Reseller Hosting

What are web hosting resellers?

Web host resellers are people or web hosting companies that rent large amounts of space from a web host, or rent a dedicated server, and make the space available to other webmasters. They get the web space at a wholesale rate because they are, essentially, buying in bulk. In some cases the resellers are middle men who in turn rent the space out to webmasters. In other cases the web hosting resellers rent space or a server for the use of several different web sites, such as those they helped to create through a web design business. In these cases they may offer web hosting as part of a package that includes website design and maintenance. Web host resellers may or may not be responsible for this article has all rights reserved and is copyright by 100 Best the customer service, billing, and services available through the web servers that they are reselling.

Two Types of Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is web hosting offered by a third party (i.e., not the web host) to customers, with the web host's authorization. This can happen in one of two ways. First, it's possible for the web host to lease large amounts of server space or entire servers to resellers with the knowledge and understanding that the reseller will divvy it up and resell it. Second, the web host may engage the reseller as an agent, giving him or her license to act as its representative in presenting customers with access to the web hosts products and services. 

The reseller of web space that he or she has leased may provided added value to the server space in a variety of ways that justify the mark-up that he or she must add to his or her web hosting costs. Some resellers specialize in serving a particular clientele, for example, and provide programs and configurations that meet their needs. When the reseller is an agent selling the web host's products and services, it's just as important for the reseller to offer something to make the customer's use of a reseller justified. This could be more personalized service than a large web host could offer, for example. It may be the case that the reseller clarifies both his or her own role and the role of the web host in reseller transactions, but reselling can also be carried on without the customer's awareness if the web host adapts its offerings to the reseller's branding, withholding the information that there are two parties involved from the customer. 

Why Be a Reseller?

There are various reasons why people get involved with reseller web hosting. A web developer can control the environment of the sites he or she works on and maintain them more easily if they are all under his or her control and allow the sale of the site design to be followed by monthly income for the lease of the server space and any maintenance or upkeep issues that the customer wishes to entrust to the reseller. In this case, reseller hosting is actually part of a larger business, and one can see why the reseller might wish to have the entire bundled with his or her own brand rather than involving the secondary brand of the web host.

Do I need a reseller plan from my web host?

There are some situations where you might want to look for a web host that supports reseller programs. In most of these cases, you would be looking for the discount that you will receive for renting large amounts of web space from a web host. This can be useful if you will be hosting a number of websites through the same web host. Some of the web hosts in our listings offer reseller discounts.

Considerations in Starting Reseller Hosting

People who have a single website are concerned about uptime guarantees, money-back guarantees, customer service availability and 24/7/365 technical support. They also think about cost, well-known control panels, bandwidth, and customer satisfaction ratings for the company they lease service from. These are even more important for someone setting up reseller hosting, because any issues or problems will be multiplied by the number of customers the reseller has. So its worth doing a thorough search before volunteering to resell webhosting for a webhost.