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If you think of a website as a building, the domain is the address and the hosting company or server is the basement/foundation.
What? Okay…let’s back up.
Your domain is the "www.sitename.com" name that people type in to get to your site. Every domain name is unique. In order to create a domain, you have to register it through online registrars, such as www.godaddy.com, or www.ipower.com. There are hundreds of companies that register domains, although those are some of the bigger ones. Domains are generally inexpensive – about $10/year.
“Hosting” is the computer on which your website files reside so that Average Joe web surfer can see them. Hosting companies have armies of computers (a.k.a. “servers”) that are tweaked and wired to hold website files and make them available to the public. Without this system, the public would not be able to see your website. A lot of the same companies that register domains also offer hosting contracts. www.godaddy.com or www.ipower.com are, again, two of the larger ones.
So what should you look for in a web host?
Affordability. The hosting industry has gotten very competitive and average monthly rates range between $4-10 for complete hosting packages. Although price shouldn’t be the deciding factor, there’s aren’t many reasons to pay more than $10.
Customer service. This is huge. Websites and domains sometimes need tweaking, and if you have an issue that you need to work out, you want to know you can reach someone for help. A good test is to find a hosting company you think looks good, and then call customer service to see how quickly they pick up. www.godaddy.com  is great for this – we recently switched some of our sites to them. They generally pick up on the second or third ring.
Hosting Products. What you get for the money. A basic website, with no major video files, huge databases, etc., isn’t going to be more than a few megabytes. Most hosting packages include several (if not hundreds) of gigabytes (1000 MB = 1 GB). There are other aspects to consider – the speed and quality of the machine on which your site is being hosted, how the files are backed up every day in case a server goes down, etc. iPower.com gives you a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to these aspects.
Hold Music. Well, this isn't really high on the list...but www.godaddy.com does have the best music if you're ever put on hold.
It’s hard to go wrong if you pick any of the major hosting companies. Make sure you put in some time to research them, and pick the one that seems to best fit your needs.
List of Hosting Providers and Domain Registrars
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Domains & Hosting
