What is a subdomain?

In this guide we will discuss what a subdomain is and provide some examples of what they are generally used for.

To start, subdomains are used to host websites that are closely related to the main website. The URL for a subdomain will be different from the main website, but not by much, it will simply have a different prefix. For example, let's say your main website is example.com and you are wanting to make some updates to that website. You'd like to test out those updates first though before making them on your main site. It's never fun when you make updates to your main website and it suddenly breaks! In this case you could create a subdomain named test.example.com or staging.example.com. You could then copy your main site example.com over to that newly created subdomain, where you could test out any updates or modifications before implementing them on your main site. Since you made the updates on the subdomain, your main website would be unaffected in the event something didn't look quite right. If your updates look great on the subdomain and everything's working as expected, you could then make them on your main website with confidence!

Another example, let's say you wanted to create a blog for your website. Your blog will be related to your main website (example.com), but you'd like to change the design of it just a bit so it looks a little different from your main website. Since your blog would have a slightly different "feel" to it, you could create a subdomain blog.example.com and start building up your newly designed blog there.

Finally, let's say your main website example.com is about dogs, detailing the history of dogs, the different breeds, and various other fun dog facts. Now let's say you wanted to create an eCommerce website selling... dog stuff! Your eCommerce shop will be related to your main website (same logo, branding, theme, etc.), but it needs to have its own "space" as you don't want to mix the eCommerce site with your main site. In this case, you could create a subdomain awesomedogshop.example.com where you can start selling your awesome dog products!

The above are some of the most common use cases for subdomains. Remember, a subdomain is generally closely related to your main website in some way, although it will have its own URL and will have its own "space" on your hosting account.

If you are looking to create a completely separate website that is unrelated to your main website, please see our guide on What is an Addon Domain.