Overview
The typical web hosting reseller might be a web design firm, web developer or systems integrator who offers web hosting as an add-on service. Reseller hosting is also an inexpensive way for web hosting entrepreneurs to start a company. Most reseller hosting plans allow resellers to create their own service plans and choose their own pricing structure. In many cases, resellers are able to establish their own branding via customized control panels and servers.
Reseller hosting can be thought of as the relationship between a wholesaler and a retailer. The web hosting company (wholesaler) leases space on their servers to resellers (retailers). The reseller can distribute and price the space they've leased for however much bandwidth, disk-space, and price that they want. A reseller may also rent a dedicated server and use it to host the services of their end-customers.
Reseller hosting does not require extensive knowledge of the technical aspects of web hosting. Usually, the data center operator is responsible for maintaining network infrastructure and hardware, and the dedicated owner configures, secures, and updates the server. A reseller is responsible for interfacing with his or her own customer base, but any hardware, software and connectivity problems are typically forwarded to the server provider from whom the reseller plan was purchased. Being a profitable reseller firm usually involves extensive advertising to get customers. While the fees with major hosts are only a few dollars a month, it is a low-margin business, and resellers must devote large advertising budgets to compete with established competitors. However, web hosting is one of the biggest online businesses, because every website needs hosting.
Resellers can set up and manage customer accounts via a web interface, usually a point-and-click "control panel".
Reseller Hosting is commonly sold with:
- Clientexec (web hosting automation platform)
- WHMCS (an all-in-one client management, billing and support solution for online businesses)
- SSL for hosting domain (add SSL to a domain to secure the billing form of the website)
- SSL reseller account (resell SSL to clients at discounted prices and keep any profits)
- Domain reseller account (resell domains as well as hosting from a hosting company)
A web server is server software, or a system of one or more computers dedicated to running this software, that can satisfy client HTTP requests on the public World Wide Web or also on private LANs and WANs.
In computing, a server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called "clients". This architecture is called the client–server model. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called "services", such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, or performing computation for a client. A single server can serve multiple clients, and a single client can use multiple servers. A client process may run on the same device or may connect over a network to a server on a different device. Typical servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers.
In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application or appliance that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from servers that provide those resources. A proxy server thus functions on behalf of the client when requesting service, potentially masking the true origin of the request to the resource server.
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center, called colocation, also known as housing in Latin America or France.
Virtual hosting is a method for hosting multiple domain names on a single server. This allows one server to share its resources, such as memory and processor cycles, without requiring all services provided to use the same host name. The term virtual hosting is usually used in reference to web servers but the principles do carry over to other Internet services.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an Internet hosting service. The virtual dedicated server (VDS) also has a similar meaning.
A reseller is a company or individual (merchant) that purchases goods or services with the intention of selling them rather than consuming or using them. This is usually done for profit. One example can be found in the industry of telecommunications, where companies buy excess amounts of transmission capacity or call time from other carriers and resell it to smaller carriers.
cPanel is a web hosting control panel software developed by cPanel, LLC. It provides a graphical interface (GUI) and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site to the website owner or the "end user". It enables administration through a standard web browser using a three-tier structure. While cPanel is limited to managing a single hosting account, cPanel & WHM allows the administration of the entire server.
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone else. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc.
A shared web hosting service is a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. This is generally the most economical option for hosting, as the overall cost of server maintenance is spread over many customers. By choosing shared hosting, the website will share a physical server with one or more other websites.
An Internet hosting service is a service that runs servers connected to the Internet, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content or host services connected to the Internet.
ISPConfig is a widely used Open Source Hosting Control Panel for Linux, licensed under BSD license and developed by the company ISPConfig UG. The ISPConfig project was started in autumn 2005 by Till Brehm from the German company projektfarm GmbH.
Hostway is a global web hosting, and technology infrastructure company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States, founded in 1998. It provides individuals, small- to medium-sized businesses and large corporations with hosting services for web sites, databases, business applications, and managed web hosting. Hostway Services Inc. serves customers worldwide. Hostway merged with Hosting.com in January of 2019. The merged company rebranded to Ntirety in September of 2019.
H-Sphere is a web hosting Automation Control Panel for shared web hosting services that was developed by Positive Software and acquired by Parallels, Inc. in September 2007. It is available for Linux, Unix and Windows environments and works with MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases. H-Sphere has been written in Java and works with any SQL-compliant database.
Plesk is a commercial web hosting and server data center automation software with a control panel developed for Linux and Windows-based retail hosting service providers. Plesk's user management model is suitable for dedicated and shared hosting, allowing server administrators to set up new websites, reseller accounts, email accounts, and edit and create DNS entries through a web-based interface.
A marketing channel consists of the people, organizations, and activities necessary to transfer the ownership of goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. It is the way products get to the end-user, the consumer; and is also known as a distribution channel. A marketing channel is a useful tool for management, and is crucial to creating an effective and well-planned marketing strategy.
GNUPanel is a hosting control panel for Debian. It is written in PHP and it is tailored to run on 32 and 64-bit Debian GNU/Linux web hosting servers. The administrator can create public and private hosting plans, accept PayPal, Cuentadigital and Dineromail payments, send messages to users, create redirections, use an integrated support ticket system, control bandwidth, disk space and define policies for account suspension. It provides the usual functions to create mail and FTP accounts, databases, directory security, etc. Additional functionality is included for domain parking and subdomain control over PHP directives including safe_mode and register_globals. GNUPanel stores its configuration in a PostgreSQL 9.1 database and provides three web interfaces with SSL access. User, reseller and administrator accounts may be created.
The Rackspace Cloud is a set of cloud computing products and services billed on a utility computing basis from the US-based company Rackspace. Offerings include Cloud Storage, virtual private server, load balancers, databases, backup, and monitoring.
Easynews, Inc is a HW Media Usenet/newsgroup reseller. Founded in 1994, Easynews service is available to individual users through a subscription model and as an outsourced service to internet service providers. Easynews currently offers service to over 1 million broadband users in 206 countries. Easynews offers Usenet access both through traditional Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) servers as well as a web interface using a standard web browser.
UK2 Group is a global provider of Internet services based in the United Kingdom, with data centers in the UK and US; it is currently owned by The Hut Group.
