What's the difference between Website Hosting, Domain Hosting & Email Hosting?

What is DOMAIN HOSTING?

A DOMAIN HOST (also called a DOMAIN REGISTRAR) - Is where you purchase your DOMAIN NAME (your URL) and where this DOMAIN NAME is hosted. 

Examples of Domain Hosts/Domain Registrars are companies like: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Crazy Domains, Domains.com, etc. 

A Domain Name typically costs anywhere from $2-$20/annually (and are typically sold annually or for multi-year timeframes) It's a smart ideal to have your Domain set to renew each year if you plan to keep your domain. 

A Domain Name/URL is your website’s ADDRESS on the internet. You can compare it to a “Physical Address” - you can only have one home at a specific address.

When a user types your Domain in their web browser or click on a link with your domain - they are sent to your website.

ShinePages does NOT offer Domain Hosting - You can purchase your Domain Name from ANY Domain Registrar.  

What is WEBSITE HOSTING?

WEBSITE HOSTING is where your website technically resides on the internet. It’s like the HOUSE of your website, providing a place for all of your website content / funnels / courses / appointments / store products / CRM / emails etc. images, files and data to stay.

HINT: SHINEPAGES IS YOUR "WEBSITE HOST" :) 

A WEBSITE HOSTING company like ShinePages charges to rent space on their servers. Website Hosting IS INCLUDED in all of our Plans, among the many other features to design your pages, offer online appointments, create funnels, etc. (as mentioned above.) 

We also provide you with an SSL certificate to keep your websites and funnels secure.

When a visitor types the domain name into the browser, the browser fetches the specific data from the web host and this data all together displays your website.

What is EMAIL HOSTING?  

Typically you can purchase your Business Email Address from YOUR DOMAIN Registrar/DOMAIN HOST - ie: Namecheap, GoDaddy, Domain.com, Google Domains/Workspace etc.

Your EMAIL HOST provides you with your actual business email address and your "Email In-box"

While ShinePages offers the ability for you to send mass Marketing Email Campaigns and Automations - and even send out one-off emails to "Subscribers" in your system - we are not your "Email In-box" (where you receive email messages and send out one-to-one email correspondence) 

Please see this article: Email 101 - How Emailing Works Within ShinePages

How do these different host types work together?

To connect everything - we use a “Directory” called Domain Name System (DNS).

The DNS translates your Domain Name into an IP address that points to your Website Host's Server (ShinePages). This makes YOUR website appear when someone visits your Domain. :) 

To get everything connected, you will follow the simple steps to copy and paste the "DNS Record Values" (that ShinePages provides to you) to the "DNS Records" area/screen of your Domain Host/Domain Registrar.  

We provide you with the Values/Info for:

- 2 X DNS records which will connect your Domain to your Website, 

- 2 X additional DNS records which will get you "verified" to send emails ("From" your business email address) via our Emails & Automations system.  

- Please see this article: DNS Record Values Provided by ShinePages

Please see this article: Connect a Domain

Please also see this article: How to Get your Domain Verified to Send Emails

To sum it up: The Domain Name is like the ADDRESS of your house, while Web Hosting is the HOUSE where you store everything ie. Files and Data etc.

NOTE:

While other platforms may sometimes "bundle" Website Hosting and Domain Hosting together in one "package" or "plan" (or even Website Hosting, Domain Hosting AND Email Hosting) - they are indeed separate and distinct things and typically can be separated (and paid for separately as well). 

This "bundling" can often be a cause of confusion where people don't know where they purchased their domain name, how much it costs, what the difference is between the two or how to access their domain's DNS records.

We have chosen NOT to offer "bundles" of Web Hosting along with domain or email hosting at this time.