Knowledgebase

I Just Paid My Domain Registration. Why Am I Getting Another Bill?

Putting up a website is similar to building a house, except with a website you don't have to physically move furniture.

Domain Registration

With a house, the deed - the document that establishes your address and grants you the right to inhabit the property - is a necessity. For a website, that is called registration. This process assigns the use of the particular domain name to you for the length of the registration period, usually from 1 to 10 years. 

Unlike a deed to your house, however, you must renew your domain name with the registrar prior to the expiration date. If it expires, the domain name could be made available to someone else for purchase. Frequently, domain registrations are billed separately from the hosting for your website. Billing for domain registrations is annually or longer. Phoenix Hosting offers registration terms of 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years or 10 years. Generally speaking, in the web world (search results, brand management), longer is better.

Web Hosting

Returning to our analogy, the deed itself does nothing in terms of building your house. That requires an architect, a general contractor, several subcontractors, permits, inspections and a multitude of other people and service providers.

Similarly, hosting for your registered domain name provides equivalent services for your website. The hosting server is like the general contractor, supervising your build in addition to providing the foundation - the software to host your site and make it visible on the Internet. Other services: email, SSL Certificates, security measures, etc., represent the subcontractors, inspections and permits. Hosting for your site is typically billed monthly, and sometimes annually for a slight discount over the monthly price.

Web Design and Content

This is what makes your website unique, gives it "curb appeal". The design and content are what your visitors actually see. Without content, everything else up to this point is just an empty plat of ground. Ignoring the design element of your site ends up being nothing more than what is called a "spec" by the large-scale residential home builders: an empty shell of a house waiting for someone to decide what color carpet, which tile and what curtains to hang. Design and content input are billed separately from domain registration and the hosting.

Questions about your domain registration or hosting with us? Call our support team at 602-553-8966.