Three separate things
Changing hosts means changing a DNS record. Done carelessly, it can also change the records your email depends on, which is why email often breaks during website moves.
- The domain is your address (yourbusiness.com), rented yearly from a registrar.
- The DNS is the directory that says where the website and email for that domain live. It might be at the registrar, the host or a service like Cloudflare.
- The hosting is the server that stores and serves your website.
- The email (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or the host’s email) is usually separate again.
Kinds of hosting
- Shared hosting: your site shares a server with many others. Cheap; speed and security depend on the neighbors and on whether the host keeps the server updated.
- Managed hosting: the host handles server updates, backups and security for a specific platform like WordPress. Costs more, needs less of you.
- Platform hosting: Wix, Squarespace and Shopify include hosting in the subscription. You can’t move the site elsewhere.
- Modern cloud hosting: sites served from a network of locations worldwide, fast everywhere, with no server for you to patch. This is what we use for the sites we build.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Whose name is the account in? It should be yours, or clearly held for you with access you can get.
- Who updates the server software, and what version of PHP or its equivalent is it running?
- Where are backups kept, how often are they taken, and have they ever been tested?
- Who do I call when the site is down, and how fast do they answer?
- What happens to my site and my data if I leave?
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.