When you're ready to get your business online, you'll hear two terms that confuse almost everyone: domain registrar and web hosting. Don't worry—they're simpler than they sound, and understanding the difference will help you make better decisions for your business.
What's a Domain Registrar?
A domain registrar is where you buy your website address—what people type to find you online (like kuvamedia.com or yourbusiness.com).
When you register a domain, you're claiming that web address for your business. Nobody else can use it as long as you keep renewing it.
What registrars do for you:
Let you search for and buy available domain names
Send you reminders when it's time to renew
Give you basic management tools
Handle the legal stuff behind the scenes
Popular registrars include GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Google Domains. The important thing to know: buying a domain doesn't give you a website yet. It just reserves your address.
What's Web Hosting?
Web hosting is where your actual website lives. It's the service that stores all your website files and makes them visible when people visit your domain.
Think of it like this: your domain is your business address, and hosting is the actual building where your business operates.
What hosting companies do:
Store your website files on their computers (servers)
Keep your site running 24/7
Provide email addresses for your domain
Handle security and backups
Give you technical support
Without hosting, your domain would just be an empty address with nothing there.

How They Work Together
Here's the part that confuses people: you need both services, but you don't have to buy them from the same company.
Here's what happens when someone visits your website:
They type your domain name in their browser
The browser asks "Where can I find this website?"
Your domain registrar says "Go to this hosting company"
The hosting company delivers your website to their screen
This setup gives you flexibility. You might choose one company for your domain because they have good prices, and a different company for hosting because they're faster or more reliable.