What is a subdomain and what is a subdirectory

 What is a Subdomain?

 These are two common questions. These terms get confused, but there are distinct differences. The differences understood is helpful for fully understanding Web Hosting and Domain Services.

A subdomain is a free domain hosting service on your mobile app development & website design. A subdomain is hosted under the parent domain name. I have a subdomain, drsdi.ca under my domain, drshenton.ca. This subdomain can also be viewed as drsdi-ca.drshenton.ca

A subdirectory is a new folder added to a domain or subdomain name. My parent domain, drshenton.ca has a folder called pages. This can be seen as in drshenton.ca/pages/webdesign.html and likewise my subdomain drsdi.ca has a subdirectory called "pages".

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I do not pay for hosting the drsdi.ca site, nor for a subdirectory called "pages". Both ideas enable you to host vastly different subjects under one domain name, saving you extra hosting fees.

Domain Name System (DNS)

The DNS is a regulated service using a hierarchical naming system for computers, or any resource connected to the World Wide Web (WWW). Simply put, it is the phone book and communication system of the internet connecting your domain with the world. DNS is used to direct the world wide traffic of the WWW.

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SubDomains

The WWW works on an hierarchy system. This family tree has branches and subbranches. You buy your domain name and then host it by buying a branch of the tree. What you do with the sub-branches, if any, is up to you.

One of my purchased branches of the family tree is drshenton.ca and I branch out from there without cost. A subdomain is free, but regulated under the DNS hierarchy.

Later, I purchased the domain name drsdi.ca, but I did not purchase hosting for it. I used my already hosted domain name drshenton.ca and made a subdomain drsdi-ca (or any identifier) as an alias for my purchased drsdi.ca name.

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This enabled drsdi.ca to have free hosting in that subdomain, sometimes called a child domain. To view my drsdi.ca subdomain, type into the URL line of your browser www.drsdi.ca or www.drsdi-ca.drshenton.ca as both give the same site.

This should simplify the question, "What is a subdomain?"

SubDirectories

A subdirectory is a service, function or department related to the main domain name. In my example, drshenton.ca is the main domain name. Under that I made a folder or subdirectory called “pages”. I also have a department named “images”. This keeps my site images and information pages separate.

The pages subdirectory is for web pages, for example drshenton.ca/pages/webdesign.html or drshenton.ca/pages/webperks.html.

The images subdirectory will bring up drshenton.ca/images/drsdi-web-logo-72Blue600-205-low31.jpg the logo image or drshenton.ca/images/dscf0601img46s.jpg our back yard flowers.

This separation could be used for totally unrelated departments, like separating Auto Sales from my Web Design department. Instead I choose a subdomain for Auto Sales namely johnson-auto-plus.ca or johnson-auto-plus-ca.drshenton.ca/

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Conclusion for "What is a Subdomain and a Subdirectory?"

Hopefully you now understand the question, “What is a Subdomain and what is a subdirectory?” You pay hosting fees for a main domain name, but not for a subdomain nor a subdirectory.

A subdomain name is purchased, but a subdirectory is created at will and free all the way. These two useful terms are important to be understood for some free hosting.

With a simple phone call your hosting company can create a subdomain under your domain name or you can do it yourself.

The subdirectory creation is done at will and no registry is necessary. It is easy using a program like Dreamweaver. You many need to make a call if you are using a beginner’s designing program or your hosts provision.