Reselling web hosting packages is a great way to make money online. Linux web hosting servers running cPanel is the most used platform, so cPanel is the world-leading control panel. It’s easy to use because it has wider compatibility and great stability. Web hosting in the ’90s used to be all manual. cPanel automates all the server management process, so it makes the life of the systems administrator a lot easier. Copahost offers cheap Linux reseller hosting plans from 4,99€ per month.
Use the coupon code RES50 to have a discount of 50% in your first month.
You can see all Copahost’s reseller hosting plans here.
Is the reseller hosting business still profitable?
There are so many competitors in the business of reseller hosting nowadays. cPanel changed its licensing model, limiting the number of client accounts on each physical server. There are other great control panels, easy to use, which are cheaper like DirectAdmin.
Running a reseller hosting company is still a great option to make money online for those who have additional businesses. For example, a web designer with its customers. It’s way cheaper to host your client accounts in a reseller package rather than ordering 5, 10 or 20 separate standard web hosting plans.
Opening a web hosting company from scratch may be a tough job, as there are many companies worldwide. Unless you have a local presence in your city or community, trying to start a “pure” hosting business may be a hard job.
Hosting providers: what to expect to the future?
Although the web hosting market is still growing, big players are grabbing their market shares. Not every hosting provider provide a reseller hosting plan. Most of the companies don’t have the infrastructure to provide such services.
cPanel (WHM) played a big trick in the reseller market, limiting its number of accounts recently. There is a tendency for customers to start migrating to other control panels like Plesk and DirectAdmin.
The hosting company, in order to be able to provide affordable reseller plans, must be able to provide cheap domain registrations for its customers. There is a huge demand for domain names, and the resellers need a trusted partner to provide such a service.
SSL Certificates
Nowadays, having an SSL certificate is a must for any website. It delivers more security and privacy on communications, and Google loves it. Google will rank your website higher if you have an HTTPS server with an SSL properly configured.
All of our Copahost reseller plans include Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. In other words, we deliver free SSL certificates for every reseller plan.
Linux vs Windows for reseller hosting
If you plan to resell hosting using the Windows platform, you may consider using Plesk or Ensim platform as a control panel. Linux is a very better platform rather than Windows. Linux servers are mainly accessed by SSH terminal. But, their administration is made easier by the control panel solutions. As a conclusion, a control panel automates the whole process for the system administrator.
Our conclusion: best Linux reseller hosting.
Reasons to choose a cheap Linux reseller hosting plan:
- Better stability
- Easier to debug errors. Better error logs with many command-line options.
- Performance, as CentOS Linux is a light operating system.
- Compatible with ASP, Ruby on Rails, Tomcat, Java, and many others
- You can use Cloudlinux, which gives great isolation for each website. It prevents user overloads, allowing you to host more websites on a single server.
- Better compatibility with hardware replacements. Especially, windows usually require a reinstallation when facing hardware problems.
- It’s the most used operating system for web hosting servers.
What can cPanel WHM do for you as a hosting reseller?
In the early ’90s, cPanel was not available. So, the tech support team had to do everything manually. For example, create each email account, create databases, etc. Thus, nowadays everything changed. Now WHM is the “mother” control panel, for the reseller. cPanel is the “children” control panel, for the end-users (customers). cPanel offers a very easy to use interface.
What your customer can do in cPanel
- Create email accounts, and change their passwords
- Manage databases
- View logs
- Password protect folders
- Perform backups
- Install applications like WordPress, Joomla, etc.
An example of the reseller account creation screen:
List accounts screen:
WHMCS
WHMCS is one of the most used reseller management systems worldwide. It allows you to manage your customers, billing, activations and much more. It’s possible to order a reseller web hosting package at Copahost with a WHMCS license.
WHMCS is a full automation system, that controls everything for your reseller hosting company. In other words, it’s a full web hosting company in your hands.
For example, here’s a brief list of its features:
- Helpdesk, to answer customer support tickets and questions
- Products control (features, pricing)
- Full integration with cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, etc.. control panels
- Complete billing system, so that you can bill your customers using PayPal, 2CheckOut and many others
- Invoicing integrations
- Reports and statistics
- WHMCS can do much more for you!
Free reseller hosting: does it exist?
Unfortunately, not. It’s impossible to find a good reseller hosting company offering reseller plans for free. As it requires more support than normal hosting, and as cPanel is now limiting the number of accounts per server, it’s impossible to have a reseller plan for free in an established company.
But, there are some great web hosting control panels that are free. We have tested the Centos Web Panel, and it surprised us. Although it’s free, it looked to be easy to use, and you can run it on a VPS or Dedicated server without any extra license cost. It’s a good way to start a cheap reseller hosting business.
Windows reseller
For those who need a Windows reseller hosting plan, we can recommend the Plesk control panel. It’s a stable alternative to cPanel and DirectAdmin. But, keep in mind that Windows-based servers demand more maintenance than Linux ones.
Most of the hosting companies won’t guarantee an uptime of more than 99,5% for Windows-based reseller plans. On the other hand, Linux reseller plans can guarantee an uptime of up to 99,9%.
Cheapest reseller hosting
What kind of reseller web hosting plan shall you choose? Ever seen companies offering the cheapest reseller hosting in the world? That’s very common to see.
First of all, you need to beware miraculous offers. To deliver quality, even the cheapest reseller hosting company should keep a certain infrastructure. Backups, technical support, a good backbone, etc.
As such hosting modality is meant to make a profit to your business, there is a minimum price you must consider paying.
Conclusion: what’s the best reseller hosting option?
Having a cheap reseller hosting account allows you to have almost a complete access to the web hosting server. If you compare Reseller, VPS and Dedicated servers, you will see a big price difference. The reseller hosting with cPanel or DirectAdmin is the best solution for you to have a very functional service at a low price.
A great alternative is also having an SSD based reseller hosting using one VPS Server. This is a cheap alternative for those who wants to buy a reseller hosting plan and delivers a very powerful performance.
Copahost offers reseller programs from 4,99€ per month, where you can start your business and start hosting your customer websites under our platform.
