# Website

> A set of web pages under one address, stored on a server and opened in a browser.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Networks, Software
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/website/
- In Spanish: [Sitio web](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/website/)

A **website** is a collection of web pages that live together under one domain name, like `wikipedia.org`. Each **web page** is a document written in HTML, usually styled with CSS and often made interactive with JavaScript. The site is the whole thing; a page is one screen of it, with its own address.

To exist, a website needs three things. A domain name, registered for a yearly fee, so people can find it. **Web hosting**: a server, connected to the internet day and night, that stores the files and sends them out. And the files themselves. When you type the address, your browser asks DNS which server holds the site, requests the page and draws it on your screen.

Some sites are **static**: the same files go to everyone, which is cheap and fast. Others are **dynamic**: the server builds each page on the spot, so you see your own inbox or your own shopping cart. The first website went online at CERN in 1991. Today you can build one without code, with tools like WordPress, or write every line yourself.

## An analogy

A shop. The domain is the street address, the hosting is the building, and the pages are the aisles people walk through.

## Keep in mind

- A website is a set of pages under one domain name.
- It needs a domain, hosting and the files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
- Static sites send the same files to everyone; dynamic sites build pages per visitor.
- The first website went online at CERN in 1991.

## Go deeper

- [How the web works (MDN)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Getting_started/Web_standards/How_the_web_works)
- [Website on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website)

## Related terms

- [Domain name](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/domain-name/): The readable name of a website, like wikipedia.org, that stands in for a numeric address.
- [HTML](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/html/): The text format that describes what is on a web page: headings, paragraphs, links.
- [CSS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/css/): The language that decides how a web page looks: colors, fonts, spacing, layout.
- [JavaScript](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/javascript/): The programming language that runs inside web pages and makes them interactive.
- [Web hosting](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-hosting/): Renting space on an always-on computer so your website is reachable by anyone.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [Web browser](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-browser/): The app that fetches web pages from the internet and draws them on your screen.