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Ask HN: A.foo.com vs. Foo.com/A

8 points by paddw 3y ago

I feel like the former one has become much more popular recently. Why? AFAIK there is little practical difference, other than CORS being more of a problem with the former as well. Is it just aesthetics?

PaulHoule 3y ago
A.foo.com can be served by a different IP address than B.foo.com whereas foo.com/A has to be on the same address as foo.com/B. If you have different DNS names those functions can be on different servers using different technology. One could be in AWS, one in Azure, another on a mac in your office, another on a CDN, another could be some SAAS vendor operating under your brand.
- codegeek 3y ago
  "whereas foo.com/A has to be on the same address as foo.com/B." Does it though ? I could always reverse proxy /B to another host, correct ?
  - PaulHoule 3y ago
    It is still going through one server if you reverse proxy. If everything is inside one data center it can perform pretty well but you will lose the performance benefits a CDN or something like that could bring to a subdomain.
mattl 3y ago
GitLab does it so that if you're not logged in, you get bounced from gitlab.com to about.gitlab.com but when you're signed in, you can access the app from gitlab.com without the need for any subdomain name for say app.gitlab.com or the like
- nik736 3y ago
  This is super confusing.
  - mattl 3y ago
    I think it’s pretty great. You go there and get bounced over to a marketing website. Once you’re logged in, you skip the marketing page entirely.
    - nik736 3y ago
      What if I want to visit the marketing page while being logged in?
      - mattl 3y ago
        I imagine most of their search traffic will take you to about.gitlab.com
- Eiim 3y ago
  What does that achieve compared to bouncing users to gitlab.com/about?
nektro 3y ago
per-origin security
gndk 3y ago
SEO. A subdomain is generally considered as a separate site. So having all content on the root domain increases its authority and thus rankings. The Cloudflare blog has a good explanation: https://blog.cloudflare.com/subdomains-vs-subdirectories-best-practices-workers-part-1/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/subdomains-vs-subdirectories-bes...

8 points by paddw 3y ago

PaulHoule 3y ago

A.foo.com can be served by a different IP address than B.foo.com whereas foo.com/A has to be on the same address as foo.com/B. If you have different DNS names those functions can be on different servers using different technology. One could be in AWS, one in Azure, another on a mac in your office, another on a CDN, another could be some SAAS vendor operating under your brand.

codegeek 3y ago
"whereas foo.com/A has to be on the same address as foo.com/B." Does it though ? I could always reverse proxy /B to another host, correct ?
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  It is still going through one server if you reverse proxy. If everything is inside one data center it can perform pretty well but you will lose the performance benefits a CDN or something like that could bring to a subdomain.

mattl 3y ago

GitLab does it so that if you're not logged in, you get bounced from gitlab.com to about.gitlab.com but when you're signed in, you can access the app from gitlab.com without the need for any subdomain name for say app.gitlab.com or the like

nik736 3y ago
This is super confusing.
- mattl 3y ago
  I think it’s pretty great. You go there and get bounced over to a marketing website. Once you’re logged in, you skip the marketing page entirely.
  - nik736 3y ago
    What if I want to visit the marketing page while being logged in?
    - mattl 3y ago
      I imagine most of their search traffic will take you to about.gitlab.com
Eiim 3y ago
What does that achieve compared to bouncing users to gitlab.com/about?

nektro 3y ago

per-origin security

gndk 3y ago

SEO. A subdomain is generally considered as a separate site. So having all content on the root domain increases its authority and thus rankings. The Cloudflare blog has a good explanation: https://blog.cloudflare.com/subdomains-vs-subdirectories-best-practices-workers-part-1/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/subdomains-vs-subdirectories-bes...