Domains

In short

Hosting and a domain are two separate things - you usually need both for your website or the service you've booked with us to be reachable in the browser.

Your own domain?

Don't have your own domain yet? You can register your domain with us.

After ordering, many customers ask: "I just wanted to book hosting with you - why am I now being asked to set up a domain or DNS records?" This page briefly explains what a domain is and what this request is all about.

What is a domain?

You can think of hosting and a domain like an apartment and its address:

• The hosting (or the service or website) is the "apartment" - the storage space where your website or service (e.g. Nextcloud) actually lives.
• The domain (e.g. your-domain.com) is the "address" - what needs to be entered in the browser to reach your "apartment".

Both are usually ordered and managed separately. If you've only booked hosting with us and don't have a domain yet, this "address" pointing to your hosting is exactly what's missing.

Why am I being asked to set up DNS?

For your domain to actually lead to your hosting with us, certain DNS records need to be set (more on this on the DNS settings page). This request doesn't mean something is wrong with your order - it just means this linking step is still missing, either because:

• you have a domain with another provider and still need to point its DNS records to us yourself, or
• you don't have a domain yet and need to reserve one first.

I don't have a domain yet - what now?

You can conveniently order a domain with us. If your domain is registered with us, we take care of the DNS setup when you order a service, so the domain automatically points to your hosting.

Alternatively, you can register a domain with another provider. In that case, you'll need to create the matching DNS records there yourself - the DNS settings page explains which records exist. After ordering, you'll also see the DNS records you need to set in your client area, where you can also have them checked for correctness.

Support

Do you have questions about your domain or hosting? We're happy to help.