A web hosting account holds the files that make up your website, the database behind it, usually your business email, and the security certificate that puts the padlock in the address bar, all managed through a control panel. The domain and its DNS settings are often somewhere else. As the owner, you should hold your own login to the hosting account and to the domain registrar, know where the DNS is managed, and have a recent backup you could restore without anyone's help.
What lives in the hosting account
The website's files: the pages, the images, the code. On a WordPress site that includes the themes and plugins.
The database, if the site has one. On most content managed sites, the text of every page and post lives here rather than in the files.
Email accounts on your domain, unless your email is with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 instead.
The SSL certificate, and the backups, if the host takes them. All of it is usually reached through a control panel such as cPanel or Plesk.
What is often somewhere else
The domain is registered with a registrar, which may or may not be the same company as your host.
The DNS, the settings that point your domain at your website and your email, can be at the registrar, at the host, or at a service such as Cloudflare. Whoever controls the DNS controls where your domain goes.
This split is normal. The problem is when nobody at the business knows where each piece is.
The logins you should hold yourself
Your own login to the hosting account, in your name or your business's name. If a developer manages it, they can have their own login alongside yours.
Your own login to the domain registrar, with an email address you actually read as the contact.
Access to wherever the DNS is managed.
Keep them somewhere safe and shared with at least one other trusted person in the business, so one person leaving does not lock everyone out.
Backups you could restore yourself
Host backups are useful, but they live with the host. If the account is suspended or the host has a problem, they can be out of reach at the moment you need them.
Keep an occasional copy of the site's files and database somewhere else. Most control panels produce one in a few clicks.
A five minute check
Can you log into the hosting account yourself? Can you log into the registrar? Do you know where the DNS is managed? When was the last backup, and where is it?
If any answer is no or not sure, fix it this week, while nothing is wrong. It takes minutes now and can take weeks after a falling out or an expired card.
Questions people ask
- What is the difference between a domain and hosting?
- The domain is your address on the internet. Hosting is the space where the website's files live. They are often bought from different companies, and the DNS settings are what connect one to the other.
- Who should own the hosting account?
- The business. If an agency or developer manages it, they should have their own access rather than being the only holder of the account. That way changing developer never means losing the website.
- What happens to my email if I change host?
- If your email is hosted with your website, it moves with it, and the mailboxes need to be set up again and their contents copied across. If your email is with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, changing web host does not affect it, as long as the DNS records for email are kept.
We do this
If you would rather have it done than do it, this is the part of what we offer that covers it.