Addon Domains, or now additional domains, from cPanel are an option to host several web pages on the same hosting plan that developers found to group several sites they are managing. This practice has brought a lot of controversy over time and there are those who are adept at managing aggregated sites in this way, and those who definitely came to their senses and chose to store their web pages in independent hosting accounts.
In this note we are going to tell you everything you need to know, so that you can take into account how serious it can be to mix several web pages within the same hosting plan, where, if you are a web page developer or designer, you would be putting into play your entire portfolio. cPanel Addon Domains yes, or cPanel Addon Domains no. It is today’s question.
On this occasion, we are talking about cPanel additional domains since it is the control panel chosen by the most professional web hosting providers; but if you are hosting on a provider with a proprietary panel and the options are similar, the issue is the same.
What are additional domains or cPanel Addon Domains and how do they work?
Addon Domains or additional domains are domains that can be added to some hosting plans, and that allow you to publish more than one website on a traditional hosting plan, which was originally designed to store only one.
Its operation is very simple: when creating an additional domain, you can select that it does not share the root directory with the main domain, causing that, when uploading the content to such folder and opening the browser site, it opens an independent web page, behaves as such, and is transparent to the visitor.
The structure would be that, while the main domain stores its site files and folders in “/public_html”; An additional domain does so, for example in “/domain-name.com”, with the possibility of having “N” number of domains hosted.
This feature, until the latest version of cPanel’s Paper Latern template, came as a separate button called Addon Domains, and now, with the change to the Jupiter template, it has been added within the Domains option, being activated if you select the new domain do not share the root directory with the main domain or other redirected domains.
Now that we know what Addon Domains are and how they work, let’s get to know the advantages and disadvantages (which clearly outweigh the advantages).
Advantages of cPanel Addon Domains
The only two advantages of using cPanel addon domains are:
1) Saving money on contracting a new hosting account from your hosting provider to host the new independent website; or a Reseller Hosting to host multiple websites. Hosting resellers or resellers regularly exploit their plans to the last resort, and use this resource to be able to host a few more sites. Did you already know the game of “Jenga”? We tell you below what the danger of this is.
2) Easy and centralized management of the domain from within the same cPanel control panel as the main domain.
Disadvantages of cPanel Addon Domains
This is another case in which the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Of course, working with additional domains is financially tempting but, unless it is vitally necessary (which is always avoidable anyway), it can become a horror movie for you.
Security in Addon Domains
What should prevail when building or uploading a web page is security, and what happens with additional domains is that by sharing the same space on the server by the same system user (or cPanel user if we want to see it from the hosting user side), is that if one of the sites is infected with a virus, all the other additional and/or main sites will be affected.
As hosting providers, every day we receive users hosted by other companies with web pages made in WordPress and hosted as additional domains, with their infected sites looking for a solution and moving them to WNPower. Believe us, after eliminating this practice, correctly training the user, and correcting some aspects with our tools like WordPress Doctor, they will not have problems again.
Performance using Addon Domains
Security isn’t the only thing that will be compromised when using cPanel addon domains. Another disadvantage is that if one of the sites generates a performance problem in the plan or in the server, it will be very difficult to detect the problem.
Even, in the event of a very serious problem, the provider could suspend your account completely and this includes being left without the other hosted domains, nor with the main domain.
If any of the sites exceed your plan resources, it and all the rest will show you a 500 error or a 502 error like the one you see here.
Traffic from your Addon Domains
Even if the problem is traffic, working with additional domains on your individual hosting plan will put the rest of the hosted domains at risk. If any of the added sites cross the line, it will affect the rest, resulting in a nice “Bandwidth limit exceeded” error.
How to convert your additional domains into individual hosting accounts
If you have already realized that the best option is to work with individualized hosting accounts, then it is time to get to work. If you have your own server, you can convert addon domains in just a couple of clicks with the “Convert addon domains” option within WHM.
If you don’t have a server, you can ask your provider to do this for you and put these accounts into a Reseller Hosting plan.
Final conclusion
If you chose to use addon domains or additional domains, to save some money, you will be putting all your websites or clients at risk, at the risk of losing the trust they have placed in you, or losing them permanently for not taking the necessary precautions. by selecting the right type of accommodation so that both they and you can sleep peacefully. Separating your accounts into separate plans will cost you a little more money, but web hosting plans are affordable. Dedramatize the cost!
