Domain, Hosting, DNS — Which One Is Actually Broken?
Almost every “my website is down” message turns out to be one of three separate things, and knowing which saves you both time and money.
- The domain is the name you rent — yourbusiness.com. If it expired, nothing else matters until it is renewed.
- The hosting is the computer your website files sit on. Server errors like 500 and 503 come from here.
- DNS is the wiring between the two. When a site shows “This site can’t be reached” but the hosting is fine and the domain is paid for, DNS is almost always the answer.
Our guide on the difference between a domain and hosting explains this properly if you want to work out which one you are dealing with before contacting anyone.
Two Problems You Should Not Pay Anyone For
Being straightforward about this costs us work, and it is still worth saying.
DNS propagation. If you have just changed your nameservers or pointed the domain somewhere new, the site can look broken while the change spreads: usually a few hours with Indian registrars, and up to 48 hours globally in the worst case. Nothing is wrong. Waiting fixes it, and paying somebody does not make it faster.
An expired renewal. If the domain or SSL simply lapsed, renewing it in your registrar’s dashboard is a two-minute job you can do yourself. Ask us only if the renewal fails or the account login is lost.
What genuinely needs a person is a migration between hosts without downtime, DNS records that must stay right while email keeps flowing, or a server error that returns after every fix. If you are not sure whether the fault is the server or the site at all, hosting and maintenance — who fixes what draws the boundary and gives two checks you can run yourself first.
What It Costs, and the Cost Nobody Mentions
What support costs is above. The number that matters more is the hosting itself, and it is where people quietly overpay: the price you sign up on is an introductory rate, and year two renews at the standard one. Nobody mentions this at checkout, and it is worth knowing before you pick a plan — our guide to website hosting charges in India sets out what renewal actually costs. If you would rather not think about renewals, SSL and backups at all, that is what a website maintenance plan covers month to month.