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Disclaimer: I am new to everything web development so I might have looked over something basic, but I tried doing a bit of research and couldn't find an answer to my question, which is why I'm asking it here.

So basically over the past few days I have really become interested in web development and want to create a personal web page. From browsing around, it seems like HTML+CSS+JavaScript is a good combo to get something basic going. Once I get my page ready, I understand I have to find a web host to put my site up on the WWW.

My question is, let's say I find some cheap hosting site that allows a custom domain but provides little bandwidth and I make www.hey.com. Eventually, the site gets poppin' and I want to ditch the web hosting service I'm with to either find a better service that provides more bandwidth or host my own server (however all that works). If I move to this new, better web hosting service, will I still be able to use the domain www.hey.com or would it be somehow registered as a "used-up" domain name with the previous web hosting service?

I ask because I've got a really good name for the site but I want to start off with a smaller, cheaper web hosting service to experiment around and if I ever manage to get things kickin' then I plan on moving to a bigger, better service. But I don't want to use up the domain name with the smaller service that I use just for experimental purposes if it won't be available for the better hosting service later on.

Also, this brings me to another question. Once I eventually ditch the cheap service and shut my page down, will results of it still show up in Google? Because I know Google has this "cache" thing that you use to view pages from a previous date or something like that but I'm not completely sure how it all works.

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    SO is for programming related questions.
    – Ash Burlaczenko
    Jan 15, 2012 at 23:10

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In short: yes. How exactly depends on how you register the domain name. If you do it directly at the NIC for the TLD (i.e. directly at the entity that manages domain names for a certain top level like .com), you have full control over the domain name. If you switch hosts, all you need to do is point the DNS entries for the domain to the nameservers of your new host.

If you register the domain through your hosting provider, you will have varying direct control over the domain itself, but it still is ultimately yours. You can go through a domain transfer procedure in which your hosting provider will transfer the control of the domain name to another hosting provider.

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  • Or you can keep the domain with the old hosting provider and just point it at the new hosting provider's DNS server.
    – paulmorriss
    Jan 16, 2012 at 8:32
  • @paul If your old provider allows you to do that, that is. Some don't. :)
    – deceze
    Jan 16, 2012 at 9:14
  • I'd add that you should avoid getting a free domain name along with a hosting package - I've seen ISP's refuse to hand these over in the past. There are plenty of decent registrars out there, just make sure and choose one which lets you manage the DNS yourself without hidden charges.
    – toomanyairmiles
    Jan 16, 2012 at 14:37
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Of course YES, you still have your own domain. If you want to change to your new web host, you just need to point your name server to your new host.

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