Reselling Hosting for Web Designers

If you are a web designer or developer, you probably love designing. However, all the techie stuff in the background of your website, probably not so much. This article looks at a different approach to reselling your website hosting to give you a passive income stream, without all the hassle that goes along with it.

Reselling Hosting Without the Headaches

If you’re a web designer or developer, you probably love the creative side of your work. The behind-the-scenes hosting, billing, and server management? Not so much.

This article looks at different ways designers and agencies typically resell hosting, and introduces an alternative approach that creates a passive income stream without the usual administrative burden.

Common Approaches to Reselling Hosting

In most cases, there are three main ways a web designer or agency provides hosting to clients:

• The client arranges their own hosting
• You set up and manage individual hosting accounts
• You run a full reseller hosting operation

Let’s take a closer look at each option.

Method 1: The Client Sets Up Their Own Hosting

In this scenario, you build the website on a staging platform. Once the site is ready, the client sets up hosting with a provider of their choice, often following your recommendation.

You’re given login credentials and deploy the site once the hosting is in place.

Advantages

• No hosting setup required on your part
• No billing or payment administration
• Hosting issues are handled directly between the client and their provider

Disadvantages

• No recurring income from hosting
• Clients may choose unsuitable or poor-quality hosting
• The hosting may not meet the technical needs of the website
• Future updates and maintenance can be more difficult
• You may be unfamiliar with the client’s hosting platform

Method 2: You Manage Individual Hosting Accounts

Here, you create hosting accounts for clients using your preferred provider and bill them directly. You choose the hosting platform and configuration, and the provider supports the underlying infrastructure.

This approach offers flexibility and can generate a small recurring income.

Advantages

• Some passive income
• Pay-as-you-go hosting costs
• Control over hosting configuration
• Infrastructure support handled by the host

Disadvantages

• Multiple separate accounts to manage
• Retail pricing limits profit margins
• Support is not white labelled
• Clients may notice your markup
• No additional reseller benefits or incentives

Method 3: Full Reseller Hosting

With a full reseller account, you gain access to reseller software, wholesale pricing, and the ability to create your own hosting packages.

This is the most flexible and potentially profitable option, but it usually only makes sense once you have a sizeable client base.

You’re responsible for billing systems, onboarding, security, and much of the technical administration, which comes with a steep learning curve.

Advantages

• Higher passive income potential
• Full control over pricing and packages
• Room to scale as your business grows
• White-labelled technical support

Disadvantages

• Upfront server costs regardless of client numbers
• Significant administration overhead
• Higher technical complexity
• No direct root-level server access
• You still manage most support and operational issues

A Simpler Alternative: The Hipposerve Web Design Club

What if there were a way to enjoy the benefits of reseller hosting without the complexity and overhead?

The Hipposerve Web Design Club is designed specifically for web designers and developers who want recurring income from hosting without managing infrastructure or billing systems.

Because you bring hosting customers to us, we reward you with:

• Free monthly billing for your clients
• 50% discount on all standard hosting plans
• Full customer support handled by Hipposerve

Your Website on a VPS

As a member of the Web Design Club, you can host your own website at no extra cost.

For designers who want maximum performance, we also offer an exclusive upgrade: your site hosted on a Virtual Private Server.

You’ll receive the Hippo Business Pro – Success plan for £24.99 per month (normally £35.99), plus a free development account on the same VPS.

Everything is fully set up for you.

Dedicated Development Space

Developing sites on shared hosting can be frustrating, especially during peak usage times.

With a VPS-based setup, we provide a dedicated staging and development environment so you can build and test at full speed, without resource limitations.

Key Benefits of the Hipposerve Web Design Club

Discounted Hosting

Generous discounts across our hosting products and selected add-ons.

Flexible Hosting Choices

Choose the most suitable hosting plan for each client without managing reseller packages.

Hassle-Free Reselling

We handle billing, security, and infrastructure, so you don’t have to.

Freedom to Focus on Design

Spend your time designing and developing websites, not administering hosting platforms.

Referral Network

We receive enquiries from customers who need websites. Where appropriate, we refer them to Web Design Club members.

White-Label Customer Support

Your clients are supported as individual customers. You pass requests to us, and we handle the technical side on your behalf.

Find Out More

To learn more about the Hipposerve Web Design Club and how it can simplify hosting resales for your business, visit the dedicated page here.