{"id":1121,"date":"2021-03-30T17:26:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T14:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2025-11-27T14:36:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:36:01","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-addon-domain-parked-domain-and-subdomain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/what-is-the-difference-between-addon-domain-parked-domain-and-subdomain\/","title":{"rendered":"Addon vs Parked vs Subdomain Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most internet users are familiar with primary domains, but did you know that there are various internet domains<\/span><b>?&nbsp; <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>A primary domain is a domain registered to the hosting account of a website.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the domain types include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Addon domains<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parked domains<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>What is an Addon Domain?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An addon domain is a functional secondary domain that users create from their web hosting <\/span><b>control panel,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and they do not need to register a new domain name to host it. This domain contains a unique site hosted in a new folder within the public folder on their hosting account. ScalaHosting enables users to<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/how-to-add-an-addon-domain\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">host multiple domains<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from one control panel <\/span><b>depending on your package limits.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>The primary domain hosts the associated addon domain files<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but the addon domain has its own directory and acts as an independent project. Users can create <strong>databases<\/strong>, <strong>email addresses<\/strong>, and <strong>forwarders<\/strong> for their addon domain. Additionally, addon domains do not have to be related to the main domain in any form.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>How does an Addon Domain Work?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When a user creates an addon domain, three major things happen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The web hosting control panel creates <\/span><b>a folder in the account&#8217;s home directory<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It sets up a DNS zone for the addon domain.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It associates the new addon domain name with the new folder.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Advantages of an Addon Domain<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Users only need one hosting account to host different addon domains depending on their limits, and they can manage all websites under the same control panel.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The addon domain has its own <\/span><b>directory, FTP accounts, <\/b><b>site statistics, etc., <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but they use the main account&#8217;s server resources like bandwidth and disk space.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Users can access their addon domain with different website addresses from their primary name.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>What is a Parked Domain?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A parked domain is a registered but inactive domain name not associated with any website or email hosting service. They are referred to as <strong>Aliases<\/strong> in cPanel, and users usually park domain names for later use.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>How does a Parked Domain Work?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Businesses and Individuals park their domains for a variety of reasons. Some of them include;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Domain Name Reservation<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the major reasons users park domains is to <strong>reserve the name for future use<\/strong> because good domain names go quickly. Most users register domain names before having any idea for a website.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Extra Development Time<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most businesses register their domain names first before beginning the website development process. This way, they can park their domain easily while concentrating on creating a perfect website.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Additional Income Generation<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A parked domain does not have to be empty. Users can choose to monetize their parked domain to generate income while it is not in use. Most business-savvy users display <strong>advertisements<\/strong> on parked domains <\/span><b>to earn extra income.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Cybersquatting Protection<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many established companies deal with <strong>cybersquatters<\/strong> regularly, so most of them register all variants and trademarks of their brand in a bid<\/span><b> to protect their name<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This also creates a good impression for your visitors that you are willing to protect your brand and company image.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Advantages of a Parked Domain<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Users can employ targeted ads to convert sales on their parked domains.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Domain parking requires minimal setup and increases the value of the primary domain.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Businesses and individuals can earn extra income from their parked domains.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Users do not need to commit to any domain parking contract.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parked domains do not require maintenance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>What is a Subdomain?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A subdomain is a supplementary part of the domain name that people use to create different websites running simultaneously. Businesses can use it to categorize their website into different sections according to functionality.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains enable users to create backlinks to the main domain to increase their traffic and employ different themes to create webpages.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>How does a Subdomain work?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains act like domains as they have website addresses that<\/span> the<b> DNS translates into IP addresses,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which are then used to load up a website.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Advantages of a Subdomain<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search engines view subdomains as individual websites.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains increase traffic and search engine optimization.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains enable users to have complete control of their local content.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subdomains offer both internal and external linking.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Addon Domains vs Parked Domains vs Subdomains<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Businesses that want to target various audiences can opt for subdomains<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while addon domains are suitable for users with personal accounts or testing environments. On the other hand, pretty much everyone can use parked domains to redirect different domains to one website. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>ScalaHosting offers all types of domains with varying extensions<\/b>, so feel free to contact us if you want to take advantage<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"youtube-player wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"qwGE9xz5eb8\">How To Point a Domain Name To a Web Hosting Provider<\/p>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\r\n    {\r\n        \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\r\n        \"@type\": \"VideoObject\",\r\n        \"name\": \"How To Point a Domain Name To a Web Hosting Provider\",\r\n        \"description\": \"You can actually buy web hosting and domain name from different providers and just link these two things together. In this video we'll show you exactly how.\",\r\n        \"thumbnailUrl\": [\r\n            \"https:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/qwGE9xz5eb8\/maxresdefault.jpg\"\r\n        ],\r\n        \"uploadDate\": \"2022-04-12\",\r\n        \"duration\": \"PT3M45S\",\r\n        \"embedUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qwGE9xz5eb8\"\r\n    }\r\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/whois.html?utm_source=scalahosting-internal-link&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_campaign=whois-referral&amp;utm_id=whois-referral\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/whois_banner_horizontal.png\" alt=\"Addon vs Parked vs Subdomain Explained, Addon Domains vs Parked Domains vs Subdomains\" class=\"wp-image-4915\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/whois_banner_horizontal.png 600w, https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/whois_banner_horizontal-300x50.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 361px) 660px, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 910px, 1140px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most internet users are familiar with primary domains, but did you know that there are various internet domains?&nbsp; A primary domain is a domain registered to the hosting account of a website. Some of the domain types include: What is an Addon Domain? An addon domain is a functional secondary domain that users create from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"Addon vs Parked vs Subdomain Explained | ScalaHosting KB","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5895,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions\/5895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}