What is hosting and domain? Are they enough to build a website?

Internet sites (websites) are the applications that run on advanced computers called servers. These servers work non-stop 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) so a website can be accessed at any time of the day. If these servers, ie computers, are shut down or disconnected, the websites running on them become inaccessible. Hosting process of the required files for the websites to work is called "Hosting".

Each website has an IP (Internet Protocol) number belonging to the server where it is hosted. Website can be accessed with this number which can be thought of as a kind of phone number. Considering that there are millions of internet sites today, trying to access websites with IP numbers would be a big trouble. In order to solve this problem, DNS (Domain Name System) has been created to make the names corresponding to the IP addresses of the websites. This is the process of directing your site name which you will receive from domain companies to the IP number of your site which means the server where your site is located by all name servers in the world after being automatically registered by the ICANN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers). In short, this is a system that lets you access any website not by IP number but by its name and this name is called as "Domain".

Although a hosting technically seems enough to have a website, a domain is also needed inevitably because of no one would like to access to websites via only IP number (with some exceptions) today.

Having hosting and domain does not mean owning a website. Hosting and domain are the infrastructure services required for the website you will build. If you do not design and build a website or do not have them made, your website will not be created automatically. Fortunately, almost all hosting companies provide automatic website setup service with the hosting service. E-commerce, blog, forum or portal, you can build your website yourself in a few minutes thanks to these services. However, although these services are useful and make things easier, you will definitely need to have some technical knowledge. Otherwise, you may find it difficult to solve the problems that may occur on your site or to make the updates and improvements you want.