Learn · Deployment & hosting
DNS (domain name system) is the internet's address book. It translates a human name like example.com into the numeric IP address of the server that hosts the site, so your browser knows where to connect. Every time you visit a site, a DNS lookup quietly happens first.
When you set up a domain, you point its DNS records at your host, which is what connects your address to your actual site. Changing hosts means updating those records. DNS changes can take a little time to spread across the internet, from minutes up to a day.
DNS also routes email and other services for your domain, so its settings matter beyond the website. Getting DNS records right (and keeping access to manage them) is a small but important part of running a site.
Updated July 2026
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A domain name is your site's readable address (example.com), which you rent from a registrar, usually for around $10 to $15 a year. It points, via DNS, to wherever your site is hosted. You don't own it forever, you lease it, so it must be renewed to keep it.
HTTPS is the secure version of the connection between a browser and a site, and SSL (now technically TLS) is the certificate that enables it. It encrypts data in transit, so passwords and payments can't be read in between. It's shown by the padlock, and as of 2026 it's mandatory in practice, not optional.
Deployment is the process of taking code from a developer's computer and putting it live on a server so real users can access it. It covers moving the files, configuring the environment, and switching the site over, ideally with no downtime. "Shipping" a change means deploying it.
The main types are shared (many sites on one server, cheapest), VPS (a guaranteed slice of a server, more power), dedicated (a whole server to yourself, most control and cost), and cloud or serverless (flexible capacity that scales with demand). Which you need depends on traffic, budget, and control.
Serverless means your code runs on demand without you managing any server. The platform automatically provides capacity when a request comes in and scales down when it's idle, and you pay only for what's actually used. Platforms like Vercel, Netlify, and cloud functions work this way.
A staging environment is a private copy of your live site used to test changes safely before they go public. You deploy new work to staging first, check it there, and only then release it to production (the live site). It's the rehearsal space that keeps experiments away from real users.