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Is http://wp.mu hosting considered as "reseller" account or not?

I just looked at http://wp.mu and http://www.psek.com/wpmu/, and the hosting plan starts at $15/month with unlimited disk space (sweet!).

When I looked further, I also noticed that psek has “reseller” plans. Since I am setting up wp multisite to sell each sub-blog site to my customers with the “supporter” plugin and other money making plugins, will my account with http://wp.mu & psek.com considered as a hosting “reseller” account by psek?

What I do with wp multisite actually is like a hosting reseller when looked from a the hosting company point of view, right? – My customs create websites under my account and I charge them monthly fee to keep their website live – exactly like what a hosting reseller does.

And at psek.com the reseller account charges differently (starting @ $35/ month with only <2G disk space).

What is the catch here? Maybe http://wp.mu has a deal with psek, and this kind of account will not be considered as reseller? If that is the case, how about other hosting companies, such as hostgator, will they see this practice as “reseller” ?

http://wp.mu only supports up to 5 domains. What if my customers all want their own domain names? 5 is not enough in this case.

Thanks!

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 6:19:11
  • Timothy
    • Chief Pigeon

    http://wp.mu only supports up to 5 domains. What if my customers all want their own domain names? 5 is not enough in this case.

    No this usually means 5 domains as in 5 sites I would assume. If it is cPanel they would be called addon domains. not sure of the name in Plesk.

    When you users have a site with you they don’t usually add their domain to your server/hosting as such, they create a CNAME or change their A record to point to your MU install, thus never actually using your 5 allotted domains.

    We run our own servers based in the UK and don’t use WP.MU or Hostgator.

    You are, I suppose a reseller but not in the hosting sense, your not selling e-mail or cPanel/Plesk type accounts and so you don’t really need a reseller account for what your doing.

    That said, WP if you are not careful can bloat in both files and DB when you ad to much to it and you can find some hosts telling you to downsize and optimise your site or upgrade to more expensive plans. I never like the term unlimited because its really a marketing gimmick, trying using 10TB or more of space :wink:

    I’ve never really heard much bad about either of the companies you mentioning obviously though when dealing with large quantities of customers there will be some hiccups occasionally. If you want to check out other providers, read reviews, find offers then pop over to Web Hosting Talk:

    http://webhostingtalk.com

    Sorry I can’t help you on those other bits.

  • winning
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    WP if you are not careful can bloat in both files and DB when you add too much to it

    Thanks for all the great answers. Would you mind to share the “careful” tips to avoid the issues above? Or, says, delay the issues (in blockquote) for some time, so I can keep using shared hosting until I see enough “greens $$$” to move on to VPS or dedicated.

  • Timothy
    • Chief Pigeon

    Yeah sure:

    + Create a clear plan of what you want to achieve! Plugins, Themes, style, purpose, etc.

    + Stick to that plan!

    + Don’t install plugins and themes on your main site just to test, every install can and often will insert data in the database, not all will remove the data when removed thus leading to DB bloat.

    + Try not to bloat your install with too many plugins, remember every time a plugin is installed it can insert data, it might also be another 1 or another 100+ php files to include on every page and post load depending on the plugin, thus requiring more memory from your install. Shared hosting environments and hosting companies don’t always play nice when you hog their server resources.

    + Create a sandbox install if you must play with themes and plugins before putting them on your production website, thus limiting the footprint on your main install.

    + Be careful with themes, especially free ones some designers and developers don’t always sanitise user input which can lead to your site being compromised, hacked, phished, etc. Some free themes also hide and encode malicious scripts (base64). So be vigilant!

    Remember every time you install something, it can add something and that something won’t always be removed, before long you will have a bloated DB, a bloated install and no other way except painstakingly going through the database manually and removing the crap or removing plugins from your site which a handful of users might or might not use thus causing distress to them. Planning helps avoid these issues. Themes are just as bad as plugins at inserting stuff.

    Hope this helps offer some guidance! :slight_smile:

  • marikamitsos
    • The Crimson Coder

    Hello all,

    I totally agree with Timothy.

    What I actually fiound very helpful as well is this.

    I have registered a domain name -that I will use sometime in the future- hosted with a cheap hosting plan but good host.

    I have installed a basic multisite there. After that I made and keep a backup of the “prime” db. I then use the install to try everything on. Themes, plugins, blogs, roles, etc

    When I find something is really needed I apply it to my live site.

    The best thing is that whenever the test site gets “messy”, I delete all the tables from the db, the unwanted plugins and bad themes, upload the kept backup and start fresh again in less than 10 minutes. If I find something really useful, I reset it and make a new db back to keep

    Compared to the benefits, it costs a trivial amount of money. Its worth it. :slight_smile: