not automatically mean that the website and email must move at the same time.
The domain is the address, web hosting is where the website lives, and email hosting is where the business mailboxes live. DNS is what helps connect the domain to the services using it.
The three services
Although providers often sell these services together, they perform different jobs.
- Domain registration: gives you control over a domain name for its registration period.
- Web hosting: provides the environment where your website files, applications and related data are hosted.
- Email hosting: provides mailboxes and the services needed to send and receive email for your domain.
A provider may offer all three under one account, but that does not make them technically identical. They can have different billing cycles, settings, limits, servers and migration processes.
What a domain does
A domain is the human-friendly name people use to reach your online services. For example, a business might registeryourbusiness.co.za and use it for its website and email addresses.
Registering the domain does not automatically provide the website itself. It gives you the right to use that domain according to the rules of the relevant domain registry and your registration agreement.
The domain also does not have to be registered with the same company that hosts your website. DNS records can direct the domain towards services operated by different providers.
Registering yourbusiness.co.za gives you the domain. It does not by itself create a website, mailbox or web server.
What web hosting does
Web hosting is the service that provides the server environment for your website. Depending on the hosting platform and the website itself, this can include storage for website files, databases, server software, SSL support and tools for managing the site.
For a WordPress website, the hosting environment needs to support the software and database requirements of WordPress and any other applications the site uses.
When someone visits your domain, DNS helps direct the browser towards the server where the website is hosted. The browser then requests the site from that server.
This means that changing your web host does not necessarily mean changing your domain. You can keep the same domain and point it to a new hosting environment after the website has been moved.
What email hosting does
Email hosting provides the mail service behind addresses using your domain. If your business uses hello@yourbusiness.co.za, there needs to be a mail service responsible for receiving and sending messages for that domain.
Business email commonly uses mail protocols such as IMAP and SMTP when connecting email applications and devices. Webmail provides another way to access the mailbox through a browser.
Email hosting is therefore separate from the website itself. Your website can work normally while email has a problem, and email can continue working while the website is temporarily unavailable.
A domain can point website traffic to one provider while its mail records direct email towards another. What matters is that the relevant DNS records are configured correctly.
How the services connect
DNS is the part that often causes confusion because it sits between the domain and the services using it. DNS records tell systems where particular services for the domain should be found.
For a simple website and email setup, the domain can have records directing web traffic towards the web hosting service and mail traffic towards the email service. Other DNS records can be used for verification and email authentication.
This is why changing one service does not necessarily require changing all the others. You may move the website while keeping the existing email provider, or move the email while leaving the website where it is.
DNS changes can take time to become visible everywhere because resolvers cache DNS information. The exact timing varies, so a DNS change should not be treated as an instant switch.
- Domain: your online address.
- DNS: connects the domain to services.
- Web hosting: hosts the website.
- Email hosting: hosts the business mailboxes.
Can you use different providers?
Yes. There is no requirement for your domain registrar, web host and email provider to be the same company.
A business might register its domain with one provider, host its website with another and use a separate email platform. This can be useful when a business has different requirements for each service.
The trade-off is that you have more services and settings to keep track of. When something goes wrong, you also need to know which provider is responsible for the affected service.
Using one provider for several services can simplify administration, but it is not automatically the right choice for every business. The important thing is understanding what you have purchased and where each service is actually hosted.
What happens when you change provider?
The answer depends on which service you are changing.
Changing web hosting
Moving a website to a new host normally involves transferring the website files and database, testing the new copy and then changing the relevant DNS settings when you are ready to direct visitors to the new server.
Your domain can remain registered with the same registrar. Your email service can also remain where it is if the email DNS records are preserved correctly.
Changing email hosting
Moving email involves the mailboxes and their contents, account settings and the DNS records responsible for directing mail. If existing messages need to be retained, the migration needs to account for the mailbox data as well as the new service.
Email migration depends on the existing provider, available credentials and mailbox access. It should therefore be planned rather than treated as a simple DNS change.
Transferring the domain
A domain transfer changes the registrar responsible for the domain. It does not automatically move the website files or email mailboxes to the new registrar.
The associated website and email can continue using their existing providers, provided the relevant domain and DNS configuration remains correct during the process.
What a small business actually needs
Most small businesses with a normal online presence need to think about three separate questions:
- What domain should represent the business?This is the address customers will use.
- Where should the website be hosted?This depends on the website platform, resources, support and hosting requirements.
- Where should business email be hosted?This depends on mailbox requirements, devices, storage, authentication and the way the business uses email.
You can then decide whether managing these services with one provider or several providers makes more sense for your business. What matters is having a clear record of the domain, DNS, hosting and email arrangements.
This is particularly important when someone else originally set up the website or email. Before changing providers, find out who controls the domain, where the DNS is managed, where the website is hosted and where the mailboxes are hosted.
The simple version
A domain, web hosting and email hosting are connected, but they are three different pieces of an online setup.
The domain is the address. Web hosting provides the environment for the website.Email hosting provides the mailboxes. DNS connects the domain to the services that use it.
Understanding that distinction makes provider changes much easier to plan. You can move a website without transferring the domain, or change email providers without moving the website. The important part is knowing which service is changing and making the associated DNS and migration changes carefully.
If you are registering a new South African domain or moving an existing one, you canview PalmHost Domain Registrationto see the available domain service.
