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Almost everyone getting a first website online in Nepal buys two things and expects one. A domain and hosting are separate purchases, potentially from separate companies, and they have to be introduced to each other before anything appears in a browser. Here is the whole sequence, in order.
They are two different things
Your domain is the address people type — yourbusiness.com. Your hosting is the computer that holds your files and answers when someone visits that address. Buying a domain gets you a name pointing at nothing; buying hosting gets you space nobody can find. You need both, and they are billed separately, on their own renewal dates.
Which one to buy first
Buy the domain first, and buy it the moment you have settled on the name. Domains are first come, first served, and the name you want is the one thing in this process that somebody else can take while you are still thinking about it. Hosting can wait a day; a good domain often cannot wait a week.
The part that trips everyone up: nameservers
The connection between the two is made by nameservers — a setting stored at your registrar that says which hosting company answers for this domain. Your host gives you two or more nameserver addresses, you enter them at the registrar, and the internet takes a few hours to catch up.
Two things routinely go wrong here. The first is impatience: a nameserver change is not instant, and while it spreads the site works for some people and not others. That is normal and it resolves itself. The second is editing the wrong setting — changing an A record while the nameservers still point somewhere else achieves nothing, because the nameservers decide who is even asked.
Buying both in one place
You can perfectly well register a domain with one company and host with another; millions of sites do. Keeping them together simply removes a step, because the nameservers are already correct, and leaves you with one renewal date and one invoice instead of two.
Goji sells both: you can register a domain and add hosting to the same order, and the account is set up as soon as the payment clears.
Paying from Nepal
The practical obstacle for many buyers here is not the price, it is the payment: a great deal of hosting is priced in dollars and expects an international card. Prices at Goji are shown in Nepali rupees and paid with the methods you already use. The payment methods page lists what is accepted today.
If your domain is already somewhere else
You do not have to move it. Point the existing domain's nameservers at your new hosting and it will work exactly as though you had bought both together. Transferring the registration as well is optional, and worth doing only when you would rather have one renewal date and one company to deal with — never something to rush while you are trying to get a site online.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a domain I bought from another company?
Yes. Update the nameservers at whichever registrar holds the domain and the site will load from your new host. Nothing needs to be transferred, and there is no charge for pointing a domain you already own.
Do I have to buy the domain and hosting at the same time?
No. Many people register the name months before they build anything, which is sensible — it costs little and protects the name. Hosting only starts costing you on the day you need the site to be reachable.
How long before my site is live?
The hosting account itself is ready within minutes of payment. The wait is the nameserver change spreading across the internet, which usually takes a few hours and can occasionally take up to a day. Nothing is broken during that window.
Should I get a .com or a .com.np?
A .com is faster to obtain and works everywhere; a .com.np signals that you are a Nepali organisation but requires documents and manual approval. Many businesses register both and point one at the other. There is a full comparison in our guide to registering a .com.np domain.