The Internet is surrounded by difficult and sometimes confusing words. For example, for any website to work you need to have a domain name and a hosting provider. Although the domain name system and the hosting service are fundamental to all web pages, it is likely that you may have never heard of them or are confused about them.

In short, web hosting or hosting is the storage space that is needed to save the files of a web page so that it can be visible on the internet. On the other hand, the domain name is part of the address that users type in the browser and serves to identify and access the website.

Domain names:

We can define a domain name as one given to the internet space used by a company, institution, person, etc. For example, the domain name acompany.com.gt represents everything that “acompany” has on the internet. The resources can be distributed all over the world, the website in Guatemala, the mail server in the USA, data storage in Europe, etc. What you type in the browser’s search bar is known as the universal resource locator (URL). The URL always ends in the generic domain name of the institution.

The Internet works on the basis of numerical addresses, called IP addresses. Each device that connects to the Internet must have a unique IP address. The domain name system was devised for ease of use by the human being since it is usually difficult for us to work with numbers, it is easier to remember google.com than 172.217.169.78. The main purpose of the domain name system is to translate names into IP addresses, which identify the desired resource.


Generally, a domain name consists of a second-level domain and a top-level domain (TLD). Second-level domains are words or phrases, while top-level domains are extensions that follow the former. For example, in the case of google.com, the second-level domain is google and .com is the TLD.   TLDs are classified as follows:

  • gTLDs (generic top-level domains): These are the most widely used domain names, as they fit the purposes of any website. Includes the well-known .com, .org and .net
  • sTLDs (sponsored top-level domains): These domains are restricted to certain organizations and groups. Some common examples are .gov for government sites and .edu for educational institutions
  • ccTLDs (country code top-level domains): These indicate a country or  territory, using ISO codes. For example, .gt for Guatemala and .es for Spain.

The web hosting or hosting:

Hosting is a storage service, which is basically the space where all the files that a web page needs are stored, from text, HTML documents, codes, to images and videos. This service is provided by a web server, which is a powerful computer with large capacity connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so that your information is always available.

This hosting service may vary according to the needs of each web page. According to the storage capacity of the server, hosting services are divided into four categories:

  • Shared hosting: Its main characteristic is that the server’s RAM and disk space are shared with other users.
  • VPS Servers: The client has his own “machine” within a system of connected machines, but independent from each other.
  • Elastic hosting: This type of hosting offers a service very similar to VPS servers, with high CPU performance and RAM and disk space, but the big difference is that they are managed by an external provider.
  • Dedicated hosting: Destines a server to a single web client, who can freely administer, according to their needs.

The domain name is like the address of your apartment while hosting is like the building or condominium where it is located. If you have more questions about these two structures and their difference, you may find the answer here, or learn more about .gt Domain Names.