Hosting terms, in plain English

Your domain without any prefix — yourname.com rather than www.yourname.com. Also called the root or naked domain. You will see it in DNS panels, which treat it differently from www because of how the underlying records work.

The total amount of data your visitors download from your site in a month. A page with large images uses more bandwidth per visit than a page of text. Static hosts generally do not charge for it at small scale, because for a static site the amount involved is tiny.

A process that turns source code into the files a browser can actually read. Sites made with frameworks need one. A site that is already HTML, CSS and JavaScript does not — there is nothing to build.

A saved copy kept nearby so it does not have to be fetched again. Browsers cache your images, DNS servers cache your records, social platforms cache your link previews. Caching is why a change you made can take a while to be visible to you specifically.

A network of servers in many countries, each holding a copy of your site, so visitors are served from somewhere near them. It is the main reason a static site loads quickly from anywhere.

Typing commands into a terminal window instead of clicking. Many hosting platforms require one. sofast does not use one at any point.

The internet’s directory, which translates a name people can remember into an address machines can use. When someone types your domain, their browser asks DNS where it points, and the answer determines what loads.

Bought a domain — now what? →

One line in that directory. A record has a type (A, CNAME, MX), a name, and a value. Connecting a custom domain means creating one or two records that point your name at your host.

The address people type. You rent it from a registrar, usually a year at a time. It is a name, not a place — buying one does not create a website or store any files.

The small icon in a browser tab. Cosmetic, but its absence reads as unfinished.

The three file types a website is made of. HTML is the content and structure, CSS is the appearance, JavaScript is behaviour that runs in the visitor’s browser.

The secure version of the protocol browsers use to fetch pages. It encrypts the connection so nothing can be read in transit. Browsers now warn on sites without it, which is why every site should have it.

The filename a server looks for when someone requests the root of a site. It is the one naming rule that matters — your home page has to be called exactly this, lowercase.

A DNS record that routes email for your domain. Separate from the records that point at your website, which is why connecting a site does not affect email.

The servers that hold the authoritative answers for your domain’s DNS. If your nameservers point at one company, you edit your DNS records there — a common reason records added in the wrong place appear to do nothing.

The delay while a DNS change spreads. Because answers are cached around the world and caches expire at different moments, a change can be visible to one person and not another. Commonly minutes; occasionally up to 48 hours.

The company you buy a domain from. It handles the reservation of the name. It does not have to be the same company that hosts your site.

The file that lets a site use HTTPS, proving the connection belongs to your domain. Modern hosts issue and renew these automatically and for free, so this is not something you should ever have to buy.

A website made of files served exactly as they are, with no database and no code running on the server. Fast, cheap and hard to break.

What is a static website? →

A prefix in front of a domain — blog.yourname.com, or the free address a host gives you like yourname.sofast.host. It is a full, real address, not a lesser one.

How long other servers are allowed to cache a DNS record before checking again. Lower TTL means changes spread faster; the default is almost always fine.

The proportion of time a site is reachable. Static sites tend to have very high uptime because there is so little that can fail — no database to go down, no server process to crash.

A compressed folder. It is how you send a multi-file website as a single upload. Zip the folder with index.html at the top level.