What hosting and a domain are — a plain-English guide

“I need a website, but I don’t know what hosting and a domain are” — we hear this from customers almost every day. And that’s fine! You don’t have to be a developer to have a website. But a little background knowledge helps you make better decisions and avoid being ripped off. Here is everything you need to know, in plain language.

The domain — your address on the internet

A domain is the address of your website, e.g. yourcompany.pl. It’s like the physical address of your shop — people type it into a browser to find you. A domain consists of a name (yourcompany) and an extension (.pl, .com, .eu). Choose the .pl extension if you operate in the Polish market — Poles trust it.

A domain costs 50–150 PLN/year depending on the extension and the registrar. Popular registrars in Poland: nazwa.pl, OVH, home.pl, az.pl. The domain is yours — you can transfer it between registrars and point it at any hosting.

How to choose a good domain

• Short and simple: yourcompany.pl rather than jan-kowalski-renovation-services-warsaw.pl
• Easy to remember: Say it out loud — will someone remember it after hearing it once?
• No hyphens: Avoid hyphens if possible
• .pl extension: The standard for Polish business
• Aligned with your company name: Avoid domains that don’t connect to your business

Hosting — the place your website lives

Hosting is the server (computer) where your site “lives”. When someone types your domain, the browser connects to the hosting server and downloads your site’s files. Without hosting, the site doesn’t exist — the domain is the address, the hosting is the building at that address.

Types of hosting

• Shared hosting: The cheapest (100–500 PLN/year). Your site shares a server with hundreds of others. Sufficient for simple business sites
• VPS (Virtual Private Server): 300–1,500 PLN/year. Your own slice of a server. For larger projects
• Dedicated hosting: 3,000+ PLN/year. An entire server just for you. For large services
• Static hosting (Vercel, Netlify): 0–300 PLN/year. For modern Next.js sites. Fastest and cheapest

What to watch out for when choosing hosting

• Speed: A server in Poland or Europe (low ping). Test: does the site load in under 2 seconds?
• Uptime: A guarantee of at least 99.9% availability. If the server goes down, your site goes down too
• SSL: Free Let's Encrypt included (most providers offer it)
• Backups: Automatic backups — at least once a day
• Support: Technical support in Polish, available 24/7

How much it costs — summary

• .pl domain: 50–100 PLN/year
• Shared hosting: 100–500 PLN/year
• Static hosting: 0–300 PLN/year (often free!)
• TOTAL: 50–600 PLN/year — that’s the cost of keeping your site online

For comparison: an ad in a local newspaper is 500–2,000 PLN for a SINGLE insertion. Your site works for you 24/7, 365 days a year for a fraction of that amount.

What if you don’t want to deal with it?

Most agencies (us included) handle the domain and hosting as part of the project. We register the domain in your name (you are the owner), set up the hosting, install SSL and connect the site. You don’t need to know how it works — you need to know that it works.