Subdomains : Defined / Uses?

A subdomain can be an inexpensive way to get your website on the Internet or handle a large website.

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is a subset of a domain. The domain is often a larger website, and the subdomains are like separate parts of the website. For example, www.yahoo.com is a large and complex website. It has many subsets or subdomains like mail.yahoo.com and music.yahoo.com. These subdomains are part of yahoo.com, but because yahoo.com is so large it is easier to manage when broken down into subdomains. In the same way, a web host can break their domain down into parts and allow their customers to use these subdomains for their websites. So if your web host is webhost.com, you could have a subdomain like mysite.webhost.com, and they may have customers with other subdomains like subdomain.webhost.com, othersite.webhost.com, etc. All of these are subdomains, or subsets, of the web host’s domain, webhost.com.

Should I get a subdomain?

A subdomain is often the cheapest way to get your website on the Internet. Many free or low-cost web hosts offer at least one subdomain as part of their services. Extra subdomains can usually be purchased for a low cost.

Subdomains are also useful if you have a large website and want to break it down into more manageable parts, or parts with different needs. For instance, if you have a corporate website, it might be easier to have separate subdomains for sales, customer support, corporate history, and company officers. Each of these subdomains can be run like a separate website, but will be identifiable as part of the larger domain of your business.

Finally, a subdomain might allow you to get a domain name you like if the one you wanted is already taken. For example, if you wanted your website to be greatdeals.com, but someone else has already claimed that domain name, you could use a subdomain to get the name greatdeals.webhost.com.

A disadvantage of subdomains is that their URLs are usually longer, and therefore harder to remember, than URLs with domain names. They also are generally tied to your web host, so if you ever wanted or needed to get a new web host, you would have to change the URL of your website, while if you have registered a domain name it can move with you.

How to get a subdomain

Subdomains are easy to get through most web hosts. Web hosts usually limit the number of free subdomain names they offer to prevent a single person from getting hundreds of different subdomains on their servers, but you can probably get all of the subdomains you need for free or for a very low fee. You will want to make sure the subdomains you get will meet your needs, like if you want several subdomains for your website you should check to be sure the web host supports or allows that.

Our listing of web hosts includes many who offer subdomains.