Multiple Sites on One Hosting Account?
What is the best way to manage multiple web sites with only one hosting account? That is the question Diane e-mailed to me a little earlier this week, and there are a few different ways you could get this done. Here is Diane’s dilemma.
I am a web designer and I have a bunch of little web sites. I’d like to have multiple web site hosting, so I can easily get in and work on my collection of little web sites.
Right now, I have each one hosted on its own account, so I have to ftp to one, do my thing, disconnect, ftp to the next one, do my thing, disconnect, etc. Also, I don’t want to spend a lot of money on the hosting for these little web sites because they are just little tiny web sites. Can you give me any advice on getting this type of web hosting? Thanks for help.
Now as I noted before there are several ways you could tackle this problem.
Shared Hosting with Addon Domains - This would probably be the cheapest route to go. Many web hosts these days are offering hosting plans with the ability to host multiple domains from a single plan. Each site is hosted inside a folder of the main domain so if you wanted easy access to all the files this might be the best way to go.
Reseller Web Hosting - Getting a reseller account would allow you to act as your own little mini-hosting company. From there you could setup each account as you need it, give each it’s own control panel and manage everything from one spot.
VPS or Dedicated - For those with some cash to burn or “resource intensive” web sites going with a virtual private server (VPS) or a dediated hosting plan might also be a good solution. You’ll not only have plenty of disk space and bandwidth. You will also have plenty of of the server’s RAM and CPU to use up too.
Like with most problems that face webmasters with web hosting, there are more than couple of ways to skin the proverbial cat. With the increase in disk space and bandwidth we’ve seen in hosting in the past few years I feel that many more people might also be finding themselves in Diane’s shoes. Best thing would be to do your research on each hosting type and see which one would work best for your situation.
Related Hosting Posts & Podcasts:
It surprises me how few of webhosts actually do multiple domains. I use 1and1(link on my name) for my webhosting. They actually allow unlimited 1and1 domains, but say they’ll host 500 outside domains on the developer account.
I might also recomend using subdomains. They’re much easier to come by than domains. They’re costless as well, so you don’t have to always know if you’re gonna keep the domain. With domains you have to register them for however many years you’re planning on having the website. And if you for any reason decide you don’t want the domain anymore, there’s no turning back.
Hope that helps some.
-Zech