*Archived*
# Advice for best hosting/vps/server/reseller setup for multiple domains with wordpress

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for advice on what the best most cost effective route should be. I am a web designer and currently also manage 10 wordpress websites which I made and are currently hosted with a webhost plan however I am running into innodes limitations and price increases

Currently I am exploring alternative routes but am overwhelmed at what is available! I was thinking of going the reseller route so that each website can have it's own cpanel and support. Other options that seem more complicated but appealing are vps or using Caddy/NginX with Upcloud or Digital Ocean to deploy my own server

I am looking for something that will keep my costs down but also have support when things go wrong as I have no experience when it comes to configuring servers and managing security issues

Any advice and best routes to go would be welcome! Thanks!

If you need to host multiple websites, but don't want to spend a fortune, especially not a big chunk of money upfront, I suggest you bite the bullet and educate yourself about server management and security (it's not actually all that difficult) and get yourself a Linode VPS and manage it with the free* CWP Web Panel. I've been using this set-up to host and manage multiple websites for a few years now and I love it

The first thing I like about Linode is their pricing model. Transparent, flat-rate, per-minute billing paid in arrears. In other words, you don't have to pay for 2yrs upfront to get the best price and if you decide to abandon a project after a few hours or weeks or months, you only pay for the server time you've actually used. Not to mention you can pay any amount into your account at any time as long as you're not in arrears at the end of the month when bills are collected Really handy if, like me, your cash flow is often erratic and need to part-pay at odd times during the month to reduce the amount that you owe at month end

The next thing I like is their excellent docs and tutorials. Like you, I was wary of moving away from simple shared hosting to a VPS type server, because of my lack of experience, but the initial set-up tutorial (linked below) is so clear and easy to follow, it didn't take me long to get a good setup


There is a bit of command line stuff to plough through, in order to get up and running, but it's mostly just copy & paste. You can continue to manage the server through SSH on the terminal and or use the Linode CLI, but, once the initial setup is complete, I usually install CWP (CentOS Web Panel, now rebranded as Control Web Panel) to manage all functions and install websites via the CWP GUI

Installing CWP (details below) will allow you to manage all aspects of your server, including setting up user accounts, auto SSL, email, PHP versions etc

* There is a free version, which is great, but for a trivial fee ($1.49/month!) You can upgrade to CWP Pro which adds more useful features. CWP also have a one-time support option where you pay them a small fee (I'd have to check this, I haven't used it for a while, but I think it's less than $10)
They also offer ongoing support from $12.99/month. I've never used this myself, only used one-time support a couple of times, once to get CWP installed the first time I ever used it and hadn't learned how easy it was to do it myself and another time when my laptop died, taking my SSH key and root password with it so I was locked out of my server. Both times, support was quick (within 24hrs) and cheap ($7.50 each time)
Once you have CWP installed, you can log into the main admin panel in your browser and create at least one user account, which is where you will login to its own control panel to install anything you can possibly install on a server. There are 'one-click' installers for popular web apps like WordPress and Drupal or you can go bespoke and create your own database(s) add extra domains and upload website files through the file manager

Below are links to the Linode tutorial mentioned above and to the CWP installation guide

(Not Affiliate links!)
Linode:
Getting Started With Linode

How To Secure Your Server

CWP:
Installation Instructions

I hope this information is useful to you. The best thing about the above setup is there is little or no upfront cost (unless you pay for CWP installation) so you can try it out with a spare domain (or subdomain) . Whether this will be suitable for your needs, I don't know, but, as an experienced user of this type of hosting setup, I'd be happy to answer any further questions you may have

I would reccomend using something like cPanel if you are feeling overwhelmed about running your own server

Many web hosts offer reselling built in if you are looking to manage cpanel yourself, but can get out of hand price wise quote fast depending on where you register it from. (This is the best way if your looking to add your cut to the price of the hosting)

Some web hosts also let you setup an agency account that will allow you to register your clients directly with the webhost and let them handle billing, and you will just have technical access to their accounts to be able to manage the content. (This is the best way if you want something that just works)
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