Hi everyone. I’m new to WordPress development so I had a question regarding different hosting options. When purchasing a package through a host site, if I plan to design websites for other companies is it more efficient to purchase the upgraded subscription that gives me unlimited domains? Or is it better to just do one domain and create a new account for each site? Thank you in advance.
WordPress hosting with unlimited domains
Answers:
Typically I would be inclined to recommend that you split them up – easier to hand the account over when you’re done building the site and the client want control, also good to separate for security and performance reasons – if one site gets hacked and the sites all share one account, good chance all sites get infected.
It depends on the hosting. If you were to use a typical shared hosting plan like those Siteground and many others offer, I would use separate accounts. The reason is that at a technical level, those webhosts cram all your sites into the “primary” site’s directories, so if one site goes all haywire it can affect all the sites. If you’re going to do this with at a professional level, you (and especially your clients) will want that separation.
If you were to find hosting that kept the sites separate and ran them each under their own user-id, then I’d say go for the unlimited.
I let clients get their own hosting and teach them how to update their site, create posts, etc. Don’t really want to resell hosting or be responsible if there are issues with it, though I will offer a few suggestions based on their needs.
If you are expecting to stay with them for a longer period then go with the first one. Otherwise, let your clients choose the web host for themselves.
We usually suggest our clients to get and pay for their own hosting’s account (avoiding reseller part of the business), with our recommendation, so they chose at the end.
However, for a few smaller and low traffic sites we do host them on our SiteGround GoGeek account as all sites are now separated/isolated in their new SiteTools Panel, so they are secured then before.
However, for a few smaller and low traffic sites we do host them on our SiteGround GoGeek account as all sites are now separated/isolated in their new SiteTools Panel, so they are secured then before.
There’s different ways you can do this. Most of my clients are hosted directly through me, in an account I control, and I bill them directly. That account has “unlimited” domains. It’s useful if you plan to host them, and having “unlimited” sites is great for development (even if you move the site somewhere else). I also have a few clients who insisted on using their preferred hosting, so I just set the site up for them. And then I have one large client with an e-commerce site that is just too costly for me to pay and bill for, so I set them up with their own account. But in the end do what works best for you. If you want to handle everything then get an account that will be sufficient for multiple sites.
Since you are just stating out I would suggest a hosting account with some flexibility and upgrade options. You don’t necessarily need unlimited but I would recommend more than 1 site. Once you are established you can upgrade or change hosts.
Everyone else is giving very good advice, particularly the part about having your clients sign up for their own hosting. There’s literally nothing worse than having your public website on someone else’s hosting and then they (to name a few examples in my experience) die, have a stroke, get taken down by ransomware when they can’t pay the ransom, forget to pay their credit card bills, *divorce* the site owner and refuse to give them access, change careers and lose all interest in their previous clients.
So, yeah, friends don’t let friends host their client’s websites on their own servers unless they make a *serious* commitment to provide access, provide easily-achievable migration processes, have enforceable contracts and terms of service, and preferably have fallback and fall-through service such that if anything happens to you your clients aren’t totally screwed.
That said! I have a hosting account where I develop all my clients’ sites. I think this is more hygienic for a couple of reasons:
– Neither Google nor the client’s clients are going to see a half-built, half-baked site while it’s still under development
– Since it’s on *my* server I get to control the environment and do extra fun debugging and optimizing things that you can’t always do through the WordPress dashboard
– Since it’s on my server I don’t migrate it till I’m darn sure the client is happy and, especially, that I’m even more sure I’ll get paid!
And to answer your specific question, here’s how I tend to do what you’re asking:
1) I have a server setup for developing client websites
2) For each new client, instead of using their domain name I create a subdomain for each client, add a database, etc.
3) I can develop on the subdomain, I can give the client login access so they can become familiar with the front and back end, and so they can see and sign off on the final version before I archive it and migrate it to their live server.
That subdomain strategy has worked very well for me for the last six or eight years.
Finally, it’s very likely that a hosting account that allows only one domain name won’t allow you to add fully-functioning subdomains. So you’ll almost certainly need to upgrade your service to support multiple working websites.
Final bonus: it’s not the end of the world if your dev site is a little underpowered when you’re running multiple sites in development. If you were to host your client’s live sites you’d need to buy a much beefier hosting plan.
So, yeah, friends don’t let friends host their client’s websites on their own servers unless they make a *serious* commitment to provide access, provide easily-achievable migration processes, have enforceable contracts and terms of service, and preferably have fallback and fall-through service such that if anything happens to you your clients aren’t totally screwed.
That said! I have a hosting account where I develop all my clients’ sites. I think this is more hygienic for a couple of reasons:
– Neither Google nor the client’s clients are going to see a half-built, half-baked site while it’s still under development
– Since it’s on *my* server I get to control the environment and do extra fun debugging and optimizing things that you can’t always do through the WordPress dashboard
– Since it’s on my server I don’t migrate it till I’m darn sure the client is happy and, especially, that I’m even more sure I’ll get paid!
And to answer your specific question, here’s how I tend to do what you’re asking:
1) I have a server setup for developing client websites
2) For each new client, instead of using their domain name I create a subdomain for each client, add a database, etc.
3) I can develop on the subdomain, I can give the client login access so they can become familiar with the front and back end, and so they can see and sign off on the final version before I archive it and migrate it to their live server.
That subdomain strategy has worked very well for me for the last six or eight years.
Finally, it’s very likely that a hosting account that allows only one domain name won’t allow you to add fully-functioning subdomains. So you’ll almost certainly need to upgrade your service to support multiple working websites.
Final bonus: it’s not the end of the world if your dev site is a little underpowered when you’re running multiple sites in development. If you were to host your client’s live sites you’d need to buy a much beefier hosting plan.
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