I've heard of some companies offering tokens instead of coins, is this the same thing?
Coins are a method of payment and have a many uses like bitcoin or litecoin, you can use them in many ways and for many things, while tokens are just a type of currencies issued by a company or a site, specific to it so you can only use it for getting things or services from that specific place, and usually you are able to buy tokens with coins but not the other way.