Are domain name and website address the same concept?

Domain name and URL are not the same concept. Domain name is the core component of URL, but URL contains more information such as protocol, path, etc.

‌Core difference‌:

‌Definition difference‌.

‌Domain name‌: A unique string used to identify a website on the Internet (such as baidu.com), which is equivalent to the "name" of the website. ‌‌‌‌

‌URL: An address that fully describes the location of a network resource, including protocol (such as https://), domain name, path, etc. (such as https://www.baidu.com/index.html). ‌‌

‌Function and composition‌.

Domain name is only used to locate the website server, while URL can accurately point to a specific page or resource (such as pictures, files). ‌‌‌‌

URL must contain domain name, but domain name cannot constitute URL alone. ‌‌‌‌

Here is a video about the difference between domain name and URL:

‌Common misunderstanding clarification‌:

‌Inclusion relationship‌: URL is an "extended version" of domain name, similar to the relationship between postal address and building name. ‌‌

‌Uniqueness‌: The same domain name can correspond to multiple URLs (such as different pages), but a URL only points to a single resource. ‌‌‌‌

Here is a video about misunderstandings about domain names and URLs:

‌Actual application example‌:

When you enter baidu.com (domain name), the browser will automatically complete it to https://www.baidu.com (URL). ‌‌

Chinese domain names (such as brand.URL) further simplify user memory, but still need to be combined with the protocol to form a complete URL. ‌‌