Looking to bank some extra cash? Reseller hosting is a lucrative side hustle that involves setting up your very own web hosting business and selling domains to prospective customers.
Sounds great, right? The next step involves finding the right reseller hosting provider, which can be a little daunting with so many options available. In this guide, we’ll show you how to find the best reseller hosting provider, what to look out for (including WordPress reseller hosting!), plus some tidbits you’ll find useful for your reseller web hosting journey.
What is reseller hosting?
Essentially, reseller hosting involves customers (such as a sole proprietor or a business) purchasing hosting resources from a web hosting provider and then reselling them to their own clients.
You can think of resellers as the middleman between the hosting provider and its customers. A reseller will buy hosting plans in bulk and divide them into smaller packages to offer to their own clients.
Want to learn more? Read our blog on the basics of reseller hosting.
How does reseller hosting work?
The way reseller hosting works is quite simple in theory. To start a reseller web hosting business, you need to choose a suitable hosting package from a reliable provider. Hosting providers offer all kinds of features, add-ons and pricing models, which is why you’ll need to shop around to find the right reselling provider for you. But don’t worry – we’ll show you what to look out for a little later on.
Once you’ve selected the reseller provider of choice, you can offer various options for your clients such as VPS hosting, dedicated servers, cloud servers, WordPress hosting, domain names and much more, depending on the clientele you wish to attract.
What’s even better is that as a reseller, you don't need to worry about the technical details. The hosting provider you choose takes care of server maintenance and updates – allowing you to focus on marketing your reseller business and customer service. You’ll have a space for management tools to handle account setup for new sign-ups, a section for resource allocation, and tools for overall domain management. Your clients also get user-friendly dashboards for managing their accounts too!
Plus, depending on the reseller you opt for, you may be able to market some additional services such as SSL certificates, backups and much more – which can really set you apart from the competition.
Benefits of reseller hosting
Reseller hosting has serious potential to grow into a side hustle that can make you additional income. Here are just some of the many benefits of reseller hosting that may just sway you to get started:
1. It’s easy to manage
As we mentioned before, a reseller hosting provider will take care of all the technical aspects of running a shared hosting platform, such as server upkeep, hardware setup, and online security. That means you can focus on what you're good at – marketing, building your brand, helping customers, and managing your business!
Plus, your customers can use our reseller hosting platform to handle their accounts, making it easy for you to earn money without too much hassle.
2. It’s scalable
The right reseller hosting package lets your capacity grow alongside your business, meaning you can offer more services as you get bigger. This can keep your customers happy if and when they begin to reach capacity with their own projects and can aid retention too.
3. It’s accessible
Pretty much anyone can get into reseller web hosting – you don’t need any specialist or technical knowledge to get started. Sure, it’s beneficial if you know a bit about handling servers, but it's also open to anyone willing to try their hand at hosting multiple sites.
4. Tailor your reseller hosting business
As a web hosting reseller, you get to design your very own hosting packages and tailor them to specific customers. By having a unique portfolio of hosting plans, you can stand out from the rest and really target those customers looking for a hosting provider with specific packages.
5. You’re still in control
Do you have web dev skills? Then adding reseller hosting to your repertoire is a huge plus. Say a client runs into some issues, you can be on hand to fix any problems that come your way by jumping on their accounts through your server tools, without waiting for them to send login info. Quick service like this can really impress your current clients, so it’s definitely worth adding more strings to your bow.
10 steps to choosing the best reseller hosting provider
Now that we know what reseller hosting is, how it works and the numerous benefits, here’s everything you need to keep in mind when finding the best reseller hosting provider.
1. Define your needs
Have a think about how many clients you can handle at one time, how much storage you need, technical support level, and the types of clients you wish to market to. We offer the following with all of our reseller hosting plans:
- Over 500 web and email packages
- Unlimited UK web space
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Customer control panels (for free – might we add)
Again, if you’re a web dev, you may wish to provide more specialist support for common client issues or create bespoke tools for client websites. Or, perhaps you want to add further value outside of web development, such as:
- Email marketing
- SEO
- Copywriting
- …The sky’s the limit!
2. Check the provider’s uptime
Uptime is going to keep you, and most importantly, your clients happy. At Fasthosts, we’re proud to offer 99.99% server uptime in an ISO 27001-certified Tier IV data centre, meaning your clients are unlikely to experience any disruptions to their project and/or business through your own reselling platform.
3. Check reviews
Checking customer reviews is one of many go-to's when assessing a product or service’s reputation, but you’d be surprised how often this goes amiss. Always look on sites such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews to see what current and past customers say about a provider before opting for them.
4. Evaluate their customer service and support team
There may be times you need additional support when something isn’t going right. Don’t worry – it happens! At Fasthosts, we believe 24/7 customer support is paramount for all things web, server and reseller hosting, which is why we’re always on hand if you ever need us. This is something to look out for when shopping around too, just in case you need help quickly when you least expect it.
5. Read up on their control panel
It’s important to know what control panel the reseller hosting provider uses. Is it cPanel or Plesk? Or some other control panel? Some providers even offer custom dashboards, so you’ll need to confirm that the control panel aligns with your technical knowledge, but also provides all the features you need such as one-click installations, website builders, WordPress themes and the like.
6. Assess pricing and scalability
Pricing, profit margins and scalability are all factors to consider when assessing a reseller hosting provider’s suitability. Does their pricing allow you to make a profit? How easy is it to scale if you need more resources for your clients?
You should be able to make a decent amount of profit while renting from a reseller hosting provider, all the while providing a fair price, so do some shopping around and make a note of pricing, and evaluate features to determine their worth.
7. Find out what security measures are in place
When assessing security, look for transparency. It’s one thing for a reseller hosting provider to say they’re secure – but do they actually state what measures are in place? Here are some things to look out for:
- Firewalls
- Malware scanning
- DDoS protection
- Restore and backup features
Fortunately, we know a thing or two about security. Our UK green data centres are ISO 27001-certified and equipped with the latest security measures. We also have on-site engineers to monitor everything 24/7 – so you can focus on your customers.
8. Read the terms and conditions
This is just general life advice, but when it comes to reseller hosting and providing a service to customers, terms and conditions are going to be the real make or break for which reseller hosting provider you choose to go with.
Plus, does the provider allow for white-label hosting like we do? If so, then this is a serious plus. White-label hosting allows you to brand the hosting service as your own – which is excellent for brand building. Plus, with white-label hosting, you can make your control panel look like your own!
9. Consider server location
If you want to offer the best performance possible for your customers, you should choose a hosting provider with servers located close to your target audience. For example, if you want to target a UK-based audience, choose a reseller hosting provider with UK data centres – here at Fasthosts, we have data centres in Gloucester, Worcester and London!
Server location is important because it affects website speed. If your provider’s servers are located in a data centre far away from where your customers are based, this will cause delays in data transfer and make sites load more slowly. Website speed is crucial for SEO and user experience, so keep your customers happy by ensuring the best performance possible.
10. Company reputation
Do your chosen provider’s values and business practices align with your own? Always choose a trustworthy hosting provider with a good reputation in your industry to ensure your business doesn’t get tarnished by association. Checking customer reviews (as suggested by point three above) and doing in-depth research are absolutely essential.
Frequently asked questions about choosing the best reseller hosting
Should I do reseller hosting?
If you’re looking for a side hustle and have a decent idea of how various web services work (such as domain names, web hosting, WordPress and the like), then reseller hosting might be right for you. Reseller hosting allows you to do what we do but in your own way with your very own pricing model and marketing. Plus, as your customer base grows, so does your monthly income!
What are the different types of reseller hosting?
There are two main types of reseller hosting: White Label Reselling and Private Label Reselling. The former allows you to act like an independent company – using your own branding when you offer hosting services to your clients. Private label reselling, on the other hand, shows the original reseller hosting provider’s logo or branding in your reseller hosting services.
While there’s nothing wrong with the latter, white-label reselling allows you to truly customise your business to appear independent from the reseller provider’s site, which has numerous benefits such as building your own brand, marketing and much more.
Is email hosting usually included with reseller web hosting?
The features included in your reseller hosting plan will depend on the provider and package you choose. Basic reseller packages with minimal features will obviously be cheaper, but your clients may not be interested in cheap web hosting. Other reseller packages come with lots of hosting extras, including email hosting, and you can adjust the pricing and marketing of your services to reflect this.
When choosing reseller hosting, always consider the needs of your target audience. Will they be interested in add-on services like email hosting, or are you targeting a budget market?
What is CPU limitation in reseller hosting?
CPU limitation means the amount of CPU resources allocated to your reseller hosting account. You may exceed your CPU limitation if you sell too many hosting packages or allocate too many resources to each customer, which will result in slower website speeds and poor performance. Plus, not only can you incur extra charges from your provider, but you could also anger your customers, who may decide to look elsewhere for hosting services that guarantee better performance. Always make sure you choose a reseller hosting plan that gives you enough resources for your business goals!
How do I become a successful hosting reseller?
Successful hosting resellers always research their hosting providers thoroughly and choose reseller services that align with their business goals. To do this, they need clearly defined goals in the first place, which is why you should always write a detailed business plan before starting a new business, side hustle, or a new venture for your current business.
To learn more about how to be a successful reseller and improve your earnings, check out our guide on how to make money with reseller hosting.
What is the profit margin for reseller hosting?
This entirely depends on the hosting provider you choose and what services you’re offering. Choosing a cheaper reseller hosting plan could increase your profit margin, but you have to consider that these cheap services probably don’t come with a lot of resources or add-ons, so customers won’t be willing to pay as much for your hosting. Similarly, offering great features and plenty of resources will mean you can probably charge your customers more to increase your profits, but the reseller services you buy will likely be more expensive too.
As a general guide, basic reseller hosting packages generally yield smaller profit margins of 10-30% because of the fierce competition, but you’re likely to attract more customers with these cheaper plans to make up for this. On the other hand, you can expect profit margins of 30-60% when you offer premium services (e.g., more resources, add-ons, enhanced customer service), but you’ll be targeting a smaller market.
We hope this has given you a good insight into how to choose the best reseller hosting provider. If you’re eager to get started, contact us to learn more about our Reseller Hosting packages. Want to learn more about business in general? Check out our business hub as well as our blog for more technical articles that can enhance your reseller hosting business.