Reseller hosting: turning project work into recurring revenue

If you build websites for clients, you already answer the hosting questions. The email is not arriving, the site is down, the certificate expired - those calls come to you regardless of whose logo is on the invoice. Reseller hosting is the arrangement where you get paid for that instead of absorbing it.

What it actually is

You buy one allocation of resources and divide it into separate hosting accounts, one per client. Each account is isolated - its own login, its own files, its own limits - and you control how big each one is. Your clients deal with you, under your name. We deal with you, and stay out of the way.

The practical difference from buying your clients individual plans: one bill, one place to work, and accounts you can create in a minute without a purchase order.

The arithmetic

Take a designer with fifteen client sites. Each pays a modest monthly amount for hosting, backups and "call me if it breaks". That is revenue that arrives whether or not a project closed that month, and it compounds with every site you build. Project income is lumpy; this is not.

The second effect matters more than the first: it changes your relationship with the client from a vendor they call when they want something to a supplier they are continuously engaged with. That is where redesigns and new work come from.

Four things to sort out before you start

1. Write down what is included. Hosting, backups, certificate renewal and uptime - yes. Content edits, new pages, plugin conflicts caused by a client installing things - separately billed. Put it in the agreement, or every month turns into unpaid work.
2. Decide how you handle out-of-hours. You are now the first call. Either set expectations plainly ("next business day, except for a site being down") or price a faster commitment in. What does not work is an unstated promise.
3. Bill annually where you can. Fifteen monthly invoices is a job. Fifteen annual ones is an afternoon, and it improves your cashflow considerably.
4. Keep your own access clean. Unique passwords per account, two-factor on the reseller panel, and a written note of who owns each domain. The domain-ownership question is the one that gets ugly when a client leaves.

A word on the exit

Clients sometimes leave, and how you handle it decides whether they recommend you afterwards. Have a stated process: they ask, you export the account, they take it elsewhere, no argument and no holding files hostage. It costs you one client and earns you the reputation that brings three.

When a reseller plan is the wrong tool

If you have one large site rather than many small ones, a VPS is a better fit - you are paying for the division, and you do not need it. If your clients need root access or non-standard software, likewise. Reseller hosting is for many standard sites under one roof, which is exactly what a design practice accumulates.

Our reseller plans are white-label, so nothing your client sees carries our name. If you are weighing it up, tell us how many sites you look after and we will tell you honestly whether it pays at that number.