Domain names vs web hosting: what each one does and who controls it

Four separate services sit behind one web address

A web address looks like a single thing, but it depends on four services doing different jobs.

The domain name is the name itself, such as yourbusiness.co.uk. You register it through a registrar, which records your registration with the registry that runs that ending. DNS, the Domain Name System, holds the records that say where the name leads: which server shows your website, and which service receives your email. Hosting is the server that stores your website and answers visitors. Email hosting holds your mailboxes, and it may come with your hosting plan or be a separate service altogether.

One company can sell you all four, but they remain separate jobs, controlled from separate settings. Marketo's outage shows why that matters. According to The Register, a customer, Travis Prebble, paid the overdue renewal himself, about $74 in all. Paying did not give him access to the domain's control panel, though, and the registrar had pointed the domain's DNS at its own 'pending renewal deletion' servers. Service only began to return after 9:30am Pacific time, when Marketo found the person who handled its domains and switched the DNS back.

Write down who provides each piece for your own site, and keep the list where someone other than you can find it:

You rent a domain, and the rental can lapse

Registering a domain gives you the right to use it for the period you pay for, not for ever. ICANN, which sets the rules for generic endings such as .com and .org, requires registrars to send at least two renewal reminders, about a month and about a week before expiry. Those notices go to the registrant email address in the domain's official contact details. If that is a former designer's address or an inbox nobody reads, the warnings go nowhere.

If the renewal still is not paid, a sequence begins. Your registrar may offer an auto-renew grace period of up to 45 days, though, depending on its terms, it may auction the name to someone else during that time. Before deleting the name, the registrar must disrupt its DNS, which ICANN warns will stop services such as your website and email. After deletion, the registry must hold the name for a 30-day Redemption Grace Period, when you can still restore it through your registrar, which may charge a fee.

Miss that window and you can lose the name. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns that after expiry, another organisation could register your domain, and whoever holds it decides where its website and email go. Country endings such as .uk follow their own registry's rules and timings, so check your registrar's terms for the details.

Check whose name is on the registration

Two things decide who really controls a domain: the registrant, who is the person or organisation the registration lists as holding the name, and whoever has the login to the registrar account, which can change everything, including where the website and email point. When a freelancer sets up your site, it is easy for both to end up being them.

The NCSC's guidance on managing domain names says that if a domain was set up with a personal email account, you should change it so that dealings with the registrar go through your organisation's own systems. Its most important recommendation is two-step verification on the registrar account. It also advises keeping the registration paperwork that helps prove the domain is yours.

None of this needs to be awkward. Your developer can still do the technical work with their own access if your registrar supports it, or with temporary access you can withdraw later. What matters is that the name and the master login stay with you.

How locks and transfer codes protect your domain

Moving a domain to another registrar needs a transfer code, which ICANN calls the AuthInfo code. Treat it like a password: it is what authorises the move. Under ICANN's rules, your registrar must give it to you within five calendar days of your request.

Your registrar may also offer a lock that stops the domain being transferred until you remove it. Leave it switched on day to day. ICANN requires registrars to give you a readily accessible and reasonable way to remove the lock when you genuinely want to move.

Timing matters too. Under ICANN's current Transfer Policy, a registrar may refuse a transfer within 60 days of a domain's first registration or a previous transfer, and you generally cannot move to a new registrar within 60 days of changing your contact information unless your registrar offers an opt-out. If you are taking a domain back from a former designer, update the registrant details first and allow for that wait before any move. Domains with country endings such as .uk follow their own registry's transfer process.

Change one service at a time

Because the pieces are separate, you can move one without disturbing the others. Changing hosts usually means copying your site to the new server, testing it there, then updating the DNS records for your website so they point at the new address. Your domain registration and your email can stay exactly where they are.

Watch for one trap. If your DNS is managed by the host you are leaving, moving can mean moving your DNS too. Copy every record before you switch, including the MX records that tell other mail servers where to deliver your email, or your website may arrive safely while your email quietly stops.

Make one change, check it, then make the next. If you move your hosting, registrar and email in the same week and messages stop arriving, you will not know which change caused it. DNS answers are cached for a period set on each record, so changes can take a while to reach everyone. Keep your old hosting running until you are sure visitors are reaching the new one.