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Why Reseller vs Shared for my own sites?
| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-10-2013, 03:51 AM |
| I was advised, and have seen it advised, to get a reseller plan (leaning toward stablehost) if I have multiple sites. I am not squared away on how much extra work (vs standard shared plan) that will require from me. Nor do I know if the setup will be more complex than a standard shared plan.
Can you address these points and also what the real advantages are?
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| Posted by Jutt, 08-10-2013, 03:56 AM |
| There is no extra work you need to do for a Reseller account. It is bit same.
In Shared Hosting, you need to add Addon Domains for Multiple Domains.
And
In Reseller Account, you can create separate accounts for each Domain.
And Difference is,
In Shared Hosting, You will need to add domains as Addon Domain. All your Domains will be managed through One Cpanel Account. But there is a security flaw in that, If one account gets compromised, all accounts in same cpanel can b compromised.
But in a Reseller account, you will create different Cpanel Accounts for each domain you have, so each account will have his own separate Cpanel Account.
Easy to use and easy to manage your accounts/domains.
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| Posted by DWS2006, 08-10-2013, 07:44 AM |
| Another advantage to using a reseller is that each account will be allotted its own pool of resources, on shared all domains are forced to share from a single allotment. Most reputable providers, StableHost included, are utilizing CloudLinux/BetterLinux to set resource allocations on a per account basis.
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| Posted by Atlanical-Mike, 08-10-2013, 08:43 AM |
| Resellers allows you to manage each site on their own account so say if you was exploited via wordpress for example only one site would be down. You could host some mates and get a bit of cash. Or even start a small business.
However the cheaper route would be shared hosting. But it's all to choice. You can always upgrade at any time with your provider.
You pay the host who does the server management, etc some even do end user support if you need it.
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| Posted by RRWH, 08-10-2013, 09:11 AM |
| yep - all been said - security and ease of management.
Whenever you get to the 3rd domain/site We usually suggest that you split them up and go for a reseller account. As far as management goes, there is a tiny bit more effort, but you are able to manage all the accounts form the one place.
Not only do you get the Isolation and along with this security - but if you manage your backups correctly, if you need to restore, you only have to restore a single account and not your whole account with multiple sites.
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| Posted by SSD-Greg, 08-10-2013, 10:20 AM |
| Reseller or Shared its still almost the same thing. Your better off saying Reseller , Shared hosting vs VPS & Dedicates. Automatically you should know Dedicated Server / VPS is better than reseller or shared due to the fact your on your own node. if you really care about your network then put it on a server managed by a great company. there are a few great selective companies that will be able to suite all your needs and be able to service you with great solutions.
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-10-2013, 10:26 AM |
| LuxuryServers
Sounds expensive and unnecessary for my needs, but I stopped by your site anyway. Might want to check that out; there seems to be a problem.
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| Posted by snfrd, 08-10-2013, 11:46 AM |
| amerikranian,
It comes down to two layers of management: 1) reseller (or host) and 2) account (or domain).
It was much easier to administer once I learned what could be done in 1) or 2).
That is my view as a very small reseller.
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| Posted by fshagan, 08-10-2013, 12:44 PM |
| There is a learning curve with a reseller account; and it's related to using whatever control panel you have. For instance, if you are used to cPanel, you will have a separate cPanel for each of your sites on the reseller account. You will also have WHM (Web Host Manager). WHM is a separate program that enables management of your accounts. There are plenty of tutorials around, but here are the basic steps you would do rather than add an add-on domain in a shared account:
1. Create a "package" (you define how much disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, databases, etc. in the "package".
2. Add an "account" (domain), and assign a "package" to it.
There's a lot more to WHM, but those are the basic steps to add a domain to your account and have its webspace allocated. I think you will need 2 - 3 hours to grasp the concepts and get up to speed.
I often cite the advantage a reseller account has in that you can separate out each account from the others. In the case of a vulnerability in an outdated CMS, plugin or theme, the attacker only gains access to one account. But its important to remember that you STILL can expose all your accounts if someone hacks into your WHM account. So use a complex password for WHM, and choose a good host that uses a firewall to prevent brute force attacks from compromising your WHM.
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-10-2013, 01:35 PM |
| That was a clear breakdown. much appreciated.
Does stablehost use the aforementioned firewall? I assume so.
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| Posted by DWS2006, 08-10-2013, 03:09 PM |
| I would also assume that SH would be running a firewall in front of or on every server. Do you have any specific requirements in regards to the firewall, for example specific ports that need to be open, etc.?
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-10-2013, 03:14 PM |
| Uh no.
I mean I don't know.
Wait, what was the question?
Seriously, though, not that I am aware of. What kinds of things would require it?
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| Posted by DWS2006, 08-10-2013, 04:29 PM |
| Sounds like to firewall won't be an issue you for you. I asked only because you mentioned it specifically, which led me to incorrectly assume that you had a concern regarding it.
The firewall is generally only an issue when a site connects to remote servers on a regular basis for content (game server stats, custom apps, etc.). And, of course, there is always that instance when you lock yourself out of your account and need to get your IP cleared.
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| Posted by Jeff Bee, 08-10-2013, 04:33 PM |
| I don't agree that it makes your sites more secure. Assuming that someone would be able to get into your shared account where they'd have access to all of your add on sites, what is stopping them from getting into your root reseller account which has access to all of the sites under it too?
That being said, if you need more resources then a reseller account would work for you.
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| Posted by DWS2006, 08-10-2013, 04:58 PM |
| I think the general consensus is that there are more attack vectors with shared than with the primary reseller account. A WHM account is really only directly susceptible to a brute force attack combined with a weak password (assuming that the password/hash isn't exposed by a public script - as happened in the WHMcs hack a couple years back). A wordpress hack typically won't put a WHM account at risk but could easily wipe-out addon domains.
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-11-2013, 04:22 AM |
| Plus, somebody said it's easier (perhaps simpler?) to restore one domain from backup than to restore all domains in the case of a domain being compromised.
Is it much harder? What does it involve?
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| Posted by fshagan, 08-11-2013, 02:23 PM |
| Yep, that was the point I made, when I mentioned it is more secure against "a vulnerability in an outdated CMS, plugin or theme", and stressed having a strong password for WHM.
For the OP, a common feature of a firewall that most reseller hosts will have can include a feature that allows only X number of attempts to log into WHM (typically set at 5 or 10 attempts). If the hacker is trying a brute force password attack, their IP address is locked out after that many tries. That limits the chances that an attacker can guess the username / password combination to get into WHM. (The disadvantage of this kind of thing is that you or your clients can be locked out of your accounts if you forget your password; you then have to submit a ticket for your host to unblock your IP address).
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| Posted by fshagan, 08-11-2013, 02:28 PM |
| I'm not sure there's a difference in backup / restoration. There is in splitting a domain off to another host, which is why developers often use reseller accounts.
An example: a customer has us add his domain to our account, we create the site, get payment and the customer now wants to host his site at BigMegaCheapoAnimalMascotHost.com
Add on domain: not an elegant way to transfer the site, other than setting up the account on BigMegaCheapoAnimalMascotHost.com and manually copying the files over.
Reseller account: if BigMegaCheapoAnimalMascotHost.com has cPanel, we give the customer the information for their cPanel account, and BigMegaCheapoAnimalMascotHost.com does a cPanel to cPanel transfer. All of the site files, email settings, etc. transfer over automagically.
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-11-2013, 02:53 PM |
| I'll have to ask about the wordpress login limit.
Point taken about the transfer process. This piece only comes into play if I'm developing for somebody else.
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| Posted by DWS2006, 08-11-2013, 03:53 PM |
| Being able to restore one domain at a time can come in handy for your own sites too. For example, if a directory was deleted accidentally or a database is corrupted you can easily restore the affected site without altering the others.
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-12-2013, 05:19 AM |
| Right, I understand that. I was responding to the point about transferring an add-on domain.
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| Posted by fshagan, 08-12-2013, 11:18 AM |
| Well, the server-side firewall the host provides will only apply a login limit to your cPanel or other control panel, not Wordpress. There are some security plugins like WordFence that allow you to limit the number of login tries to Wordpress.
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| Posted by DDoSCover-Mason, 08-12-2013, 11:33 AM |
| You will end up saving money by buying reseller. Make sure you don't go with a cheaper company that offer reseller for not much more than they offer shared as they will more than likely be overselling.
Reseller should not be any different to shared hosting other than the fact that you get the option to add multiple accounts in WHM (if you are using cpanel).
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| Posted by amerikrainian, 08-12-2013, 12:13 PM |
| fshagan Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
@DDoS I got set up with stablehost for shared first. As soon as I see how they handle things, I'll likely move it up to reseller soon.
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