Hosting for Agencies and Web Designers: Reseller or Multi-Site?

If you design websites, at some point hosting your clients' sites becomes part of the job. Keeping track of five hosting accounts at five different providers, with five passwords and five renewal dates, quickly gets messy. In this article we look at hosting options for agencies and web designers: what reseller hosting is, when you really need it, and simpler ways to keep client sites in one place.

In short: unless you're building a business that sells separate hosting accounts with their own panels to many clients, you usually don't need reseller hosting. For a small number of client sites, a multi-site plan is the cheapest route; if you want full separation between clients, open a separate hosting account per client. You can manage all of them from a single customer account.

What is reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting is a plan that lets you buy resources in bulk from a hosting provider and hand them out to your own clients as separate hosting accounts. Usually you create separate cPanel accounts for clients from a management panel such as WHM; each client logs into their own panel with their own password, and the nameservers can appear under your own brand. We explain the difference between these panels in what are cPanel and WHM.

Reseller hosting makes sense when:

• You sell hosting to your clients as a separate service under your own brand,
• You want each client to log into their own panel and manage their email and files themselves,
• You manage dozens of accounts and need to set separate resource limits for each.

It's more than you need when:

• Your clients never log into a panel and you manage the sites anyway,
• You host a few or a few dozen sites,
• Your main business is design and maintenance, and hosting is just part of the service.

Note: TürkiyeVPS doesn't currently sell WHM/cPanel-based reseller plans. The options below cover most web designers' needs more simply and at lower cost.

Option 1: a multi-site plan

Hosting several sites in one plan is the most economical route for designers managing a small number of client sites. Our WordPress Hosting plans are delivered with WordPress pre-installed and are split by number of sites:

All plans include free SSL and unlimited traffic; our team does the setup after payment. If your client sites are built with Node.js, Node.js Hosting plans also offer multiple sites: Node Pro with 3 sites ($4.89 monthly) and Node Max with 5 sites ($9.19 monthly); SSH and Git access are included.

Pros: Lowest cost, one panel, one renewal date. Cons: Sites share the same resources; a traffic spike or security hole on one site can affect the others. If a client wants to move their site elsewhere one day, you need to separate it from the plan and migrate it.

Option 2: a separate hosting account per client

If you want full separation between clients, you can open a separate web hosting plan for each site. The Hosting Eco plan is $0.89 monthly or $8.97 yearly; for clients who need a new domain, the Hosting + Free Domain plan is $15 per year, and the domain renews free every year as long as you renew the plan. Web hosting accounts are set up automatically once payment is confirmed and include PHP 8.3, MariaDB, phpMyAdmin, a file manager and free SSL.

Pros: Each site runs on its own resources, so a problem on one doesn't spread to another. It's easy to pass costs on to each client line by line. When a site needs to be handed over, moving a single account is enough. Cons: As the number of sites grows, the total cost rises compared with a multi-site plan.

Option 3: your own server (VDS)

If you know how to run Linux and want full control over the stack, you can host client sites on a server you set up yourself. Our VDS plans with dedicated CPU start at $1.69 per month; for sites reached directly from outside, an IPv4 address of your own comes with VDS Enterprise plans. On this route updates, security and backups are entirely your responsibility. Our guides to installing WordPress on a VPS and Linux server security show the way.

Cost example: 10 small client sites

Say you host 10 low-traffic company sites for a year (prices are for the yearly billing period):

Don't decide on price alone: putting critical, busy sites on separate accounts and small company sites on a shared plan is a balanced solution for most agencies.

Simplify billing

When you keep client sites in one TürkiyeVPS account, all your services, domains and invoices appear in one panel. A few features make this easier:

• Combined renewal invoice: Renewals issued on the same day are merged into one invoice.
• Account balance: Once you top up your account (minimum $50), new invoices are paid automatically from the balance, so you don't need a separate payment for each renewal.
• USD prices: Prices and invoices are in US dollars, so exchange-rate swings won't upset your numbers when you quote clients a yearly price.
• Easy payment: Payments are accepted in USDT (TRC20); no card or Turkish bank account is needed. Details are in how to buy hosting with USDT.

Good practice when managing client sites

• Let the client own the domain, but track renewals yourself. An expired domain means the site and email stop. Our article on how to choose a domain name helps with extensions.
• Use a separate database user for each site. Even if one site's credentials are compromised, the other sites' databases stay out of reach.
• Don't neglect updates. Update WordPress core, themes and plugins regularly; delete plugins you don't use.
• Keep your own backups. Download and store files and the database before major changes.
• Think about business email separately. If you want a client's email to work independently of their site, business email plans start at $2.09 per month and include unlimited email accounts.
• Plan migrations. When bringing client sites over from other providers, use our guide to moving your site to a new host.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need reseller hosting as a web designer?

No. If you don't need to give clients their own panel login and you manage the sites yourself, a multi-site plan or a separate hosting account per client is usually enough and cheaper. Reseller hosting makes sense when you sell hosting as a separate service under your own brand.

Does TürkiyeVPS offer reseller hosting?

WHM/cPanel-based reseller plans are not currently on sale. For client sites we recommend WordPress Hosting's multi-site plans (up to 10 sites) or a separate web hosting account per client.

How many client sites can I host in one plan?

WordPress Hosting plans include 1, 3, 5 or 10 sites depending on the plan. In Node.js Hosting, Node Pro includes 3 sites and Node Max includes 5.

Can I pay for several services at once?

Renewals issued on the same day are combined into one invoice. You can also top up your account balance (minimum $50); new invoices are then paid automatically from the balance.

Bring your client sites together

For a small number of sites, WordPress Hosting plans hosting up to 10 sites start at $0.89 per month, and web hosting plans for a separate account per client also start at $0.89 per month. If you're not sure which setup suits you, tell us on live chat how many clients you have and what kind of sites they are, and we'll work out the best structure together.