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Why doesn't anyone set up a hosting reseller account?

by J R Halchak
31 replies
I began as a web developer & graphic/web designer. Our company is a reseller through justhost.com and I'm curious why I don't see anyone talking about justhost.

Mainly because as a reseller you have access to WHM and cPanel and are given basically 'unlimited' hosting accounts. These are actually separate accounts too.

It starts at only $20 per month and you get a reseller account through enom.com for domains as well. If you are making enough money with IM you could easily buy the $80 something per month package for unlimited space/bandwidth. If you're running more than 8-16 sites or just want more freedom you can have access to unlimited accounts with just the one fee.

The reason for this post, I guess, is to ask if there's something bad about this model or if it's just that no one really decided to do it. The only issue I could see is that the nameservers are always the same (from justhost) but I'm not sure that would matter as the server destination is different and the urls are always different.

Any insight? Should I keep using my account or should I set up a different hosting account for each project? My current setup seems far better.
#account #hosting #reseller #set
  • Profile picture of the author J R Halchak
    I didn't mean for this to sound like such an ad for justhost by the way... I like their service. I'm not affiliated with them outside of that.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I had a reseller plan from Hostgator. Dropped it. I really don't want to spend time managing hosting accounts for clients. I'd rather just build sites and let them host on their own hosts.
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  • Profile picture of the author blillard
    I use multiple reseller account for different things, One for my site and another for flipping them and so on. I found it confusing doing it all from one host. I never get regular hosting for some reason, always a reseller account.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    I use a reseller account for my own websites... I find it easier to manage that way and can push and pull resources as necessary depending on launches, traffic, etc...

    There are many companies who offer reseller hosting though...
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  • Profile picture of the author Tomos Wyn
    I don't and won't do it for several reasons.

    1) If something goes wrong, the clients come to you. Your then in the middle, liaising with the hosting company to see what's wrong whilst reporting back to your customers. Also, time differences, people generally want things sorted asap, so if you resell to somebody in a different timezone then it could get tedious.

    2) Your being given a reseller account on a server with god knows how many other accounts that are the same as yours. Your much better off getting yourself a decent VPS or Dedi, where you have much more control over things (such as space, ram, bandwith).

    Like @sbucciarel said, "I'd rather just build sites and let them host on their own hosts". This is the route I personally go down, but it might be beneficial to see if the host has an affiliate program, as you can give the client your seal of approval on the host whilst earning a small affiliate commission.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    I have made much of my income for the last 12 years or so from building up micro hosting companies using reseller accounts. I love the business model. I get paid monthly for every client I get. The pain of separation is high, so once you get A client you have to really screw up for them to leave usually. And then in the end, you flip all those paying customers to a bigger hosting company for a big payday. Works pretty good.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post

      I use a reseller account for my own websites... I find it easier to manage that way and can push and pull resources as necessary depending on launches, traffic, etc...

      There are many companies who offer reseller hosting though...
      What he said...
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  • Profile picture of the author J R Halchak
    Thanks for the input...

    I actually wasn't referring to my web design clients but asking with regard to my Internet Marketing endeavours. I already do a mix of reselling my own justhost hosting and giving the client whatever host they wish. I wasn't sure if Internet Marketers were using reseller plans to host their multiple product sites, squeeze pages, etc. Now I see a few of you are.
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    • Profile picture of the author swriviera
      Originally Posted by J R Halchak View Post

      Thanks for the input...

      I actually wasn't referring to my web design clients but asking with regard to my Internet Marketing endeavours. I already do a mix of reselling my own justhost hosting and giving the client whatever host they wish. I wasn't sure if Internet Marketers were using reseller plans to host their multiple product sites, squeeze pages, etc. Now I see a few of you are.
      I have the same question (NO intention of managing hosting!!).
      I have heard that if you use the regular unlimited hosting (like Host Gator offers), each domain is an "addon" domain. In regular use that is not a problem BUT what if you want to sell ONE domain in that list - one person I spoke with said that it is frowned upon so..... difficult to do. Can anyone confirm that?

      For the reseller account I like the idea of having unique cpanel access to EACH domain. I am not paranoid but I do know a few people who have been hacked - if they get into your cpanel on a regular unlimited (addon) account they could potentially hack ALL of your sites!!!!

      That is why I am considering modifying my regular HostGator hosting to reseller hosting.

      Any ideas on that?? :confused:

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by J R Halchak View Post

    Our company is a reseller through justhost.com and I'm curious why I don't see anyone talking about justhost.
    Because most Warriors use HostGator. Personally, I use HostGator, BlueHost, and Bolt Web Hosting. All of these are reseller accounts. I don't resell anything; I just set up every domain on its own account in case I ever decide to sell one of them. I honestly have no intention of hosting customers ever again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      I honestly have no intention of hosting customers ever again.
      You got that right... because when they run out of bandwidth for the month somehow it's my fault.
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  • Profile picture of the author AceOfShirts
    I host all of my websites in an HG reseller account.

    Hosting accounts are so cheap that I can't imagine competing with the big companies like HG, BH and the others. Even if I did come out cheaper the customer service required would drive me up a wall and I don't think it would be worth the small profit of maybe a couple of dollars a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    Hosting is a VERY competitive business. A lot of companies can devote huge resources on advertizing and customer service. There are some very successful re-sellers out there, they been at it a while. It is a tough business model unless you are building the site, build a lot of them and the phone for support is the hosting company, not yours! Lol
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    • Profile picture of the author rts2271
      Hosting is a low margins business. I use it as a bonus service. I have enough clients to pay for services and staff. If I were at a starting point again I would NOT start a web hosting company and certainly not one running on a reseller account. Reseller accounts are usually nothing more then jailshelled shared hosting accounts. They perform even worse that standard shared hosting because the jailshell process ads a layer of management to the structure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Alaway
    Originally Posted by J R Halchak View Post

    The only issue I could see is that the nameservers are always the same (from justhost) but I'm not sure that would matter as the server destination is different and the urls are always different.
    Justhost allows you to register private nameservers but you're right, if it's just for yourself it might not be that important.

    Not sure about Jushost but for a standard HG shared account you get SSH/SFTP access enabled for free for all your domains. But on the reseller account, only the primary account is free and you'll pay $10 per account to get it enabled on any other accounts, even if they're your own.

    Still, the separate cpanels may be worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author art72
    Personally, I looked hard and deep into getting a reseller account, and concluded until I am capable of developing a product that runs say $97 per month or a one shot fee of $497 per member annually, I don't have the time, patience, or tenacity to manage it all.

    My very first purchase was a (flash website) reseller account online. I thought it was the next best thing since 'sliced bread', until I realized my 'reseller offer' was 1/2 as good as the 'provider's' offerings ...Yet, I had to pay full price upfront for something the consumer can get direct from the source (i.e. justhost, HostGator, iPage, etc..)

    I believe reseller accounts are great if you can build it into your product, branding it as a package deal; like a membership, but otherwise it's just easier to promote the hosting companies with a simple affiliate link IMHO.

    Nothing against reseller's, but I can't imagine 'why' anyone would buy from them rather than shop a "Branded Name" like justhost or HostGator.

    Guess it's an acquired taste, no insult intended...just not for me.

    All the Best,

    Art
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  • Profile picture of the author rondo
    I use a few reseller hosting accounts, but I don't resell.

    Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author RefundHost
    A - when things start to get really competitive and you are trying to use leverage from one of your sites to help another ( back-linking /cross-linking ) the same IP will cost you. ( all reseller accounts have a shared IP )

    B - unless you
    - have done tier 1 and tier 2 webhosting tech support
    - don't mind being called at 3am by someone who forgot their email password
    ( so they can get the latest photo of their grandkids RIGHT NOW )
    - enjoy fixing code made by "professional" web designers
    ( aka the college kid with FrontPage )
    - never tire of getting complaints about spam to email accounts
    despite telling them 435 times not to post the address on the site
    or online forums or sign up to junky mailing lists.

    ... reselling ain't for everyone and every reseller will eventually have those issues.
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    • Profile picture of the author jeffster
      I use reseller accounts for my own websites. I used to host other peoples sites as well, but it's so much easier now just to refer them to one of the big hosting companies.
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    • Profile picture of the author J R Halchak
      Originally Posted by RefundHost View Post

      A - when things start to get really competitive and you are trying to use leverage from one of your sites to help another ( back-linking /cross-linking ) the same IP will cost you. ( all reseller accounts have a shared IP )

      B - unless you
      - have done tier 1 and tier 2 webhosting tech support
      - don't mind being called at 3am by someone who forgot their email password
      ( so they can get the latest photo of their grandkids RIGHT NOW )
      - enjoy fixing code made by "professional" web designers
      ( aka the college kid with FrontPage )
      - never tire of getting complaints about spam to email accounts
      despite telling them 435 times not to post the address on the site
      or online forums or sign up to junky mailing lists.

      ... reselling ain't for everyone and every reseller will eventually have those issues.
      'A' is exactly what I was looking for with this thread... I knew the servers IP and nameservers might mess me up with linking for SEO (although I don't do a ton of SEO).
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    I have a reseller's account for my own business. I think offering hosting would be a pain because people would run you ragged with picky little problems they could deal with themselves.

    That's not to say their problems aren't real. When I got started years ago I bugged the snot our of my hosts. Looking back at my own experience I wouldn't want someone like me back then as a customer. It's easier to just get a reseller account and use it yourself. I get unlimited storage and bandwidth for $9.50 a month.

    And I have tested the host's definition of unlimited. I have more than 150 GB of stuff on their server and at times tons of downloads are flying. I've never heard a peep out of them. Nice.
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    • Profile picture of the author swriviera
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      I have a reseller's account for my own business. I think offering hosting would be a pain because people would run you ragged with picky little problems they could deal with themselves.

      That's not to say their problems aren't real. When I got started years ago I bugged the snot our of my hosts. Looking back at my own experience I wouldn't want someone like me back then as a customer. It's easier to just get a reseller account and use it yourself. I get unlimited storage and bandwidth for $9.50 a month.

      And I have tested the host's definition of unlimited. I have more than 150 GB of stuff on their server and at times tons of downloads are flying. I've never heard a peep out of them. Nice.

      Hi,
      Could you tell us what hosting company that is!!!!
      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Vanfenix
    Well first off - large "unlimited" reseller accounts should be red flags. You want a company that monitors and doesn't overload servers. I was with HG and my sites were slloooooww.. So I went to Inno and they were quick but the support were arrogant. I finally settled with WebsiteMe.com and they are great.

    Most people don't get a resellers account because it's a pain to support end users. How do I setup email accounts, or I can't login to my FTP account.

    Some resellers provide white label (means it has your name on it) support to end users. my provider does that now - so that's why I deal with a resellers account as I can make money, plus not have to deal with "small issues" It's also better to have control over all my sites and see what websites are doing what in the back end.
    Also, I'd avoid Justhost at all costs. If you google the reviews, you'll see why. I haven't used them.
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  • Profile picture of the author NicholasCollins
    Just like most of the other folks above I also wanted to release myself from the BIG pain in the butt calls and emails from clients on the hosting side. It was way too much hassle for the 5-10$ x month we were charging and the time we spent putting out silly fires we could have been further building the business so we now use an affiliate link to multiple hosting companies and advise our clients.

    I suggest Host Gator as their tech support and specifically their live chat support has been great and is 24/7. I would much rather have jane doe use their live chat at 3am to find out why jane.htm should be renamed to index.htm.
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  • Profile picture of the author ultimates
    I have hostgator, I pay for their $9.95/month plan and I currently have over 60 web sites hosted on it. Reseller plans are mainly for those wanting to resell hosting or give out free hosting to their clients. That way their clients have their very own control panel and only have access to their web sites.

    I also have a dedicated server that I pay for, but mainly just to run scripts on. I keep all my frontend web sites on my hostgator shared plan. I am able to add eve more web sites if I really wanted to.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
    If you are a part of a company and have the time or resources to provide hosting support to your clients, then selling hosting through a reseller account is totally profitable. Also if you can find people who will not require much support with their hosting, it is great.

    Otherwise, I believe that selling hosting on your own will cause a lot of headaches in the long term. And that's why I didn't start although I wanted a lot. Besides, I am the type of person who doesn't want to get involved in such long term relationships.
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    I have a reseller account with HG with only a half dozen clients on the account, the rest are my domains.

    The issue is with shared hosting and the IP address, as has been stated already. You can setup unique IP's for sites on the same reseller account but generally it's only the last digits in the IP range that change, and the sites can still be identified as residing on the same server space.
    Also, HG just updated their policy a few months back on buying IP's. You have to purchase an annual SSL cert to qualify for a unique IP address. So now it's $50 / year plus $2/mth. That makes them too expensive for dedicated IP hosting.
    A while back I opened an account with their SEO division. I get 5 class C's with unique IP's from a broad range available, and can create dedicated nameservers for each account on the plan. With private whois this makes it a much more reliable system, albeit at a higher than typical cost.

    I'd be interested in hearing if there are any domain cloakers around here and how you manage your hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    I have a reseller account at hostgator. I recommend them because of their exceptional service. I had never heard of your service before.

    I am actually surprised this thread is still here because it does look like an ad.

    Be careful! ;-)
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