At the risk of appearing redundant, you can technically host a website without owning a domain, but you're likely to pay more in the long run. Some web hosts, mainly free web hosts, allow you to create a website even if you don't have a domain name. To do this, they create a subdomain that they associate with their website. You don't need a domain to run a website, you just need to configure the web server and listen to visitors.
The move of the web servers, with the associated change of web address, meant that they had to start over. Keep in mind that this is only for shared, reseller and vps hosting packages, and does not apply to dedicated servers, administrative fees, custom software installation fees, or domain name purchases. This is why the webmasters who had sites on AOL and all the other dead free web hosts were so annoyed. HostGator offers free transfers for new accounts within 30 days of registration and to newly updated accounts.
Around the same period, AOL also shut down its member pages, causing a stir among the large number of webmasters who hosted their sites there. The webmasters of those sites can't say: hey, no problem, I'll simply transfer my site to a new web host and keep my web address. Log in to Gator to enjoy the website building experience or access the Portal for your existing HostGator account. But since I didn't know the things I know today, I created my first site on a free web hosting provider, without my own domain.
When you change your web server, you take your domain name and attach it to your new location. Because in 1969, when ARPAnet was launched, it was difficult to remember the server's long IP address, they decided to create a file server. When the free web hosting provider shut down, their site had already accumulated a certain number of visitors per day. The promotional rates apply to shared, cloud, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans and will be automatically renewed after the initial period at the normal rate found in your control panel.
And then there's Geocities by Yahoo, one of the first and arguably the best known of the free web servers.
