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What Is Reseller Webhosting?

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Reseller HostingReseller webhosting is a form of hosting that allows you to host websites as if you were a web hosting company. A reseller webhosting account is a great choice for a hosting entrepreneur who wants to start their own hosting company. It also works well if you are a web designer or other type of developer who wants to offer hosting as an add-on service to clients.

An often overlooked use of reseller webhosting is for Internet marketers, the reasons behind which we will explore later in this article.

Reseller hosting plans typically come with everything you get in a shared hosting plan. That includes free script libraries, a control panel, customer support, server administration taken care of by the hosting company, etc.

A reseller account provides the ability for you to create and administer individual hosting accounts for your customers. Each gets their own control panel and feature set of your choosing. A good hosting reseller plan has additional benefits, including:

  • Web Hosting Manager: This is your master control panel from which you create, configure and administer your clients’ hosting accounts. Some examples include Web Host Manager (WHM), WHM.AutoPilot, WHM Complete Solution (WHMCS) and Plesk
  • Billing Manager: This is included in some WHM applications (WHMCS, WHM.AutoPilot) or can be separate. Either way, as a reseller, this gives you the tools you need to manage and track your customer billing.
  • Domain Reseller Account: This is an add-on service included by the top reseller hosting providers that allows you to sell domain names to your customers. You can also use it to become your own domain registrar.
  • Private Nameservers: When you sign up at your hosting account, you point your domain to your host’s nameservers. This typically looks something like NS1.yourhost.com and NS2.yourhost.com. With private nameservers, your name servers reflect the name of your hosting service, not the name of the hosting company you use. You customers would see NS1.YourHostingCompany.com and NS2.YourHostingCompany.com

How Does Reseller Webhosting Work?

As a web host reseller, you are given an overall storage and bandwidth allowance in your reseller account, along with the number of domains you can host. Sometimes some or all of these are stated to be unlimited. You then must decide on the hosting plans you will provide to your customers. This includes setting their bandwidth and storage limits as well as defining the features and pricing of their accounts.

Typically, you want to offer more than one level, for instance a basic option and an advanced option. The basic option would have basic features and a low price while the advanced option would have more features and higher storage and bandwidth allotments. All of this can be configured in your Web Host Manager control panel.

When a customer signs up with your hosting company, they get their own control panel (often this is cPanel) from which they can manage their account and web site. They also get added to your billing system. During the customer sign-up operation, you can also sell them a domain name. It is often easier for a customer to get this all done in one place rather than going somewhere else for domain name. Just make sure your domain name prices are competitive.

As far as customer support is concerned, you will be providing all billing and sales support since the customer is dealing with your hosting company. For technical issues, you will be the first level of support. This mainly falls into the category of administrative tasks such as enabling and disabling features and working with customers to make sure everything in their account is set up correctly in WHM. Server and other higher-level technical support matters are handled by your hosting company. Also, good hosting companies will make themselves available to you if you need help resolving a customer’s technical issue.

Can I Make Money As A Web Host Reseller?

Reseller Web HostNow we’ll look at the earning potential of becoming a web host reseller. Let’s say your reseller account costs $34.95/month. You offer two plans to your customers, a basic plan at $9.95/month and a pro-plan at $14.95/month. If you get 4 customers on your basic plan, you are now making $5.00 profit per month.

Now 4 accounts is a very low number. Let’s look at the monthly profit for hosting more customers. If you host 20 customers, 10 basic and 10 pro, you profit per month will be: ($9.95 x 10) + ($14.95 x 10) – $34.95 = $214.05. An extra $2568.60 a year is pretty nice! The best part is you can set up and price your plans however you want.

If you are a web designer who wants to offer an integrated solution (design, maintenance and hosting services) to your customers, reseller webhosting allows you to do that. You choose what allowances their account will have. You can even tailor the customer’s account to their needs. This way, you don’t need to use up any more of your allotment than you have to.

For Internet marketers, reseller hosting allows you to have each of your sites under its own separate hosting account. Just because the WHM in a reseller account lets you create hosting accounts and sell them does not mean you have to. This is a good way to keep different sites separate and track your traffic statistics independently. Or, you can have multiple sites on multiple accounts, it’s up to you! You will get more bandwidth and storage then you would with a shared hosting account. You can also get your domain names near cost through your domain reseller account.

Some Reseller Webhosting Tips

If you are going to resell hosting to your business clients or as your own hosting company, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. These basic tips will help you stay successful as a web host reseller.

  • Make sure you look at your bandwidth and storage allotments before you create hosting plans for customers.
    • Your bandwidth allotment includes your sites and your customers’ sites. Divide it up wisely, because once you hit your limit, not only will your site go down, but all of your customers’ sites will go down as well.
    • Your storage allotment also includes your sites and your customers’ sites. Make sure you divide that up wisely as well.
  • When dividing up storage and bandwidth allotments for accounts, keep in mind how much you will charge for those accounts.
    • Look at smaller hosting companies. Observe the types of hosting accounts they are offering and how much they are charging for those accounts.
    • It is critical that you look at the number of accounts you can host before you hit your allotment limits.
    • Use the formula from the example above to determine the earning potential of your hosting business based on a few customers and up to the maximum number of customers you can host without hitting the limits of your reseller hosting account.
    • Traffic to websites can swell and sink at random, so don’t max out your bandwidth allotment with customers. Leave a little room for traffic fluctuation.
  • You must have a clear Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy. If this is something you dread writing yourself, don’t worry. Your hosting provider may let you copy theirs. If not, there are free examples all over the web that you can use.
  • Don’t be afraid to terminate a customer’s account for a Terms Of Use violation, or suspend an account for non-payment.
  • If you spot or are notified of criminal activity on one of your customer’s accounts, especially something involving children, don’t contact the customer immediately. Verify that their account has not been compromised (i.e. someone did something without your customer’s knowledge) and report your findings first to your host. They may help you deal with it or have you contact the FBI or the appropriate local authorities directly. Make sure this policy is clearly stated in your Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. While your host may be the key contact (since they own the servers), always cooperate fully with the resulting investigation if asked. Your community will thank you.

The Best Reseller Hosting Providers

Below is a list of the best web hosting reseller accounts from the top web hosting companies.

The Best Reseller Hosting
Hostgator - Best Reseller Hosting justhost reseller webhosting greengeeks reseller webhosting glowhost reseller webhosting
5 Star 4.5 Star 4 Star 3.5 Star
Visit Hostgator - Best Reseller Hosting Visit Justhost - Cheap Web Hosting Reseller Visit GreenGeeks - Cheap Web Hosting Reseller Visit GlowHost Web Host Reseller
Package Levels Aluminum – $24.95/mo
Copper – $34.95/mo
Silver – $49.95/mo
Gold – $74.95/mo
Diamond – $99.95/mo
Bronze – $19.95/mo
Silver – $24.95/mo
Gold – $49.95/mo
Platinum – $89.95/mo
Seed – $19.95/mo
Sprout – $24.95/mo
Plant – $39.95/mo
Tree – $59.95/mo
Forest – $99.95/mo
Level I – $24.95/mo
Level II – $34.95/mo
Level III – $44.95/mo
Level IV – $74.95/mo
Level V – $99.95/mo
Free Setup yes yes yes yes
CORE FEATURES
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
Monthly
Bandwidth
Aluminum: 500 GB
Copper: 700 GB
Silver: 1000 GB
Gold: 1200 GB
Diamond: 1400 GB
Bronze: 600 GB
Silver: 800 GB
Gold: 1250 GB
Platinum: Unlimited
Unlimited Level I: 250 GB
Level II: 400 GB
Level III: 500 GB
Level IV: 600 GB
Level V: 700 GB
Storage Aluminum: 50 GB
Copper: 80 GB
Silver: 120 GB
Gold: 160 GB
Diamond: 200 GB
Bronze: 75 GB
Silver: 100 GB
Gold: 150 GB
Platinum: Unlimited
Unlimited Level I: 25 GB
Level II: 40 GB
Level III: 60 GB
Level IV: 80 GB
Level V: 100 GB
Hosted
Accounts
Unlimited Unlimited Seed: 10
Sprout: 25
Plant: 50
Tree: 100
Forest: 250
Unlimited
Domains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Sub Domains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
FTP Accounts Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
MySQL Databases Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Dedicated
IP Address
no no no 2
Domain Reseller
Account
yes yes yes yes
ADMINISTRATION
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
Control Panel cPanel cPanel cPanel cPanel
Web Hosting
Manager
WHMCS or WHMAP WHM WHM WHM
Customer Billing WHMCS or WHMAP ClientExec ClientExec Level I & II: Not Included
Level III – V: ClientExec
Brandable
Customer
Control Panel
yes yes yes yes
Private
Name Servers
yes yes yes yes
SiteBuilder
Admin
yes yes yes no
FEATURES FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
SiteBuilder
Account
yes yes yes no
Shared SSL yes yes yes yes
Private SSL
Compatible
yes yes yes yes
Free Website
Templates
yes yes yes yes
Multiple
Languages
yes yes yes yes
Fantastico
Script Installer
yes yes yes yes
SOFTWARE SUPPORT (You & Customers)
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
CGI yes yes yes yes
PHP yes yes yes yes
Perl yes yes yes yes
Ruby On Rails® yes yes yes yes
fastCGI yes yes no yes
Python yes yes yes yes
SSI (Server
Side Includes)
yes yes yes yes
Cron yes yes yes yes
Curl Modules yes yes yes yes
CPAN Modules yes no no no
GD/GD2 yes yes yes yes
Image Magick yes yes yes yes
Streaming
Video/Music
yes no yes yes
FrontPage
Extensions
yes yes yes yes
SUPPORT & SECURITY
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
No Contract yes yes yes yes
Uptime
Guarantee
99.9% 99.9% 99.9% 99%
Customer
Support
24x7x365 24x7x365 24x7x365 24x7x365
Money-Back
Guarantee
45-Day Anytime 30-Day 60-Day
Online Tutorials
&
Knowledgebase
yes yes yes yes
24/7 Server
Monitoring
yes yes yes yes
Secure Datacenter yes yes yes yes
Backup Power
& HVAC
yes yes yes yes
Data Backups yes yes yes yes
Backbone
Connection
yes yes yes yes
100% Green
Hosting
yes yes yes yes
EMAIL FEATURES (You & Customers)
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
Email
Addresses
Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Email Alias Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Autoresponders Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Email Forwarding Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
POP3 yes yes yes yes
IMAP yes yes yes yes
SMTP yes yes yes yes
Web Mail yes yes yes yes
Catch-All Email yes yes yes yes
Spam Filtering yes yes yes yes
SERVER STATISTICS (You & Customers)
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
Analog yes yes yes yes
AWstats yes yes yes yes
Webalizer yes yes yes yes
Raw Access
Logs
yes yes yes yes
Access yes yes yes yes
Referrer Logs yes yes yes yes
Error Logs yes yes yes yes
EXTRAS (For You)
Host Hostgator Reseller JustHost Reseller GreenGeeks Reseller GlowHost Reseller
Free
Advertising
Credits
no no no $200 Google Adwords Credit
Free Private
SSL Certificate
no no no yes
Free Merchant
Account
no no no yes
Free
Authorize.net
no no no yes
Free Web
Hosting Guide
yes no no no
Free Setup yes yes yes yes
Package Levels Aluminum – $24.95/mo
Copper – $34.95/mo
Silver – $49.95/mo
Gold – $74.95/mo
Diamond – $99.95/mo
Bronze – $19.95/mo
Silver – $24.95/mo
Gold – $49.95/mo
Platinum – $89.95/mo
Seed – $19.95/mo
Sprout – $24.95/mo
Plant – $39.95/mo
Tree – $59.95/mo
Forest – $99.95/mo
Level I – $24.95/mo
Level II – $34.95/mo
Level III – $44.95/mo
Level IV – $74.95/mo
Level V – $99.95/mo
5 Star 4.5 Star 4 Star 3.5 Star
Hostgator - Best Reseller Hosting justhost reseller webhosting greengeeks reseller webhosting glowhost reseller webhosting
Visit Hostgator - Best Reseller Hosting Visit Justhost - Cheap Web Hosting Reseller Visit GreenGeeks - Cheap Web Hosting Reseller Visit GlowHost Web Host Reseller

Still not sure which reseller webhosting plan best fits your needs?
Try our HostSelector™ tool and leave the hard part to us!

 

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