Web Hosting

When and how to use Cpanel Addon Domain?

With the help of Addon Domains feature you can host multiple websites on a single Web Hosting plan. This is very cost saving feature however, you should use it with caution.

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The Addon domain feature is available with Cpanel Hosting like Linux Shared Hosting or/and Linux based Cpanel Reseller Hosting, which allows you to host multiple or even unlimited domains under a single Cpanel account.

We all love Cpanel due to its ease of use and the power to manage your website with full control. However, recently Cpanel has increased the price of the Cpanel license and they have moved their license billing structure from per server to per account.

This simply means the hosting companies now need to pay license cost per Cpanel account hosted on the server in place of paying only for server license like in the good old days.

Which forced hosting companies to charge higher prices for each Cpanel account hosted on the server.

Do note Cpanel account does not mean one domain name, it simply means one user who can manage that particular Cpanel, Each Cpanel account can host multiple domains using a feature call addon domains.

But the biggest question is if you should use it?

Limitation of Addon Domains

Even addon domains sound very interesting, you must understand most of the shared hosting companies (including us) keep an eye on CPU / RAM and other shared hosting limitations which are considered a good practice when it comes to shared hosting so that each account get a fair share of hardware and bandwidth.

And these limitations are per the Cpanel account base not the per-domain basis.

This means every limit applied to your Cpanel account will be further shared between your main domain and addon domains.

When should you use Addon Domains

Like I said previously addon domain is a great feature when used correctly. You should use the addon domain in Cpanel when your main domain or any domain hosted (including the domain you are going to host) on the same Cpanel account is lightweight and does not require high compute or RAM uses.

Also, you are not worried about sub-users access. Remember the main Cpanel user will have access to all addon domain files and database.

As long as these two factors are not a major worry to you, the addon domain can be used for as many domains as you want.

How to use Addon Domains

Addon domains can be used over any Cpanel account if your plan supports addon domains.

Make sure your to-be-hosted domain name is pointing to the server. (For domain registered through Netspace use: Free DNS Management) Or point your domain name to Nameserver provided by your hosting company.
Login to your Cpanel account
From the Domains section, click on Addon Domains.
enter the domain name you want to add as an addon domain without www.
Again make sure, that the domain is already pointing to the server or else you will end up with an error: This domain points to an IP address that does not use the DNS servers associated with this server.
This is an optional step, if you want to create an FTP account associated with the addon domain, simply click the checkbox next to that option.
Add Domain – You have successfully added an addon domain.

For your reference, I found a youtube video that also explains the above steps.

Feel free to ask your question below in the comment box and will be happy to answer all of them.

Shashi kant Pandidhar

I’ve been helping businesses to be online for over 15 years. Today my team and I, focus on helping real businesses to overcome real-life challenges and analyse data in a way that can help businesses grow in the right direction of this digital age.

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