Greetings, I am trying to figure out if a reseller hosting account is for me. I am a web designer who is looking to host a few clients.

I don't have any clients right now that require hosting but on the horizon I do and their sites aren't hugh, maybe one with a small shopping cart and the other does eat up a good amount of bandwidth with some streaming video.

Anyway its just another option I would like to add offer my clients. I have been looking into VPS's as they offer more control but I don't need an enormous amount of control, I have minimal experience with unix shell and linux when I had to take over a position for a bit but i don't see myself needing immense control right now.

I live on the east cost, (doesn't know if that helps or matters) and just looking for a RELIABLE, well known company that isn't too expensive and offers a good amount of space, ram, features etc for upwards of 10 clients.

Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated as I begin to scour the forums more. Thanks.

Well, I personally would recommend a VPS..

But for an accurate recommendation, it would be ideal if you can let us know how much webspace/bandwidth you are using and how much you need..

In addition to what your budget is :)

I don't require much bandwidth or space, as I said figure on 10 clients with minimal needs, shopping cart, CMS etc.

I am looking to spend probably 30-50 MAX, hopefully the latter as I probably will only be hosting one client in the immediate future so no need to go overboard. Why do you recommend a VPS over the reseller account? I am so torn right now its driving me nuts.

I was doing to go with spry.com but they seem a bit pricey, I do want something managed if i go with a VPS but maybe something a tad cheaper.

Hello,

Just be careful you may have mail issues if you go out with a VPS.

This was my experience..I used a php script and wanted it to forward to a certain email and I could not change the from field no matter what I did. The from field was the mail server of my vps account and because of this different email accounts blocked these emails.

This was my experience. Nothing beats a resellers account Innohosting.com offer great packages and hostnine.com offer great packages with awesome 24/7 live support.

Good Luck with it

Joe

I recommended VPS mainly because of this comment:

other does eat up a good amount of bandwidth with some streaming video.

It really depends on what you mean as a "good" amount of bandwidth.. But you anticipate it to grow, then a managed VPS may be a good option to take now, and avoid problems in the future.

As you're just starting out, start with a reseller account, unless you plan on doing custom services, a reseller account will suffice for now.

If you go with a VPS, you will still need to know something about servers, even under a "fully managed" service. You'll be paying a premium for services you don't need right now.

Grow, and then expand. No need to start big for no reason :)

You really need to get some hard figures for disk space and transfer - "a good amount" means different things to different people. If you really don't know and can't find out then the chances are your needs are low - say 2GB / 20GB for the sake of argument and you can start with the smallest reseller plan offered by most here.

I do believe I am going to go with a reseller account now. Of course this now leads to the next question, which one? I have read about hostnine, lanehost and resellerzoom.

To the person who recommenced innohosting, i clicked on resller hosting and it came up 404, great company already....

So far I like hostnine because of the very good reviews I have read plus I have that modernbill is very good billing software and it comes with it free as well.

Compared to lanehost it offers 100gb less bandwidth for the same money though which is the entry level 19.99/m. If you step up a plan with lanehost to 29.99 you get 250gb of bandwidth and 20gb of space whereas for the same price with hostnine you only get 15gb and 150gb bandwidth, kinda sucky. Not entirely sure I even need the 29.99 but for 30 bucks a month better safe then sorry. I haven't done too much research on lanehost on the forum yet.

Hostnine and lanehost don't say anything about private label but resellerzoom does. So here is the break down for the lowest plan, I guess it comes down to the company itself. What do you guys think?

These are based on the midlevel plans

hostnine:
space: 15gb
bandwidth: 150gb
billing: modernbill
price: 29.95/mo

lanehost:
space: 20gb
bandwidth: 250gb
billing: WHMCS
price: 29.95/mo

resellerzoom
space: 16gb
bandwidth: 320gb
billing: WHMAP
price: 34.95/m

If you're looking relativity does not guide yourself about the price and the space/bandwidth that you get for it, research about the companies of your choice, sometimes it does worth to spend $10 more per month for your peace of mind

The budget (assuming it's the monthly price that you mentioned) puts you in the entry level managed VPS range, which, IMHO, aren't exactly replacements for a reseller account.

Grow, and then expand. No need to start big for no reason Agreed.


To the person who recommenced innohosting, i clicked on resller hosting and it came up 404, great company already....I have no problem visiting their site. :confused:

To the person who recommenced innohosting, i clicked on resller hosting and it came up 404, great company already....

I'm not sure who referred you to InnoHosting, but you can find their website at http://www.innohosting.com/. I am a current customer of their's (PM me for verification) and they provide a great service. I've never been with a host who has individuals who are so willing and eager to help you, not to mention their response times are fantastic!

InnoHosting has a deal out for new customers right now, purchase any plan (except for the Starter) and get upgraded to the next plan up for free. There is also talk that the WHMCS is in the works for a billing solution, ClientExec is the currently availible billing solution.

Edit: WHMCS has now been added as a billing solution. Check out their current offer here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=609933

... for the same price with hostnine you only get 15gb and 150gb bandwidth, kinda sucky.No, it's not, in fact all the prices you've quoted are more than reasonable. Bear in mind that resellers, unlike regular hosting clients, are expected to actually use a significant amount of their account limits. This is particularly true once you move up from the base plan because anyone on this would already have exceeded the base plan limits.

I'd recommend dotable but I think you'd find their space and transfer limits very sucky ;)

my bad with innohosting it 404's for some reason just the reseller page, perhaps they were updating it.

Anyway, still haven't gotten really recommendations from you guys regarding which of the listed company's you find to be best. Just trying to get real user experience here.

I just moved to cartikahosting after being a few years with e-instes.com. I made my choice after searching this forum.

http://www.cartikahosting.com/

Eran

any more suggestions guys?

Theres quite a few vps / reseller folks out there... doesnt sound good about inmotions 404

Reseller or dedicated.

Spend a few minutes searching these forums and I assure you that you'll find enough information to compile your own list. IMHO don't sweat the resources too much. While you should take them into account when making a decision you should not make them the first priority.

Here are a few searches that came up

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=583537&highlight=Top+Host

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=598686&highlight=Top+Reseller

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=608070&highlight=Top+Reseller

thanks for the links, i'm still torn, I hate this lol. I am not really sure WHAT I need, if it is in fact a reseller account or VPS.

For right now the reason I am looking into either or is because a client with a personal site that will have a shopping cart wants to move his server off of his current unixshell hosting to mine.

The future will hold about 2-3 other sites from this client, none that are hugh.

If i got reseller i'm torn between host9 and resellerzoom, if i go VPS i'm looking at knownhost since they have a 50% off for 2 month plan.

Everywhere I read that if your starting out small and are a web designer (like myself) then a reseller account is pretty much the way to go if u want to host some of your clients, but I don't quite understand the how the reseller account works.

Basically I mascaraed like I am a hosting company setting up an account with permissions, space etc, correct? Then i allocate the appropriate space and specs to the customer and charge them and still have access to their cpanel etc, yes?

Hi,

You buy a reseller, you'll generally get cPanel/WHM software. You login to WHM, create the accounts give clients the nameservers to point their domains to, and charge for the access to the hosting service. It's quite simple.

If you want the freedom of being able to choose PHP versions, etc go for a VPS. If your happy living with what someone else sets, and not having the responsibility of the servers uptime on your hands, go for a reseller account.

If I were solely a web designer i'd go for the reseller option.

I am solely a web designer but I find myself in precarious situations which often give me other titles. I would like to focus on the web designer though lol.

I am stuck between hostnine and resellerzoom, i have done extensive research (about 4 hours straight) and have spoken with h9 twice via live chat.

Both have great reviews here, perhaps RZ has a slightly better rep. I am not biased towards the billing software as I have never used ANY, but I have read that modernbill is more desirable then WHMAP in comparison and that is what h9 offers.

RZ however offers anonymous end-user support, something h9 doesn't and something that may help take some pressure off of me if a client has a technical related question, they can just forward it to them.

RZ also offers a free SSL reseller account and free eNom account.

I am not entirely sure of my needs as of yet but RZ is almost looking better.

h9
next step package
39.95/mo
cpanel/WHM
modernbill
20gb space
200gb bandwidth
320 cpanel accounts
8 dedicated IPs

RZ:
34.95/m
cpanel/WHM
WHMAP
16gb space
320gb bandwidth
320 cpanel accounts
This one didn't seem to tell me how many dedicated IPS
24/7 end user support

What do u guys think?

what do u guys think?

I'd go with RZ, as I don't want to spend much time on customer support. any other opionins?

I would start with a Reseller plan instead of VPS until you have more customers. As you grow you can always upgrade to a VPS. There is no reason to take on the additional cost until you need it.

Best Regards,

I recommend a reseller a lot faster

Start with a decent reseller package, Why?

1.like others have said with a VPS server you still need to have some knowledge of how servers operate.
2. A resller package can be controlled by a simple control panel that anyone can learn.
3. The main concern you should be looking at is "if" the site that you will be hosting gets big fast what to do? simple move it to a dedicated solution, until then all the sites will run with ease on a reseller account.
4. Your business as you said is Web Design, you are not a Web Host, stick to what you know as there is no real need or im guessing here want for you to get technical at the moment.
5. Just a note: when choosing a host try find one that will support you! choose someone that can offer you 24/7 support, will be flexible with your needs and is genuinely interested and wants to learn more about your business. Why? Because you will be relying on them to keep your customers happy as well :)

I'm not sure who referred you to InnoHosting, but you can find their website at http://www.innohosting.com/.


InnoHosting has a deal out for new customers right now, purchase any plan (except for the Starter) and get upgraded to the next plan up for free.
Is that a coupon code? I didn't see anything on their site.

Is that a coupon code? I didn't see anything on their site.

The promo has expired.

I just moved to cartikahosting after being a few years with e-instes.com. I made my choice after searching this forum.

http://www.cartikahosting.com/

Eran

you meant e-insites.com ?

you meant e-insites.com ?

yes, typo

eran

I am a web designer too and I use a reseller account from UKEasily. The service is good, the hosting is reliable, and they are there when you need help.

Good Luck!