A domain name for a secure online space

When you start working on the creation of your website or online store, the first thing to do is to choose and register a domain name. You can't purchase a domain name per se. It consists of whichever string of text you choose for the name, plus a domain ending (.net, .fr, .org, etc.) that you register for a specific period of time between 1 and 9 years (and can be renewed indefinitely). You can check whether the domain name you want is available by doing a search with our search tool. You'll get an immediate confirmation as to the availability (or not) of the domain name you want. If it's available, you can then easily register it by adding it to your cart.

Here's how domain names work in general: registries manage particular domain endings (.net, .fr, .com, .org, etc.) and sell domain names with the domain endings they manage. Registrars like Gandi are accredited by each of these registries so that they can sell domain names to end-users (private individuals, small- and medium-sized businesses, large corporations, non-profits, etc.) with any of the available domain endings their customers may want. Once registered, a domain name is associated to an Owner contact, who becomes the "holder" of the domain name in question for a particular length of time. If a domain name shows as unavailable in the results of a search, that means someone else has already registered it. You can check who owns it using our whois service or you can search for alternatives using our suggestion tool.

If you want to create a website, but the domain name you want is already taken and you don't want to "fall back" on another domain ending or a different domain name, you still have a few options, including finding the current owner using the Whois so that you can make an offer on the domain name. The Whois is the directory for all the technical and contact information regarding domain names. A domain's listing in the Whois is created at the moment a registrar, like Gandi, completes the registration of a domain name on behalf of their customer. The Whois contains information about the registrar, the registration date, the expiration date, and above all, the last updated date, corresponding to the last time the domain name's registration was modified. A good way to tell whether a domain name is active or dormant is to contact the owner of the domain name. However, the whois is not always ideal, since it's not always kept up to date (if a contact has changed jobs, for example) but also because GDPR (the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation) prevents registrars from publishing full contact information for private individuals without their consent. You can try your luck contacting the organization or company listed, but nothing is certain. As a last resort, you can also try to contact the owner using the contact page of the website associated with the domain name.

A web host (or hosting provider) is a business/service provider that makes data storage and web servers available to website admins or owners. One of the pieces of data that's stored consists of the elements that will be made available on the web and viewed by internet users.

The role of the web host is to install, secure, and keep web servers up to date, and also to develop the user interface and underlying technical infrastructure according to the needs of their users, following the release of new technologies, and in response to competitors.

A web host isn't involved in the content stored on the servers or in the development of specific websites hosted on its servers.

To bring your website online, it needs to be stored on a web hosting server. That means choosing a web hosting provider and a hosting package that fits your needs is crucial! There are several different options on the market, at all different prices. Obviously, not all of them are the same, but in general, there are hosting platforms that are right-sized for the needs of personal websites, and not other kinds. The risk is you might choose a solution that's either not the right size (not powerful enough or too expensive) or not well adapted to your needs (e.g. requiring a high level of expertise), or worse — both!

There are several types of web hosting solutions that each meet a different set of needs. Whether you're looking for a reasonably priced hosting solution for a blog, a complete hosting solution for your business activities, or hosting for developing a mobile app or an SaaS-type service, there's a web hosting solution for you at Gandi!