What is domain parking?
Domain parking is pointing it in such a way that going to it will result in displaying your website’s content or a one-page site, so-called parking page. It has very little content. Usually, it’s just a notification like “Website under construction/maintenance”. It may also contain advertisements of your hosting provider.
How does domain parking differ from pointing it to your host?
Firstly, let's figure out how pointing a domain to a hosting works. If you want your website to be displayed by following a specific URL you need to specify, where is the website located for the DNS system. So you need to configure the domain settings in a way that the website you upload to a specific hosting server would work properly.
To point a domain to a hosting service you need to have access to the domain control panel and know the IPs or NSs (nameservers) of the corresponding hosting. There are two ways of pointing the domain. The first one is to add A-records (point the domain to an IP-address), give the changes a few hours to take place and check if the domain is accessible in a browser.
The second one is pointing the domain to the NSs, provided by your hosting company. In this case you need to add the corresponding nameservers in your hosting control panel. It will take some time for the host records to propagate, usually 24-48 hours. If the website doesn’t work as intended after that period passes, you need to contact your hosting provider’s support team. As for the guides on how to point the domain to your hosting, you can find those at your domain’s Registrar or hosting company’s FAQ.
Note! You do not need to transfer your domain to your hosting provider in order to point it to a server. As for the domain parking, the procedure is pretty similar to pointing your domain to a hosting server. You will still need to point to the IP address or nameservers obtained from your hosting provider. Find “Domain Parking” or “Parked Domains” in the control panel and add the domain in question to the corresponding field. In a bit of time, the parked domain, when entered, will display the same content as the main domain in your hosting account.
There is another way of parking your domains. If the previous option is suitable for cases when you already have a website created, this one is for cases when you don't have either a domain name or a website. This option works for cases when your website is currently in development. You can create a one-page site saying “Website is in development”, your company’s logo or use a third-party service that offers parking services. Sedo is one of such services.
Hence, the main difference between parking a domain and pointing it to your website is the purpose. Technically in both cases, it’s just pointing your domain to IPs or NSs. The purpose of domain parking is either pointing several domains to the same website or pointing a domain to a parking page. While pointing the domain to a hosting server with an actual website created for it is to connect the domain with the files on your hosting company’s server.
How to park a domain for free?
This works for pointing the domain to a parking page since most hosting companies provide such an option for free.
You can set your parking page at your Registrar’s, if he offers that service. You can also create a parking page of your own, upload it to free hosting and point the domain there. We have recommended free CMSs and utilities in our articles, but we can’t recommend a free hosting service. Hosting company takes a lot of expenses to provide hosting equipment, maintenance, employees and tech support. And for that reason, high-quality hosting cannot be free.
What we would recommend is to use the domain Registrar’s services or free parking services (totally not a free hosting) like Sedo. It is nicer to see “Website under construction. See you soon.” than the Registrar’s ad.
