Shared or Reseller?

[scottm]

I'm pretty close to deciding on HostNine for my new hosting account, but I could use some advice/feedback/opinions about whether to go with a shared account (probably Standard or Advanced) or a Reseller account (Entry).

Although I'm not actually interested in doing any reselling (at least, it's not part of my current business plan), I do have several of my own sites that I need to manage. My thought was that it might be easier to manage several sites if they each had their own separate account/space as done through a reseller account. Or perhaps to separate them by business or business unit into separate accounts.

In terms of keeping things organized, would it be appreciably easier to keep sites, directories, databases, and email straight by using a reseller account?

Also, would there be any benefit in terms of resources available for the sites if they were hosted as separate accounts through reseller account rather than all on one shared account?

Any other relevant questions I should be asking?

Thanks,
Scott

[LeeUmm]

I'd say go for the reseller if money isn't an issue. It's much easier to manage sites when they're all their own separate account. If you have one shared account, every addon domain will make a folder in the root of your main account. This can add up and make things messy.

If you use the webstats that come with the hosting account, it's also easier to track each site if they're their own account.

Back in the day when I only ran my own sites, I started out with a shared account and hosted a few sites. I found it easier to move to a reseller account. The better you can separate things, the easier it becomes I find.

As for resources, it's all about the same. You don't really get much of a difference in terms of resources as all sites are hosted on a shared box anyway.

[scottm]

That's about what I was thinking.

I'm also wondering about whether it's possible, with a reseller account, to use relative links between accounts?

For example, I have some video files that I'll need to have available on more than one site. Rather than upload them separately to each account, I'd like to be able to upload them once, and then in my web pages link to them with something like "../../account/videos/video1.mov"

Obviously, messy directories aside, this would be possible within a single shared hosting account, but would it be possible between accounts within a reseller account?

I suppose I could do it with absolute links, but one of my thoughts was to have those sorts of "shared" files within a "dummy" account that did not have an active domain associated with it (i.e., an "http://" link wouldn't get there) in order to keep those assets organized.

Thanks,
Scott

[LeeUmm]

Ya it's only possible on a shared account. With a reseller account, everything is totally separate and cannot be linked together like that. Each site is its own and for security issues, you can't access stuff that way.

I mean hosting a few sites on a shared account isn't the end of the world or really that bad, but I have found it easier to just go with a reseller account in the past.

With a shared account, all the emails, stats, databases and so forth are all under one account with the same username. If you're really only using a few sites, it's not that big of a deal I suppose.

[scottm]

Ah, decisions, decisions, decisions...

Yeah, I'm having a tough time evaluating/balancing the various needs/desires here. I'm probably only looking at 6 or 7 sites (at least for now), so even with a couple subdomains each, it would probably be manageable... but I hadn't even thought about the issue of stats. I also do think it would be much more easy to manage in terms of the email accounts and databases (especially if I end up with several databases per site with CMS, knowledge management, gallery and forum packages).

Also, I just got an email from my little sister that she wants help setting up a website... with a reseller account I could give her an account without worrying about her getting any access to my other domains. Looks like if I want to be a nice big brother I should go with reseller.

Thanks for your help/feedback LeeUmm!

[colt45]

Originally Posted by scottm

Ah, decisions, decisions, decisions...

Yeah, I'm having a tough time evaluating/balancing the various needs/desires here. I'm probably only looking at 6 or 7 sites (at least for now), so even with a couple subdomains each, it would probably be manageable... but I hadn't even thought about the issue of stats. I also do think it would be much more easy to manage in terms of the email accounts and databases (especially if I end up with several databases per site with CMS, knowledge management, gallery and forum packages).

Also, I just got an email from my little sister that she wants help setting up a website... with a reseller account I could give her an account without worrying about her getting any access to my other domains. Looks like if I want to be a nice big brother I should go with reseller.

Thanks for your help/feedback LeeUmm!

It's sounding like you'll be best off going with a reseller account. If you'll be needing sub-domains for each domain, you'll need to use a separate shared-hosting account for each anyway.

[LeeUmm]

Ya from the sounds of it, I'd go with a reseller account like I first suggested. I mean either are doable, but reseller accounts are a lot cleaner and more easy to manage. Plus you gotta think long term growth as well. The more you add, the easier it'll be to have a reseller account.

Everything can be separate and there are more options to having each site on their own account. Emails, stats, subdomains, disk space, bandwidth etc can all be set and limited to amounts for each site.

[scottm]

Thank you both for your input. I have signed up for the Entry reseller account.

Now I'll just wait patiently for the account to be set up and ready for use! (Actually, I suppose I should prepare my existing sites for transfer - get rid of unneeded files/directories/etc.)

[interFUZZ]

Interesting thread that's got me thinking!

My situation is pretty much the same as scottm's, except money is an issue. While I don't mind the extra work for add-ons in a shared account, I need to bounce the following idea off of y'all...

If...

Step 1 - I sign-up with domain-a.com as my main domain. This site's files would exist directly under ".../htdocs/" (or whatever H9 uses for the root).

Step 2 - I add-on domain-b.com, and this site's files reside under ".../htdocs/domain-b/".

Step 3 - I add-on domain-c.com, and this site's files reside under ".../htdocs/domain-c/".

Now...

For the sake of organization, I would like to have my main domain's files reside under ".../htdocs/domain-a/". So, would it be possible to reassign the domain-a.com path to accomplish this? If not, could domain-a.com's status be demoted from main to add-on, and just not have a main domain?

Either of these 2 scenarios would produce nicely separated individual directories for each site's files, and leave ".../htdocs/" with 3 subdirectories and no other files.

Am I on the right track???
Does it make sense???

[LeeUmm]

I see what you're after. You can set it up this way to a point. First, you need a main domain so the thought of demoting your main domain is not possible.

As for organization, you can put all your files in whatever folder you want. So if you want to make domain-a folder in your rooter folder and put all your files there, that's no problem. Except I believe you'll have to put your index and .htaccess file in the root folder, not the domain-a folder. There might be a way to rewrite this, but off the top of my head I can't think of one.

Worst case scenario, your folder structure looks like this in your root folder on your main account.

index.html
.htaccess (if you even need one for main account)
/domain-a (holds all files for the main account - images/css/files/etc)
/domain-b (addon domain with all files underneath it)
/domain-c (same as above)
and so forth for all addons.