What Is the Difference Between Addon Domain, Parked Domain & Subdomain?
When it comes to managing your website, understanding the difference between addon domains, parked domains, and subdomains can be a bit confusing. Each of these features serves a unique purpose and can impact the way your website operates. In this article, we’ll explore the differences between addon domains, parked domains, and subdomains so you can choose the best option for your website.
- What is an Addon Domain?
- What is a Parked Domain?
- What is a Subdomain?
- What is a Primary Domain?
- Changing a Domain's Assignment
What is an Addon Domain?
An addon domain is a fully functional domain that can be created from within your control panel. This addon domain is a new, unique website hosted in a new folder on your account so that you can host several domains from one control panel. You can give an addon domain email address, forwarders, and more in the same way as a primary (main) domain on the account.
When you create an Addon domain, 3 things happen:
- A folder is created in the 'public_html' directory
- A subdomain is created for the primary domain and attached to the new folder
- The new domain name is associated with the subdomain
For example, if the primary domain was 'abc.com' and you assign the Addon Domain' 123.com' to the folder '123', the following routes (URLs) would be true:
- abc.com/123
- 123.abc.com
- 123.com
All three of these paths would access the same directory and show the same website. However, in concern to your website's viewers going to 123.com, there is no evidence that they are being routed through 123.abc.com, and everything will function as normal.
This all happens automatically when an Addon domain is assigned to an account; there is no need for further action other than loading content into the addon domain folder.
Additionally, for those still concerned with 123.abc.com being active, there is a method in which you can disable the 123.abc.com route from accessing the site without disturbing the 123.com route. This can be found in our knowledge base article: Restrict subdomain access to addon domains.
What is a Parked Domain?
A parked domain is an alias of your primary domain — it points to the same website as your primary domain. Multiple domains, same website.
For example, if cars.com is your main website, you can purchase cars.net and assign it as a parked domain. If a visitor were to go to cars.net, they would see the same website as if they had typed cars.com.
In other words, both primarydomain.com/index.htm and parkeddomain.com/index.htm will point to the same webpage, "index.htm."
What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a prefix added to your original domain name, like a domain within a domain, usually following the form subdomain.example.com. They behave similarly to an addon domain and are often created to separate your website's different sections, such as blog.example.com or store.example.com.
To know more about this, please see the article: What Is A Subdomain And How Does It Work? How To Create A Subdomain.
What is a Primary Domain?
A primary domain is the main domain your account is primarily associated with or is named after. Usually, this is the very first domain that you use in your account. It's also the domain that you use to log into your hosting account.
You may rename your account's primary domain in several instances. A rename, in most cases, is only a cosmetic change to which domain cPanel shows in the top toolbar. The difference between the Primary domain and an Addon domain's functionality only has to do with the organization of their files; A primary domain doesn't have any additional benefits over a parked or addon domain.
To know more about this process, please read How To Change Your Primary Domain.
Changing a Domain's Assignment
To learn more about this process, please refer to this article, How To Assign A Domain Name - A Record, Name Servers, HTML Page.
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You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.