I am wondering where to go with my hosting needs. I do not want to become a full time host myself. That is why I like to use reseller accounts, so someone else can maintain and look after the hosting while I concentrate on web development.

I have always got the impression that the next step up from a reseller account is a dedicated server. However, I have not really been keen on this as it means putting all of your web sites onto one server. I have over 100 web sites at present and putting them all on one server would surely be too much strain on it? By using Helm windows reseller hosting, the web sites are spread between different servers.

I am concerned about the lack of reliability with small hosting companies offering reseller accounts. They often start good and then go downhill. However, bigger companies may not always offer you the personal support that you need to get web sites working correct. You are just one of many many customers to them.

So I am wondering what to do for hosting. Do I continue with reseller accounts with small companies, or look for something else? What are my options?

My business model means that I am hopeful of increasing the number of low cost web sites I have for small to medium size companies upwards to perhaps 500. Should I look at the offerings of bigger hosting companies (like who - I'm in the UK)? Do they offer 'power' reseller accounts? Should I just open multiple reseller accounts, say a new reseller account for every 100 web sites, due to web space and bandwidth limitations? Are there other options?

Thanks for any help you can give.

First, you should probably try to assess how CPU and memory intensive the sites are. Their total number alone won't determine that. Powerful web servers can easily hold 1000 websites if they're small enough (in terms of either traffic or server resources usage, or both).

Second, you might never feel ready to put all your eggs in one basket, and who can blame you really? It might be that for you, it's best to keep on getting reseller acounts and have the sites spread on a relatively high number of servers. I'm pretty sure not everyone has the stomach to face having all of their customers' websites down simultaneously.

I don't understand why don't you want to have all web site of yours in one and the same machine. This will not afect neither the web site traffic nor the Search engine ranking.

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I may be reading this wrong, but why would he? The single, biggest advantage to a reseller account is its low cost. You can easily get a few reseller accounts, spread over multiple providers, or within the same provider (different servers or datacenters). No one wants to see their whole client-base down and not being able to contact their host.

Also, be sure to purchase a small shared account for your main website. Make sure you are always capable of being in contact with downed clients.

Yea, I agree with lcdcdc post. You need to have some basic reqs of the hosting environment... so many are soo different?!

yeah i agree. its always good to have a site where your customers can contact you to find out what is wrong, or what ever. Also, if your thinking about puting all your clients on one server, then i suggest you buy your own. This way your in control.

Are you comfortable with a dedicated environment? If you can monitor the server, you can chose to resell on just a portion of the box, and either split the rest of the box with someone you kow / trust, or target other resellers to and create "power reseller" accounts n the unused portion of your box.

If what you are doing works for you, keep on doing it! Depending on your budget, a dedicated server or two may save you a ton over a bunch or reseller accounts here and there.

Also, if you are not confortable in the dedicated environment, I would not do a dedicated server as you know have a whole new list of things to manage / worrie about.

Good luck!

You should consider getting a limited no. of reseller accounts from medium sized hosting companies instead of one 'power reseller'. You would not want all your sites to go down together in case of any problem with the server or the hosting company.

Another option would be to get a 'Fully Managed' dedicated server so someone else can maintain and look after the hosting and you can concentrate on your core business.

So you recoment using different hosting companies for all his websites?

Wouldn't that lead to potentially having the same problem as with a "power reseller"?

You can get a manged server or VPS server and outsource support to another company.

Some of the outsourced support companies have really good per ticket pricing.

Stevio – I will suggest you to look for a mid size hosting company who are not very new to the hosting business. There are a lot of companies who promise a lot of things but are unable to fulfill them so be smart while you finalize on the webhost as it’s a very dicey business where big names have lost their credibility and smaller ones have really excelled in terms of their service and reliability.

A managed dedicated server should be good enough. If you select a reliable company like liquidweb, nothing much to worry. 100 small websites on a good server is not a big deal.

Reseller accounts is not bad, if you really dont want to own a server. You can get an account with hostgator or something, you know they will not run away. I would recommend a small host named hosting matters too. Had a nice expereince with their reseller account some 4 years back.

Try to use semi-dedicated managed solution for your sites. 100 small websites on a good semi-dedicated is not a big deal too but have a low cost.