Domain vs URL vs IP Address
A domain is a name, an IP address is a numeric network identifier and a URL describes how to address a resource, often using a domain as its host.
Examples at a glance
Domain: a name
- Domain
example.comA name that can be used as a URL hostname.
URL: a full address
- Web URL
https://example.com/guides/Adds the scheme and a path to a resource.
IP: a numeric address
- IPv4 example
192.0.2.10An unrelated documentation IP, not the IP of example.com.
DNS does not make them identical
A domain can resolve to multiple addresses and change over time; multiple domains can share an IP. The example IP here is illustrative, not an assertion about where example.com resolves.
A URL carries more context
A URL can include a scheme, port, path, query and fragment. Replacing its hostname with an IP may change TLS certificate checks or virtual-host routing, so the same content is not guaranteed.