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10 Best Reseller Hosting Providers Of 2025

Audited & Verified: Jun 19, 2025, 8:00am
Written By
Staff Writer
Reviewed
Staff Editor
& 1 other
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Reseller hosting gives web designers and developers a way to generate a continuing revenue stream from one client (with or without content and design maintenance plans) by renting hosting plans from established web hosting providers and reselling them to clients under white labeled dashboards. The best reseller hosting providers make it easy to manage your reseller hosting clients and plans.

All of my “best-of” lists are informed by years of industry experience, backed with in-depth data collection and analysis from our dedicated data team and confirmed through hands-on testing of finalist providers to bring you the best choices possible. 20i topped the list this round with a powerful beginner-friendly custom dashboard and autoscaling resources without caps on many plans.

Read more

Compare the Best Reseller Hosting of 2025

Best For
Best for Ease of Use
Starting Monthly Price
$19.99
Pros
Easy-to-use control panel with built-in customer management
Cons
Requires domain name to be registered with 20i, except for a few workarounds
Expert Take
A great beginner-friendly platform that’s still got plenty of power and options for experienced resellers.
Best For
Best for Security
Starting Monthly Price
$19.95
Pros
Nice proprietary security package
Cons
No unlimited storage options
Expert Take
A good choice for resellers concerned about security.
4.3
Read Forbes' Review
Best For
Best for Bringing Your Own Tools
Starting Monthly Price
$24.99
Pros
Includes a CDN
Cons
Only the Cloud reseller plan feels fully functional as reseller hosting
Expert Take
Not as user-friendly, but well-featured hosting plans if you don’t mind sourcing and installing your own tools.
4.2
On InMotion Hosting's Website
Best For
Best for Unlimited Migrations
Starting Monthly Price
$35.99
Pros
U.S.-based support
Cons
Provisioning and technical support can be slow
Expert Take
A good option for moving a large number of existing customers quickly.
4.0
On Namecheap's Website
Best For
Best for Money-Back Guarantee
Starting Monthly Price
$19.88
Pros
Provides detailed information on what is included in each plan.
Cons
Extra cost for a dedicated IP
Expert Take
A basic, no-frills option that gets the job done.
4.0
Read Forbes' Review
Best For
Best for Reseller Program Choice
Starting Monthly Price
$6.99
Pros
Installs WHMCS for you
Cons
Dashboards can feel somewhat disjointed at times
Expert Take
A good option when you need a choice of reselling program styles plus good tech support.
4.0
On ScalaHosting's Website
Best For
Best for Scalability
Starting Monthly Price
$24.95
Pros
SPanel control panel offers additional features
Cons
Proactive security monitoring features cost extra
Expert Take
Scala’s cloud VPS offers near-instant on-demand scaling to add more resources as needed.
Best For
Best for Low Entry Cost
Starting Monthly Price
$2
Pros
Low-cost plans available
Cons
Limited server resources on many of the lower-cost plans
Expert Take
Offers very low-cost plans meant for a handful of end customers, which gives resellers a low initial investment option.
Best For
Best for Low-Cost cPanel Licenses
Starting Monthly Price
$14.59
Pros
Includes Clientexec license
Cons
No new user walkthrough popup
Expert Take
While the initially included cPanel accounts are limited, the 50-cent monthly fee per additional license makes it easy to expand plan capacity.
Best For
Best for Control Panel Choice
Starting Monthly Price
$9.99
Pros
Unlimited iodes
Cons
No customer management and billing software included
Expert Take
A clean and simple setup with plenty of features to create a high-quality hosting environment.

Best Reseller Hosting Providers of 2025


Best for Ease of Use

20i

20i
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$19.99 to $99.99

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

25 to unlimited

White Label

20i

$19.99 to $99.99

25 to unlimited

Expert Take

Unlimited and scalable is the name of the game with 20i. While each reseller plan limits the number of hosting accounts available to resell, resources are wide open with an autoscaling cloud platform, unlimited number of websites, SSD storage, bandwidth, databases, SSL and email.

Now, as with the vast majority of the hosts, the terms of service (TOS) have a safety net to prevent abuse of the unlimited privileges. For example, except for VPS, there’s a monthly limit of 10% of the 20i servers’ bandwidth in the TOS.

While migrating away from a custom control panel can be problematic, I must admit I like how the My20i panel works overall. Any annoying little limits are more due to 20i policies than failures in the control panel itself, and even beginners will find it pretty intuitive. 20i also has great YouTube tutorials, and the written knowledge base files are well-written.

20i’s reseller hosting dashboard.

20i’s HostShop dashboard puts all your tools in one place instead of needing multiple software packages to manage your rehosting business.

You’ll have a choice between included WHMCS (Web Host Manager Complete Solution), API (Application Programming Interface) and 20i’s custom HostShop to manage your customers, so there’s plenty of freedom to match your needs and level of technical skill. Additionally, everything is fully white-labeled, including the help files. Overall, it’s a flexible and scalable solution backed by outstanding customer support that feels like support the way it used to be before the mega-hosts took over the Internet.

Consumer Sentiment Index
7.7

7.7/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
2,174

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #2

    Customer Support

    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 97% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
    97%
    1%
    2%
    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 97% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 78% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 16% of people had negative sentiments
    78%
    6%
    16%
    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 78% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 16% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments
    64%
    8%
    28%
    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 88% of people had positive sentiments
    • 4% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
    88%
    4%
    8%
    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 88% of people had positive sentiments
    • 4% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3

    User Experience

    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    5%
    19%
    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments

While reactions are mixed for 20i, most users report being satisfied or happy with the host overall. Users like the outstanding support, environmentally friendly stance, stable performance and wide range of features. The proprietary control panel draws more heated sentiments, with love it or hate it extremes being common, although most agree that having a proprietary control panel makes migrating away more difficult. Some note concerns that the unlimited features can be pushed to the point that 20i says they are using too many resources.

Pros & Cons
  • Allows reselling a variety of hosting types
  • Up to $200 toward buying out your existing reseller contract in some cases
  • Includes CDN
  • Requires your reseller brand domain name to be registered with 20i
  • Only two server locations
  • The custom control panel could make migrating away tricky
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
My20i, StackCP and API
Customer Billing and Management Software
HostShop included, 40% off WHMCS licensing offers
Storage Range
30GB SSD to Unlimited
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
None

Testing Insights

HostShop makes setting up hosting packages as simple as a few dropdown boxes. The system offers a nice walkthrough to get you started, but it admittedly suffers from “oh wait, do this first” syndrome, where it jumps you out of the walkthrough to a prerequisite step and then doesn’t return you to the spot you started from.

Also, while I get the reasoning for it, needing to transfer your domain name while you are testing out the system before you can set up hosting packages is incredibly frustrating. If you aren’t 100% sure you want to stay with 20i, you may be stuck in a series of 60-day ICANN locks, plus the additional transfer costs. You can work around it by manually changing your domain nameservers and manually typing in your domain during package creation, but that’s not advertised as an option within the interface.

Best for Security

InterServer

InterServer
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$19.95 to $69.95

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

Unlimited

White Label

InterServer

$19.95 to $69.95

Unlimited

Expert Take

Like most reseller hosting, the interfaces feel pretty standard at InterServer. DirectAdmin or cPanel are the usual flavors of the day, and InterServer uses DirectAdmin. On the plus side, there are no pesky user limits with DirectAdmin as there usually are with cPanel-driven hosts.

I hate that no client billing software is preinstalled or prelicensed, but Blesta and other popular billing software packages are in the large one-click install list. Still, while you have the freedom to pick your own billing software, it does increase the monthly costs a bit with the extra licensing fees.

While plan storage and other resources are mostly run-of-the-mill, where InterServer stands out is security. The custom InterShield security package includes features such as in-house malware detection, a machine-learning-powered firewall, virus scanning and IP blacklist checks.

InterServer’s DirectAdmin dashboard.

InterServer uses DirectAdmin for user-friendly hosting management.

My favorite feature, though, is the hacked website restoration. Dubbed Inter-Insurance, it helps you recover from bad actors, even during migration. So if you are working with a new customer who has a compromised website, InterServer will evaluate how the problem happened, restore the site to its original state and fix the underlying cause even before it becomes a problem under your reseller account. It also offers a lot of peace of mind on an ongoing basis when some of your clients might not have the best security practices.

Consumer Sentiment Index
6.1

6.1/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
440

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #9

    Customer Support

    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 59% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 36% of people had negative sentiments
    59%
    5%
    36%
    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 59% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 36% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    6%
    34%
    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
    83%
    2%
    15%
    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    79%
    10%
    11%
    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7

    User Experience

    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 40% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    40%
    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 40% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments

Another mixed outlook reseller hosting provider, InterServer, usually receives praise for free migration services, reliable server uptime and only allocating 50% of server resources to prevent overselling from InterServer’s side. Still, others raise concerns about technical issues, slow support and storage limits on some plans, while shared plans don’t face such limits. However, others praise the numerous security features and free hack fix support for compromised websites and accounts.

Pros & Cons
  • 461 one-click install apps
  • Proprietary InterShield Security included
  • Hacked website restoration included
  • No provided customer billing software
  • No unlimited storage options
  • Dashboard isn’t well organized
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
DirectAdmin
Customer Billing and Management Software
None provided
Storage Range
80GB SSD to 280GB SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.90%

Testing Insights

Interserver occasionally offers 1 cent pricing for your first month, but when checking out, your discount code (whatever the amount is for) will not show up on the confirmation page. It will look like you are being charged full price until after you confirm the charge and get to the checkout details.

After that, it’s a pretty smooth ride. Everything was provisioned by the time I could open the order confirmation email, and the controls work as expected. The only really annoying thing is the constant “verifying you are human” loading screen when you click from your InterServer dashboard into your DirectAdmin reseller account.

Best for Bringing Your Own Tools

SiteGround

SiteGround
4.3
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$24.99 to $400

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

Unlimited

White Label

✓ Some plans

SiteGround
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$24.99 to $400

Unlimited

✓ Some plans

Expert Take

More turn-key than customizable service (except for the more expensive cloud-powered plan), SiteGround reseller hosting is more suited for log-in-and-go rather than creating a unique experience for your end clients. It reminds me of what Squarespace is to e-commerce. Click a few buttons and something is live, even if it looks a lot like a lot of other websites.

There are still some great features across all plans, like frequently updated rules for the web application firewall (WAF), proactive proprietary security patches, automated daily backups, WordPress staging sites, WordPress auto-updates and phone support. However, while listed as a reseller plan, GrowBig’s main draw is supporting unlimited websites, as it offers no white labeling options. It would be best suited for agencies that provide 100% management with no customer access to hosting accounts.

GoGeek and Cloud plans offer SiteGround’s Site Tools for white labeling and other reseller tasks, although features vary by plan. Even then, when you purchase a plan, SiteGround does not take you to SiteTools. You’ll need to ask the AI assistant for the URL to access those, as the hosting plan dashboard prompts you to create a website as a user, not a reseller. Even then, without the larger Cloud plan, functions are extremely limited.

Screenshot of SiteGround’s SiteTools.

SiteGround’s SiteTools start off very bare without any helpful preinstalled shortcuts or tips.

For almost every reseller function on SiteGround, you’ll need to install your own tool suite and bring your own licenses.

Learn more: Read our full SiteGround review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
5.2

5.2/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
5,104

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #10

    Customer Support

    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
    68%
    5%
    27%
    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 63% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments
    63%
    9%
    28%
    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 63% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 53% of people had negative sentiments
    29%
    18%
    53%
    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 53% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
    64%
    17%
    19%
    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9

    User Experience

    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 63% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 18% of people had negative sentiments
    63%
    19%
    18%
    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 63% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 18% of people had negative sentiments

Customer support tops the complaint and praise lists for SiteGround. Many report positive support experiences, but others note that the quality of responses seems to be declining over time. Others like the user-friendly interface for direct website management, but complain about finding the reseller Site Tools locations. Pricing and drastic increases after promotional periods are another point of contention for many. Overall, consumer sentiment is mixed for SiteGround, with some noting it is better suited for basic shared hosting than more advanced hosting needs.

Pros & Cons
  • Includes CDN
  • SuperCacher caching included
  • Website builder included
  • White labeling not available on all plans
  • Custom hosting plan creation not available on all plans
  • Custom client access controls only on cloud plan
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
Site Tools
Customer Billing and Management Software
None included, Site Tools has some management functions on Cloud plans
Storage Range
20GB to 160GB SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.90%

Testing Insights

While SiteGround’s cloud plans offer a lot of leeway, I personally despise how they market plans with effectively no reseller features as reseller plans. In my experience, GrowBig really doesn’t even qualify as a reseller plan. The automatic redirection to website creation, without guidance to find the Site Tools link, makes me feel like resellers are an afterthought for SiteGround as well.

I like to check different plan functions when I can, and I’m glad I was able to with SiteGround. Even on the GoGeek plan, Site Tools is basically unusable. The only “real” reseller plan functionality is with the Cloud plan, and even then, it really needs you to install your own favorite tools to be workable.

Best for Unlimited Migrations

InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$35.99 to $109.99

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

25 to 100

White Label

InMotion Hosting
Learn More Arrow

On InMotion Hosting's Website

$35.99 to $109.99

25 to 100

Expert Take

InMotion’s reseller controls will look familiar, as they are the industry-standard cPanel and WHM combination. Reseller accounts also include a WHMCS license upon request, but the software isn’t preinstalled. InMotion also includes WebPro, if you prefer to access and manage your client accounts that way, but there are some manual click-to-add connections involved in setting everything up.

In general, all the tools work well, although features often feel disjointed due to the numerous additional accounts required to connect and activate everything. That said, once you get through all the steps, it is relatively smooth sailing.

InMotion’s WebPro signup page.

InMotion offers WebPro as well as WHMCS options.

I’m always a fan of human-led migrations, and InMotion doesn’t cap the number of migrations. I’m also a fan of the included dedicated IP, unlimited email accounts, private nameservers and the NVMe SSDs. Like most reseller plans, there’s a long list of technical capabilities included, and InMotion is no exception with Unlimited MySQL & PostgreSQL Databases, PHP 7 and PHP 8, Fast CGI, cURL, CPAN, GD, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Perl, Python and ImageMagick.

Consumer Sentiment Index
5.3

5.3/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
2,756

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #5

    Customer Support

    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 31% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    3%
    31%
    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 31% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 35% of people had positive sentiments
    • 4% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 61% of people had negative sentiments
    35%
    4%
    61%
    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 35% of people had positive sentiments
    • 4% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 61% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 40% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 49% of people had negative sentiments
    40%
    11%
    49%
    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 40% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 49% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 54% of people had positive sentiments
    • 14% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 32% of people had negative sentiments
    54%
    14%
    32%
    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 54% of people had positive sentiments
    • 14% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 32% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8

    User Experience

    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 62% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 23% of people had negative sentiments
    62%
    15%
    23%
    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 62% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 23% of people had negative sentiments

Slightly skewing negative, reactions are mixed for InMotion Hosting. Customers seem to feel that technical support and customer support are hit and miss, with some citing great technical support but others noting extended wait times and poorly trained staff. Billing concerns and technical issues that never seem to be resolved further fuel negative sentiment. However, customers note feature options favorably, suggesting that those who handle their own technical issues may be happier with InMotion than those needing frequent technical support.

Pros & Cons
  • U.S.-based support
  • NVMe SSDs
  • Domain reseller account available
  • Slow provisioning
  • Sometimes, slow support responses
  • Limited datacenters
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
WHMCS or WebPro
Storage Range
80GB NVMe SSD to 300GB NVMe SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%

Testing Insights

InMotion Hosting started out shaky for me, with provisioning getting stuck and having to wait nearly a full day for support to fix it. While controls were familiar and worked well once that was handled, it still felt fractured. Setting up different accounts for different licenses is normal, but it seemed like every other click required a new account or logon.

Also, while freebie ad credits are usually a nice addition, and the $100 Microsoft search ad credits fit well, the $50 Amazon product ads credit seems a bit odd to offer with a reseller hosting account.

Best for Money-Back Guarantee

Namecheap

Namecheap
4.0
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$19.88 to $58.88

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

25 to 150

White Label

Namecheap
Learn More Arrow

On Namecheap's Website

$19.88 to $58.88

25 to 150

Expert Take

Namecheap has an extremely detailed plan comparison that I greatly appreciate. Far too many hosting providers (for any type of hosting) give you about as much information as a Best Buy sales sticker. Namecheap puts the effort into a detailed comparison chart, so you know exactly what you are buying.

For example, I’m not fond of inode limits, but I appreciate it not being hidden. I’m less enthused with the unmetered bandwidth vs. unlimited. Anytime you see unmetered anything, it means a long slog through service-level agreements (SLAs) and the terms of use (TOS) to determine when usage may be deemed excessive by the provider.

Basic reseller management is handled in WHMCS (if you purchase a license during signup), so it’ll be familiar to most users. Even then, Namecheap has great tutorials and quick “next steps” buttons to guide you through navigating the hosting environment and the reseller tools. If you don’t choose WHMCS, you’ll need to install your preferred management tool.

Namecheap custom nameserver controls.

Namecheap makes setting custom nameservers straightforward.

Almost every feature in the user dashboard has an easy toggle switch or dropdown menu that makes management far easier than with many other hosts. Even setting custom nameservers has a quick and relatively easy instruction set to follow that doesn’t require a lot of back-and-forth steps.

Consumer Sentiment Index
5.9

5.9/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
4,005

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #3

    Customer Support

    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 14% of people had negative sentiments
    84%
    2%
    14%
    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 14% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 40% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 48% of people had negative sentiments
    40%
    12%
    48%
    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 40% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 48% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
    68%
    11%
    21%
    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    19%
    21%
    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2

    User Experience

    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    10%
    13%
    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments

Namecheap is well known for domain registrations but less well-known for hosting and reseller hosting. Still, opinions are mixed, with some reporting lack of quality support and others praising the high availability of the support team. Other concerns include billing problems, slow hosting performance and unreliability. However, it’s not overwhelmingly negative, and sentiment seems to depend on which features customers are looking for.

Pros & Cons
  • Offers several WHMCS licensing levels
  • cPanel-based for easy migration
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • WHMCS costs extra
  • Unmetered instead of unlimited bandwidth
  • Extra cost for dedicated IP
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
WHMCS at additional cost
Storage Range
30GB SSD to 150GB SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.90%

Testing Insights

I admit to grumbling loudly anytime I go through a checkout process that has enough add-on options that I can’t even see details of what I originally put in the shopping cart. However, once you get through that, the system is nicely laid out in a step-by-step fashion, and at the very top of your new service is a link to a pretty comprehensive guide on how to get reseller hosting set up. Even if you are experienced in reseller hosting, having a well-organized guide helps navigate any host differences.

The biggest thing to watch is that if you don’t choose a WHMCS license in setup, you’ll have to install your own management tool choice later. There isn’t a built-in reseller tool set.

Best for Reseller Program Choice

Hostwinds

Hostwinds
4.0
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$6.99 to $16.99 hosting cost, plus $9 white label and $1 WHMCS fee

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

One on white label plan

White Label

Offers white label and bulk purchase options

Hostwinds
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$6.99 to $16.99 hosting cost, plus $9 white label and $1 WHMCS fee

One on white label plan

Offers white label and bulk purchase options

Expert Take

Hostwinds offers two reseller options. One with discounts for multiple shared hosting plans, but fewer included features, such as white labeling and WHMCS. The other option is a white label solution with additional tools and the ability to resell any Hostwinds service. I’m focusing on the white label option here because of the flexibility in plan choice that sets them apart from some other providers under that program.

Available Plans Pricing/Cost
Reseller Program
Shared hosting plans
Discounts for multiple plan purchases
White Label Program
Any Hostwinds plan
No discounts, but you set your pricing. Has a monthly program fee.

My biggest gripe is that in spite of being able to purchase a WHMCS license when you set up your hosting, there’s no icon or other integration to the main reseller dashboard, so it’s one more link to keep track of when you need to work in WHMCS.

After you purchase a plan, expect it to take some time for things to be set up. Hostwinds tech support manually installs WHMCS after purchase, and that takes a little while. Once everything is actually set up, almost everything is managed through WHMCS, including package creation (find it under add-ons).

Hostwinds reseller markup dashboard.

Under the white label Hostwinds plan, you don’t portion out pieces of a large package you bought; you sell set plans at a markup you choose.

While documentation can be a bit scattered, technical support comes through in a pinch and answers promptly, so if you’re new to reselling, you have a great lifeline during setup.

Learn more: Read our full Hostwinds review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
6.2

6.2/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
2,018

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #8

    Customer Support

    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    5%
    19%
    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
    68%
    5%
    27%
    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 67% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
    67%
    6%
    27%
    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 67% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 78% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 16% of people had negative sentiments
    78%
    6%
    16%
    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 78% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 16% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1

    User Experience

    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
    89%
    3%
    8%
    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments

Hostwinds has plenty of fans and detractors. Affordable pricing, consistent uptime and good customer support are high points mentioned by many users. On the other hand, some customers report challenging and unhelpful customer service interactions with slow response times from tech support. Overall, every category seems to have positive and negative reports, leading to difficulty in categorizing sentiment about Hostwinds’ service as either positive or negative.

Pros & Cons
  • Offers proactive technical support (additional cost)
  • Billing cycle management
  • Choice of reseller programs
  • Documentation isn’t always clear
  • No plan discounts on white labeled plans
  • Fractured dashboards
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
WHMCS
Storage Range
Unlimited
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
100.00%

Testing Insights

Since Hostwinds does most of the behind-the-scenes setup (including installing WHMCS if you purchase the license from them) for you, it can take a little while for everything to be ready to go. However, tech support responded quickly to the automatic ticket (within about 10 minutes) and even asked what folder my install preference was when applicable. Every step of the way, there were updates to the ticket, so I was never left wondering about the status.

That said, I’m not fond of the fractured dashboards without links. Even when you know where your WHMCS login link is, it just feels like one more thing to track when there isn’t a shortcut on your main account dashboard.

Best for Scalability

ScalaHosting

ScalaHosting
4.0
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$24.95 to $34.95

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

20 to unlimited

White Label

ScalaHosting
Learn More Arrow

On ScalaHosting's Website

$24.95 to $34.95

20 to unlimited

Expert Take

Ease of use is built into everything ScalaHosting does. Well-organized dashboards, great choices of the quick-access icons and straightforward instructions make working in the Scala environment stress-free.

I’m also a huge fan of the choice of reseller packages using cPanel/WHMCS or Scala’s SPanel. It gives resellers plenty of flexibility in migrating customers over. In fact, some moving to Scala might find it worthwhile to have a cPanel plan set for existing customers you are migrating over and start a new SPanel scalable VPS plan for new customers.

Having the cloud-powered VPS with near-instant, scalable resources is a huge advantage when you are growing quickly or your clients have variable needs. For example, if many of your clients are e-commerce websites, they might need extra resources around the holidays or busy seasonal sale cycles.

ScalaHosting’s scalable cloud VPS resource dashboard.ScalaHosting’s easily scalable cloud VPS takes the worry out of accidental overselling or upgrading your services.

Costs are a bit higher than some providers, but it’s a fully managed plan, and Scala’s VPS regularly scores highly in our best VPS hosting lists. Plus, you can offer extras like the Spectra website builder in your packages and tailor them for e-commerce sites with WooCommerce or blogs. There’s even a Minecraft manager feature option in package creation.

Learn more: Read our full ScalaHosting Review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
8.4

8.4/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
1,235

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #1

    Customer Support

    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    100%
    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 98% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
    98%
    2%
    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 98% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 9% of people had negative sentiments
    81%
    10%
    9%
    Ranked 8 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 9% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    83%
    7%
    10%
    Ranked 9 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6

    User Experience

    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 94% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    94%
    6%
    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 94% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments

A rarity in web hosting, ScalaHosting has very few negative reviews and comments. The majority of customers are fairly vocal in praise for customer service and technical support, often naming specific representatives. Specifically, customers are impressed with the knowledge, speed of responses and general helpfulness of staff. The only negatives commonly mentioned are the pricing level for services, but customers are generally accepting of the idea that higher service levels more than justify the costs.

Pros & Cons
  • NVMe SSD hard drives
  • CDN integration
  • Choice of SPanel or cPanel
  • Proactive security monitoring costs extra
  • Higher entry cost
  • Backups over one cost extra
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
SPanel and cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
WHMCS module (requires separate license purchase)
Storage Range
50GB NVMe SSD to 150GB NVMe SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.90%

Testing Insights

No one likes hopping hosts regularly, but there are times you need to swap, and providers making that difficult are a pet peeve. As such, I adore that Scala puts the reboot, cancel and shutdown buttons top and center of your reseller account dashboard. Other controls are easily found as well. For example, if you choose a cPanel package, WHMCS is integrated for easy access, but you will have to buy your license from WHMCS to activate it.

In SPanel, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy package and account management is. Controls are simple but offer advanced choices as well, without cluttering up the interface. Provisioning was also fast, with everything set up before I finished reading the first confirmation emails and copying my receipt into my personal files. I also received an email later on from an onboarding specialist that I could contact with any issues or questions during setup.

Best for Low Entry Cost

NameCrane

NameCrane
3.9
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$2.00 to $8.00

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

One to unlimited

White Label

NameCrane

$2.00 to $8.00

One to unlimited

Expert Take

Low-cost individual plans are the design schema for NameCrane. While packages can be split between end customers, the plans are more suitable for one or a small handful of users when considering the lower memory limits on each plan compared to other providers.

Additionally, while DirectAdmin accounts support unlimited users, cPanel accounts are limited to one license per plan, with additional licenses costing $1.75 per month for each extra set of five licenses. DirectAdmin (starting at $6 quarterly) is considerably cheaper than cPanel ($3 monthly), although both are still low-cost options.

Blesta comes at no extra cost, but it is easy to buy WMHCS licenses directly through NameCrane if you prefer. NameCrane’s white labeling is pretty standard, with basic color, widget, logo, layout and full CSS injections so your white labeled interface can be as cookie-cutter or custom as you prefer.

NameCrane’s DirectAdmin customization dashboard.

NameCrane offers a choice of DirectAdmin and cPanel so you can choose the one you are most comfortable with.

Customer support is fairly fast, and I was pleasantly surprised at how fast provisioning was. Creating user-hosting packages is straightforward, with checkboxes and drop-down menus to customize features.

Consumer Sentiment Index
7.4

7.4/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
299

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #7

    Customer Support

    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 14% of people had negative sentiments
    81%
    5%
    14%
    Ranked 7 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 14% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 85% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    85%
    10%
    5%
    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 85% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    83%
    7%
    10%
    Ranked 2 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 95% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    95%
    5%
    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 95% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10

    User Experience

    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 43% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments
    29%
    43%
    28%
    Ranked 10 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 43% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 28% of people had negative sentiments

Mostly positive with a few recurring concerns sums up the experiences reported by NameCrane’s customers. Most consider it a good value with reasonable pricing and a strong feature set. Customers also note that server performance is reliable and maintenance is generally scheduled to be the least impactful as possible, although a few mention issues with database support and activation delays. Others comment on great customer service and technical support experiences, although some say they experienced delays in responses. Overall, most are satisfied with NameCrane.

Pros & Cons
  • cPanel and DirectAdmin options
  • Blesta included
  • Low entry costs
  • Unmetered instead of unlimited bandwidth
  • Not as user-friendly as other providers
  • Low resources on some plans
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
DirectAdmin and cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
Blesta included, WHMCS supported at additional cost
Storage Range
20GB NVMe SSD to 125GB NVMe SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
None

Testing Insights

I admit to a love/hate relationship with Softaculous and generally prefer preloaded billing and customer management software, but that’s all just part of working with licenses that are activated manually instead of automatically handled on the backend when you set up your account.

However, I was impressed by NameCrane’s customer service response times, and I really like that I can change the whitelabel skins based on different web hosting packages. That’s a nice touch to help you differentiate your offerings from the competition. However, the extra features menu option appears to be a catch-all for various features, including security, myPHP, and CloudLinux Manager.

Best for Low-Cost cPanel Licenses

RackNerd

RackNerd
3.9
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$14.59 to $36.59

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

20 to 60

White Label

RackNerd

$14.59 to $36.59

20 to 60

Expert Take

RackNerd, while not unfriendly, isn’t really geared toward beginners. Some core competencies are expected, and the platform doesn’t hold your hand like some others. Overall, the billing system, help files and user dashboard often reminded me of the homebrew servers we all experimented with in college. They weren’t pretty, but they got the job done, mostly.

Controls are what you’d expect from cPanel/WHM. It’s nothing special, just the usual flavor of control. On the plus side, there is tons of documentation available for that software set. Likewise, Clientexec setup and management of clients and billing, while often considered less desirable than WHMCS (although considerably cheaper), still gets the job done, and there’s plenty of documentation online.

While plans are on the cheaper side, they do have stricter limits on resources and accounts. However, you can add extra cPanel licenses to any account for $0.50 per month. LightSpeed, LSCache, SSL certificates, KernelCare, Softaculous and automatic daily backups with JetBackup are all nice inclusions but pretty standard as well.

RackNerd package setup dashboard in WHMCS.

RackNerd offers the familiar WHMCS (shown) and Clientexec.

RackNerd is more workhorse than showhorse. It’s solid, it’s stable and it gets the job done, so you don’t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure supporting your clients’ hosting packages.

Consumer Sentiment Index
7.5

7.5/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
692

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #4

    Customer Support

    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 7% of people had negative sentiments
    92%
    1%
    7%
    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 7% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 96% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 3% of people had negative sentiments
    96%
    1%
    3%
    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 96% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 3% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 96% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 1% of people had negative sentiments
    96%
    3%
    1%
    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 96% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 1% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    92%
    3%
    5%
    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5

    User Experience

    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    90%
    5%
    5%
    Ranked 5 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments

Racknerd elicits mixed responses. Many love its affordability, but many also mention technical support issues and have concerns over hardware quality. Overall, most seem to believe it is best suited for smaller projects where keeping costs low is more important than outstanding performance from servers and tech support. Customers comment that the infrastructure may not well support more critical projects or users with high server resource demands.

Pros & Cons
  • Includes Clientexec license
  • cPanel/WHM makes it easy to migrate in or out
  • Daily backups included
  • Must file support ticket to get Clientexec license and start setup
  • No automatically loading new user walkthrough
  • Some help files and tutorials are out of date
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
cPanel
Customer Billing and Management Software
Clientexec
Storage Range
40GB SSD to 200GB SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
100% power guarantee

Testing Insights

A basic cPanel/WHM setup should be mostly simple. RackNerd finds ways to make it needlessly complicated. First, put on your deerstalker and channel Sherlock Holmes because you’ll have to go in search of where Clientexec is. Turns out, you have to request it through a support ticket. Then, all of the tutorial and instruction links included to Clientexec are forbidden and the RackNerd installation YouTube video is for an older version of cPanel.

While it’s not a huge deal if you’re familiar with cPanel/WHM (which most of you who are considering reselling will be), it can still run into issues with what you set up first, so the SSLs work and don’t derail the Clientexec setup. Also, in my experience, it just never bodes well for how well the rest of a plan works when documentation is out of date or otherwise incorrect.

Best for Control Panel Choice

SetraHost

SetraHost
3.9
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Monthly Price Range

$9.99 to $69.99

Number of Hosting Accounts per Plan

10 to 100

White Label

SetraHost

$9.99 to $69.99

10 to 100

Expert Take

I admit that even as someone with a cPanel certification, I prefer DirectAdmin, so I love seeing the choice between the two control panels from SetraHost. There are valid reasons for using both, of course, but having the choice is always a plus (especially since you can migrate the more heavily adopted cPanel accounts to DirectAdmin).

If you are new to web hosting and reselling, the DirectAdmin option will be attractive with its more intuitive dashboard and updated interface compared to cPanel.

Other SetraHost reseller plan perks include daily backups, LightSpeed, LScache, unlimited SSLs and inodes, malware protection and a pretty good sitebuilder you can offer to your clients. The included security features are great to see as well, especially malware protection with cpGuard and DDoS protection. Like other resellers, SetraHost also offers a Softaculous installer for your end-client hosting packages, which increases your customer base by making it easier for them to install the software they want.

SetraHost has a simple account dashboard.

SetraHost’s simple account dashboard takes you directly to whichever control panel you choose.

Even with a nice introductory offer, I love seeing a 30-day money-back guarantee offer as well, as it speaks to the company’s intent to provide great service and be held accountable for doing so.

Consumer Sentiment Index
7.6

7.6/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
328

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5.

Insights Analyzed
  • #6

    Customer Support

    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments
    86%
    1%
    13%
    Ranked 6 out of 10
    For Customer Support
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 1% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3

    Performance and Speed

    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    83%
    6%
    11%
    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Performance and Speed
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3

    Pricing and Renewal Costs

    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 91% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    91%
    9%
    Ranked 3 out of 10
    For Pricing and Renewal Costs
    • 91% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1

    Features and Flexibility

    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 97% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    97%
    3%
    Ranked 1 out of 10
    For Features and Flexibility
    • 97% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4

    User Experience

    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    90%
    10%
    Ranked 4 out of 10
    For User Experience
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments

Strong customer support, fast and reliable server performance and affordable pricing underpin a generally positive outlook on SetraHost. Free migration services are also at the top of the most appreciated features list for users, although some note the migrations can take a day or more if problems arise during the process. Others note that SetraHost’s free hack fixes were most welcome and a deciding factor in moving from other hosting.

Pros & Cons
  • Choice of cPanel and DirectAdmin plans
  • NVMe SSD hard drives
  • Unlimited inodes
  • No customer management or billing software included
  • Set RAM limits per account
  • Hit and miss customer support responsiveness
Specs
Specification Details
Control Panel Options
cPanel and DirectAdmin
Customer Billing and Management Software
None provided
Storage Range
25GB NVMe SSD to 200GB NVMe SSD
Operating System
Linux
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%

Testing Insights

Smooth sailing sums up SetraHost’s reseller packages. Nothing was broken during testing. Dashboards had the shortcuts I expected, so I didn’t have to keep track of multiple login page links, and response times were good. Connecting your billing and management software will probably be the only time-consuming part of getting set up, depending on your software choice and your control panel choice.

Methodology

Our scoring methodology for our provider lists includes a deep dive into features, benefits, costs and feedback from real-life users like you. Dozens of datapoints are collected, vetted and scored to narrow down our providers before hands-on testing finalizes our list.

Decision Factor Scoring Weight Description
Pricing
23%
Especially when reselling a product, you need a decent margin while still staying competitive. We also considered the cost of entry burden that higher initial plan costs can create for small agencies just getting started.
Core features
24%
The core features considered included the basics for a functioning reseller business and the level of flexibility offered. A few of the items we considered were the number of databases, cPanel licenses, automatic WordPress updates, uptime guarantees and whether customer billing software was included or cost extra.
Extra functions
22%
Sometimes the extras are what make a product worth using and increase profits for resellers. A few of the features we considered here include account migrations, SSL certificates, CDNs, email accounts and security features.
Service and support
3%
Especially when dealing with keeping your own clients happy, customer service and technical support are vital. We looked at response times, helpfulness and quality of responses to common problems.
Consumer Sentiment Index
28%
Even with hands-on testing, we want to know what real-world daily customers think. What problems occur over time? How has the hosting provider saved the reseller’s bacon in a difficult situation? How is server response speed and stability over years of use? Our proprietary algorithm compiles and analyzes thousands of reviews to get a full picture of user experience.

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to providing unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

Learn More: How We Evaluate Web Hosting Products

  • 17 Companies Evaluated
  • 37 Decision Factors Considered
  • Four Levels of Fact-Checking
  • Hands-On Testing

How Does Reseller Hosting Work?

Reseller hosting means buying hosting from a web hosting provider and reselling it to your end clients with the help of tools to create custom packages and pricing for your end clients. Web design agencies and freelancers often do this as an added service and revenue stream to retain customers longer than the initial website build.

Other uses include business owners creating their own web hosting company without needing to invest in server infrastructure, groups such as merchants’ associations splitting hosting costs while keeping a bit more control over their hosting and individuals who need more flexibility in hosting and managing multiple websites than even the best web hosting companies provide for individual plans.

There are three main models of how reseller hosting works, although some hosts mix and match things a bit.

Reseller Hosting Packages

Under this model, the web host offers specific reseller packages, usually with extra server resources and features to handle multiple end customers under each plan. Billing and management software, white labeling for client-side access, user controls, multiple licenses for control panels and multiple email accounts are common in this type of program.

Hosting Packages at Cost With Extra Features

Some web hosts offer the option of buying reseller access from the host to allow you to resell some (or all) of the host’s plans. Basically, you are paying a fee for extra permissions outside of the standard service level agreement (SLA) or terms of service (TOS). Under this plan, hosting providers may (or may not) include white label options, billing and management software, like WHMCS and end-user technical support.

While this type of reseller hosting usually gives a lot of flexibility in types of hosting you offer to your customers, it doesn’t offer discounts on the hosting, and each plan sold will usually be one user per plan, so your plans will be more expensive than plans through other hosts most of the time after you add a markup.

Hosting Reseller Partner Programs

Partner programs are the most exclusive type of reseller hosting. Most partner programs from web hosting providers require some verification of your identity and the type of business you run before acceptance. On the plus side, partner programs often include extras like marketing help and enhanced support in addition to white labeling and features included with other reseller program types.


How To Choose the Best Reseller Hosting Provider

If you don’t have the budget or technical skills for dedicated bare metal server hosting that you can portion out and sell for shared hosting or VPS plans on your own, you can get started with reseller hosting plans. Picking the right reseller hosting provider for your business depends on your needs and the customers you will host websites for. For example, do your customers need VPS hosting or will shared hosting do? Likewise, do you need included cPanel and WHMCS licensing, or will you purchase that separately?

Essential Reseller Hosting Features

Like stand-alone web hosting packages, reseller hosting packages have a wide variety of features, server resources, performance and tools available. While you’ll most likely never find two identical reseller hosting plans to compare apples to apples, knowing what features to look for can help you see where corners are cut and where higher pricing is justified.

  • White-label branding. A core part of reseller hosting is being able to use your own branding rather than the reseller hosting provider’s branding. This usually means your branding on the dashboard that your client sees, and all billing documents as well.
  • Access to discounts. Some hosts offer partner plans to access reseller discounts on most or all of their normal plans, while others offer specific reseller plans without the need to apply for a partnership program. Which works best for you depends on the type of plans and size of the discount you need.
  • Plan creation and management. You’ll need a way to create and price hosting packages for your clients. A good reseller includes tools on the dashboard to manage the reselling part of the web hosting.
  • Payment gateways. A crucial part of being able to resell hosting plans is being able to get paid. Look for a reseller hosting provider that supports several of the best payment gateways to increase your potential customer base.
  • Hosting type. Do you want to offer shared hosting, VPS, cloud hosting or something in between? The type of hosting you prefer to sell plays a large part in provider selection, as not all providers offer all hosting types for reseller programs.
  • Server resources and performance. Server resources, such as memory and storage, are important because they affect how much you can resell. Speed and performance are also vital. Slow server response times and frequent downtime will frustrate your customers and risk them leaving your new reseller business.
  • Plan limits. Beyond resource limits, the reseller plan you buy will often include a limited number of control panel (such as cPanel) licenses or a cap on the number of plans you can create within each reseller plan, regardless of resources available.
  • Security. Just like when choosing your own hosting, website and server security is vital for reseller hosting. Firewalls, DDoS protections, DNSSEC-compatible nameservers, user permission controls, 2FA and automatic backups are all hosting security features to look for.
  • End-client technical support. While sometimes touted as a passive income stream for website designers, reseller hosting is anything but passive. With self-managed plans, you have all the behind-the-scenes maintenance to handle and technical support to provide for your client. Even with managed plans, technical support is often only provided to you, and not directly to your end client. If you don’t have the time or patience for that, using a reseller hosting provider with strong managed plans and technical support for your end-users is a huge time-saver.

20i, ScalaHosting and InMotion have a nice set of core features.

Value

Value is more than pricing, but with reseller hosting, pricing is trickier to calculate than many other hosting plans. The reason is that you need to consider how many users you can resell to on each plan.

While some reseller providers offer cheap plans of $2 monthly, these often only have one end user (and cPanel license) per plan. In comparison, a $15 monthly plan from a different provider may have a couple of dozen cPlan licenses/user limits. In that case, your cost per end user (all other features being equal) would be $2 with the first provider but only a few cents on the more expensive plan.

Likewise, cheaper plans may not include WHMCS or other customer billing software licensing and may have fewer hosting plan types to offer your end clients.

Even once you have compared costs as much as possible, you need to consider technical support and ease of use. The value of your reseller hosting is far less if you spend more time fighting with the interface than working. Likewise, how fast does support respond, and do they actually fix things or does it take days of back and forth to reach a resolution? Be sure to look at overall costs and values rather than just grabbing the cheapest plan available.

20i, ScalaHosting and InMotion Hosting have a nice mix of price to features.

Control Panel Options

While cPanel is widely considered the industry standard, it isn’t always the most user-friendly and branding controls can be limited without additional customer management software. Pricing is a regular complaint for cPanel as well.

However, while custom control panels like HostShop and SPanel often offer more functionality and are more user-friendly, it can make it tricky to migrate away from the host should anything go wrong later on.

Another consideration when choosing between cPanel and a proprietary control panel is that not all custom control panels are well-fleshed out. For example, SiteGround’s Site Tools are pretty limited compared to most other custom control panels.

NameCrane, ScalaHosting and 20i offer multiple control panel choices.

Customer Management and Billing Software

There’s a pretty big split in how reseller hosting providers handle customer management and billing software. While most include some type of software, there’s recently been a push to leave it up to the customer as to which software they use. Some of that is that the increased variety of software available makes it difficult for providers to guess which one you’ll prefer. Another part of it is to make pricing appear lower, as providers aren’t prepaying for software licensing.

However, the end result is that you must be cautious when comparing pricing. Website hosting costs are affected by the features provided. Provider A may offer a package for $25 per month, while Provider B charges $40 per month. However, Provider B’s package may include customer management and billing software that Provider A doesn’t, which helps offset much of the price difference. Whether you prefer your customer management and billing software bundled or not, be sure to factor in those costs as needed when comparing reseller hosting providers.

If you choose a provider that offers customer management and billing software, be sure it is a package you like. WMHCS, Clientexec, SuiteDash, Blesta, and MyResellerGenie are all popular billing and customer management options. However, not all of them are regularly offered by reseller hosting providers, so you may need to license a package regardless of what your host offers separately.

20i, InMotion Hosting, NameCrane and RackNerd all include a client billing and management software package.

Uptime Guarantees and Past Performance

Every website can go down at any time. It’s just a fact of life for web hosting. However, thanks to cloud computing, power backups and managed servers (even if your plan itself isn’t managed), downtime is minimal in most cases.

Still, the difference between 99.9% uptime and 99.99% uptime is nearly 8 hours over the course of a year, with 99.99% being 52 minutes and 36 seconds of downtime and 99.9% being 8 hours, 45 minutes and 57 seconds.

Downtime costs far more than just lost sales during that downtime. David Flower, president and CEO of Volt Active Data, told Forbes that data loss, damage to your reputation, customer churn and internal employee productivity are all consequences of downtime.

Past performance is important to see how often a company lives up to great uptime. However, while there has been a movement away from uptime guarantees over the last few years as more and more companies reach an average 99.99% benchmark for performance, I always like to look for a guarantee.

While the payout for not making a guarantee is usually nothing more than a month’s service credit, I think it speaks to the company’s willingness to put its money where its mouth is. If a guarantee is not provided, it may indicate that the company has internal concerns about its future performance.

InMotion Hosting, SetraHost and HostWinds all have good uptime guarantees, and RackNerd guarantees 100% power.


Which Reseller Hosting Is Best for Your Business?

Much of what makes the best reseller hosting provider for your business depends on your clients. For example, if your agency is creating websites for e-commerce or for larger businesses, you’ll need more power and features than for small businesses with simple, low-traffic static websites.

For example:

  • Need easy white-label hosting? Consider SertaHost, 20i or ScalaHosting.
  • Need high bandwidth and storage limits? Take a look at 20i, InMotion Hosting and Hostwinds.
  • Need bargain pricing for simple websites? Consider Hostwinds, NameCrane and SertaHost.

Are Big Brands the Best Reseller Hosting?

Some of the giants in hosting, such as GoDaddy and Bluehost, have the shakiest reputations or no longer offer reseller hosting. Others, like Liquid Web, were once superstars for providing white-labeled end-user technical support but took a reputation and service hit in mergers. Similarly, A2 Hosting rebranded as hosting.com and changed most of its hosting plan offerings.

Then there are guilt-by-association hosting companies, such as HostGator, where the reputation and policies of its parent company, Newfold Digital, are carried over to affect the individual hosting provider. The bottom line is that name recognition doesn’t guarantee great reseller hosting.

While performance and support experiences can vary widely within a single host depending on your hosting type and plan, most of the big brands in hosting still tend to stay relatively true to form. So, whether you have bargain basement shared hosting or more advanced plans such as dedicated hosting, VPS, cloud and reseller hosting, it’s often still the same customer service and technical support teams backing up those plans.

Another point to consider is expertise. While many of the big names also offer domain registration and other extra services, how competent are they in each category? For example, even though it’s an extra step in connecting a domain, many times it’s better to use one of the best domain registrars than to just put everything in one basket.

If you are considering a big-name reseller hosting provider solely because of its name, take a close look at what’s under the hood before making a decision. Otherwise, you might wind up with all marketing flash and no substance in the hosting itself or the support services.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting means buying hosting (usually in bulk) from a web hosting provider and reselling it to an end user. It’s a lot like buying products at wholesale pricing and selling it for retail pricing. Reseller hosting sometimes offers domain reselling as well.

How is reseller hosting priced?

Reseller hosting has two main pricing schemes. The simplest is a set of reseller hosting plans where you pick a plan and pay the stated price. The other is to join a partner or reseller program with a web hosting provider and get a discount on any plan you buy to resell. Joining a partner program usually requires verification of your business but may come with additional perks compared to direct plan purchases.

Is reseller hosting the same as affiliate programs?

No, reselling hosting is like buying hosting wholesale and selling it retail. An affiliate program gives you a small commission anytime someone buys a hosting plan based on your recommendation. Affiliate programs usually include specific advertising rules and guidelines as to how you can advertise the services and what is required for you to get credit for a sale.

Is reselling web hosting worth it?

Reseller hosting is absolutely worth it in many cases. While most of the time it isn’t a large profit margin, it can provide a continuing revenue stream and help differentiate you from other web design agencies.

How do I provide technical support for my hosting clients?

With reseller hosting, technical support for your end clients often falls on you. However, there are a few reseller providers that will talk directly to your end client. If you must provide the support, you can still contact technical support with questions if you don’t know the answer yourself and then act on the advice. Sometimes, technical support may need to resolve issues on their end as well.


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