Reseller hosting allows a web host’s customers to repackage and sell accounts to other customers. It works much the same like any resale business model where the retailer buys at wholesale rates and sells at retail. To be specific, the web host provides large amounts of space and bandwidth to the customer, who then sells limited resources in packages to other customers.
This type of resale transaction is extremely useful for new startups looking to break into the hosting business. They don’t have to set up the infrastructure and can simply rent bulk space on servers maintained by another established host. This established web host provides the customer support too, so the only thing required of the new startup is to find customers and sell packages.
Of course, it’s still necessary for the new startup to find a reliable web host. This is a lot more critical in reseller hosting than it is in other cases where there’s only a single host-to-customer relationship to worry about. In this case, there’s also a relationship between the reseller and the many customers that have purchased the resold packages, which will all be in jeopardy if the web turns out not to be reliable.
Before signing up, check review sites and forums to get a handle on the web host’s reputation. If necessary, also talk to existing customers. Resellers also need to consider what kind of facilities the host is offering, such as the type of control panel to manage customer accounts.
The popular panels include Helm, Plesk and cPanel, among others. The panel should allow unlimited customer accounts, but it’s better to find out if the host has placed any limits on this. Also check for limits on space/bandwidth – it should be unlimited for resellers. There should also be a billing system in place that can be used for charging customers.
Customers need many add-ons that the host should provide, like databases, web design tools, email accounts, domains and sub-domains, etc. The host should have name servers and the ability to provide all this to customers. Not to mention the ability to allow the reseller to sell these items to customers in packages.
While this arrangement is perfect for B2B transactions between two web, it can also be between the web host and an individual or corporate customer who simply needs a lot of space and bandwidth but doesn’t want to pay for a dedicated server. The customer can get the unlimited space and bandwidth and then pass the costs on to other customers using reseller hosting.
