What?, Why this question? , Why this comparison?
Well, I have put some years into the web design business, and I have come across a lot of people who do not understand the basic things about a website, and how they are expected to get one and maintain it.
There are so many people, usually the ones who do not have any “tech skills”, who assume that a website, its design, and its management should be just like that of a house…
These groups of people do not understand why a web designer or web developer needs to “renew” a domain, or renew “hosting” for a website after the first design and hosting has been done.
To make it easier to understand some of the words that I will use in this comparative note, let me break down the analogy in the manner below:
- House → Website
- Rooms of a house →Pages of a Website
- Land → Domain
- Container → Hosting
- Elements of a House, such as doors, windows, WC, Roof, etc → Elements of a Website, such as text, images, video, tables, charts, forms etc
- Architect → Web Designer
- Engineer → Web Developer
In other to understand the key differences, between a house and a website, let’s talk about the things they have in common:
- Both require a designer, in the case of a house, it needs an Architect, and in the case of a website, it needs a web designer
- Both require or need a developer or someone with the skills to bring that design to life on the site, for a house, that would be the site engineer, and for a website, that would be the web developer ...
- Both require a Foundation, a place where they can be situated, for a house, that would be a plot of land, and for a website, that would be the “web host”
- Both require some “approval” or “recognition” by an authority, in the case of the house, that would be a plan approved by the housing authority, and in the case of a website, the domain registrar.
- Both require an “addressing system”, a way for other people to find the house or the website, in the case of the house, it’s a house number, a street name, and an area name, but a website only requires the domain name.
- Both require that you pay some statutory charges, in the case of the house, you pay a “land use charge”, for a website, you pay the “hosting fees”...
- Both require some “maintenance” to keep them working optimally, for a house, you are usually fixing things that break, and upgrade or renovate it once in a while, for a website, you are usually upgrading more than you fix things that break… but you do maintain it.
- In the same way you have various types of houses/buildings, from a bungalow to a single-story building, to a skyscraper, yet they are all called “Buildings”, you also have various types of websites, from the regular brochure style website to a membership site, an e-commerce store, or a “web app”, yet they are all called “websites”.
- Looking at No 8 above, the same way an Architect would charge differently for the design of a building based on the complexity, a Web Designer would also charge differently based on the type of website you are building.
Now that we have some understanding of the things that are common to both, hopefully…
Let’s talk about their key differences:
- A house is stationary, but a website is not; to explain better, the land is physical in nature and the house on it can only be built/fixed at one location, but a website is virtual and can easily be moved from one “web host” to another “web host”...
- The extent to which you can modify a house is restricted by the foundation and the structural elements already built into it, but a website can be completely rebuilt from scratch and simply used to “replace” the old or former website.
- A house address usually remains fixed, except if the addressing authority (Government) changes the addressing system, but you can easily change the address (domain name) of a website easily, just by changing the domain name.
- The lease on a plot of land on which a house sits is usually “99 years”, but the lease on a domain name and hosting is usually “1 Year”…
- The plot of land on which a house sits, cannot be “moved”,’ but you can easily move the “web host” on which the website sits, just by getting a new web host and moving the website.
- The number of people that can access a house, is far less due to the limitations of its location/size/boundaries, but a website is accessible to everyone in the world, from any location.
There are many other differences between a house and a website.
However, for the purpose of showing the key differences, let me stop here.
When next you want to build or design a website, and a web designer asks you to pay for web hosting or domain renewal, please understand it from this perspective and it will be easier to know why he or she is asking for it.
So…
When someone says, “Meet me at my house”, that house could be a bungalow, a one-story building, a block of flats, or an apartment in a block of serviced apartments.
In that same manner, understand that when someone says “type www” or “visit our website at www”, that website could be a regular brochure-styled website, an e-commerce store, a web app, or even a sales funnel…
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( Yes, sales funnels are actually websites).
