Reseller hosting lets you run your own hosting business on top of ours. You get a pool of resources and the tools to carve it into independent cPanel accounts for your clients — each of whom sees a normal, professional hosting account without ever needing to know it sits under your reseller plan. This guide covers the core concepts and your first steps.
WHM vs cPanel — know the difference
As a reseller you work with two control panels, and the distinction is important:
- WHM (WebHost Manager) is your administrative dashboard. From here you create and manage customer accounts, set their limits with packages, handle DNS, and brand the service.
- cPanel is what each of your customers uses to manage their individual website, email and files — exactly like any standard hosting account.
In short: you live in WHM, your customers live in cPanel.
Step 1 — Create hosting packages
A package is a template of limits — disk space, bandwidth, number of email accounts, databases and so on. Before creating customer accounts, define a few packages that mirror the plans you intend to sell (for example Starter, Standard and Pro). This keeps your offering consistent and makes creating accounts a one-click affair.
Step 2 — Create your first account
In WHM, use Create a New Account, enter the customer's domain and contact email, pick one of your packages, and WHM provisions a full cPanel account for them. They receive their own login and can manage their site independently. You can suspend, unsuspend, upgrade, or terminate any account from WHM as your business relationship requires.
Step 3 — Brand it as your own
Part of the value of reselling is that customers experience your brand, not ours. In WHM you can customise the look of cPanel, set your own nameservers so accounts point to your brand, and present support under your own name. Think through your company name, nameservers and support email before you onboard your first paying customer.
Step 4 — Plan your support and billing
Reselling is a real business, which means you are the first line of support for your customers. Decide in advance how customers reach you, what your plans cost, and how you will invoice them. Many resellers use dedicated billing software to automate signups, invoicing and account creation. We remain your provider behind the scenes for the underlying platform.
Is reseller right for you?
Reseller hosting is a great fit for web designers and agencies managing several client sites, and for anyone wanting to start a hosting brand without running their own servers. If you only manage a handful of your own sites, a standard plan with multiple domains may be simpler and cheaper. When you are ready, compare options on Reseller Hosting, or open a ticket and we will help you pick the right size.
