Reseller web hosting is a service in which a customer buys web hosting from a provider and sells it to its own customers. The reseller may offer shared, VPS (Virtual Private Server), dedicated or other hosting under its own brand. The provider keeps the physical servers and the cPanel or WebHost Manager (WHM) control panel.
History of Reseller web hosting
Creator: No single creator. Web companies used reseller accounts as web hosting spread in the 1990s. Year: 1995.
Until 1991, the Internet was limited to research and education. Few web pages were online. A firm needed its own computer. It also needed its own server. Many firms lacked the budget. They also lacked the staff. So web hosting services began to host sites. They ran sites on their own servers. Wikipedia calls a site owner a webmaster. The owner posted the site from the provider's server.
Firms of all sizes wanted to be online. More people used the World Wide Web. By 1995, companies such as GeoCities and Tripod gave free hosting.1 In shared hosting, many sites use one server. They share its resources. These resources include random access memory (RAM). They also include the central processing unit (CPU). Resellers often sold shared hosting. Web companies often held reseller accounts. They used them to host their clients.
Reseller hosting lets a client buy hosting. The client then resells it to its clients. A provider may allow resellers to offer shared hosting. It may also allow virtual private server (VPS) hosting. It may allow dedicated hosting too. Resellers can use their own brand. The reseller keeps the client relationship. The provider keeps the equipment. The cPanel control panel added WebHost Manager (WHM) in 1999.2 WHM lets a provider manage accounts on the server. That includes accounts for resellers.
Changelog and latest update
Control panels added reseller tools over time. Reseller hosting changed as a result. WHM manages accounts on the server. Reseller tools are now part of WHM. The cPanel page shows the Reseller Center. It adds or removes reseller status. It works on accounts that already exist. It also opens other interfaces.
Providers can control what resellers may do. The provider can turn the interface on or off. The cPanel Reseller Center note says so. The setting is on the Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges screen. So each server can set its own privileges. New reseller accounts are created in the Create a New Account interface. The same page lists it as its own step.
The page applies to cPanel and WHM version 82 and later. The page was last changed on 2026 July 8. It covers three sections. Its sections are Add or Remove Reseller Account Privileges. The second is Change Account Ownership or Email Resellers. The third is Reseller Actions. Each section gives the steps for one task.
Latest update: cPanel Reseller Center documentation, 2026-07-08
The page was last changed on 2026 July 8. The page says it is valid for version 82 and later. It shows how to add or remove reseller status. It also shows how to reach the other interfaces. The date and version range come from the page.
Usage examples
A reseller account is created on a WebHost Manager (WHM) server. The reseller then uses its own control panel. The examples below run four tasks. They create a hosting account for one reseller customer. They list the accounts owned by a reseller. They show the branded nameserver records of a reseller. They list three steps for a new customer. The domain and user names are placeholders.
whmapi1 createacct username=client1 \
domain=client1.example.com \
plan=defaultThe whmapi1 command calls the WHM application programming interface (API) from the server shell. It runs as root. This call creates a hosting account named client1. Its domain is client1.example.com, and its package is named default. A reseller who owns the account sells the hosting to the customer. The package name must already exist on the server.
whmapi1 listaccts searchtype=owner \
search=reseller1This call lists the hosting accounts whose owner matches reseller1. It shows each customer account, its domain and its package. The reseller can use the list. It checks which customers it has on the server. The search type owner is used in the WHM API search options.
example-brand.com. 86400 IN NS \
ns1.example-brand.com.
example-brand.com. 86400 IN NS \
ns2.example-brand.com.These nameserver (NS) records delegate a domain to two nameservers under the reseller brand. A reseller that runs branded nameservers uses records like these. Customers then see the reseller name in their domain name system (DNS) settings. The glue records for the nameserver addresses are set at the registrar.
# 1. Create the account in WHM
# 2. Add the domain in the account
# 3. Point the domain at the serverThese lines list three steps that a reseller usually follows for a new customer. First, the account is created. Next, the domain is added inside the account. Last, the domain nameservers point to the server. The order is a practice. It is not a rule defined by the cPanel documentation.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Web hosting service
Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation
Encyclopedia article on web hosting. Its types section defines reseller web hosting, shared hosting, VPS and dedicated hosting. It also gives the 1995 example of no-charge hosting from GeoCities, Angelfire and Tripod used in the history.
Reseller Center
cPanel, L.L.C.
Official WHM documentation page for the Reseller Center. It states that the interface adds or removes reseller status for existing accounts, that new accounts use Create a New Account, and that providers can enable or disable it for resellers.
WHM resellers documentation
cPanel, L.L.C.
Official index for the WHM reseller guides, including the Guide to Reseller Accounts. It lists the reseller-related interfaces, such as Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges, that a provider uses to set what each reseller may do.
WHM documentation
cPanel, L.L.C.
Official documentation for WebHost Manager, the server-level interface used to create reseller and customer accounts. It covers account functions, packages, server settings and the API that the examples call with whmapi1.
cPanel & WHM 138 Change Log
cPanel, L.L.C.
Official change log for the current release cycle. It lists each release with its date, so the reader can see when the reseller and WHM features were last changed by a point release.
Reseller hosting needs a partner you can call
Reseller hosting solves one problem for a small business. It lets you offer web hosting to your own customers without building a data center. You buy space in bulk, then sell it under your name. The catch is support. When a client's site fails at night, someone must answer, and that someone must know the systems well.
We have worked in web design for more than 20 years. Rod has built websites since 2004, and the company was founded in 2012. That history means we have seen many hosting problems, from slow databases to expired certificates. We handle those problems on the server side, so your clients never have to learn them.
We check each reseller account before it goes live, so the limits match what you sold. Our phone line is open every day from 7 am to 10 pm. When you call, you reach people who can look at your account and answer on the spot.
Tell us how many client sites you expect to host. Ring 402-813-4034 between 7 am and 10 pm on any day. Our $300 package also suits a first site for your own business.
