One server, one IP address — yet it serves thousands of different websites. The trick is name-based hosting. Here is how it works.
The mechanism: virtual hosts When your browser visits example.com, it sends the hostname along with the request. The server reads that name and serves the matching folder. Same IP, same machine, different websites — decided by the Host header alone.
Subdomains: free real estate anything.yourdomain.com is just another name the server can answer. Creating one is a DNS record (or a wildcard *.yourdomain.com that covers ALL of them at once) plus a folder. Kairalmas customers: subdomains are a portal click, with instant SSL.
Wildcards: the power pattern A single *.domain DNS record means every subdomain resolves automatically — how platforms give every customer their own subdomain without touching DNS again. Your kairalmas.com subdomain works because of exactly this.
Why this matters to you 1. Adding a site to your plan = point a domain/subdomain at the server + create its folder. No new server, no new IP 2. Staging sites (staging.yourdomain.com) cost nothing extra 3. Migration safety: test a whole copied site on a subdomain before switching the main name
The one limit Every name still shares the hosting plan's resources — ten sites on one plan share its CPU/storage. Match the plan to the total, and the architecture does the rest.
This 1990s-invented mechanism is why hosting costs PKR 49 a month instead of PKR 49,000.