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An addon domain lets you host another domain on your cPanel account. If you want to host more than one website then an addon domain is often the best way to do so. Instead of having separate cPanel accounts all your domains are managed via one control panel.
In cPanel, an addon domain is really just a subdomain with an alias. As a result addon domains have some limitation. I’ll touch on those later. For now, just think of addon domains as a separate virtual host. You can set up email accounts for the addon domain and set up a redirect, just like you can for the main domain on your account.
Like many other pages in cPanel, the Addon Domains page has two sections:
To create an addon domain you only need to enter the domain name. You can normally leave the Subdomain and Document Root fields blank, but you can change the values cPanel suggests if you wish.
Image: creating the addon domain example.com
In the above example I created the addon domain example.com. The domain is linked to the subdomain example.example.net and the website files are stored in the public_html/example.com directory. The subdomain is a bit odd. As mentioned, it is just how cPanel handles addon domains. They need the subdomain (so don’t delete it!).
I did not tick Create an FTP account associated with this addon domain. If you manage both the main domain and the addon domain then you don’t need a separate FTP account. This is because the addon domain’s directory is a subfolder of the public_html directory. You can therefore access the website files using your main FTP account.
If you do opt to create an FTP account then the FTP user only has access to the website files for the addon domain. This option is therefore useful if you want to give someone FTP access to the addon domain only (and not to the main domain).
Of course, you can also manage FTP accounts via the FTP interface.
Existing addon domains are listed under the heading Modify Addon Domain.
Image: viewing existing addon domains.
There are a couple of actions for existing addon domains:
If you need an addon domain but your hosting package doesn’t have any addon domains available then you can either upgrade your hosting package or purchase the addon domain addon. The latter option is cheaper (£10 per annum plus VAT) but you need to have enough available resources.
The main thing to consider is whether or not you have enough available disk space, bandwidth, databases and email accounts on your current hosting plan. If you are not sure what your best option is, we are happy to help you decide: either give us a call on 0800 107 7979 or submit a ticket.
Earlier I mentioned that addon domains have some limitations. One of them is that you can’t create an alias for an addon domain via cPanel. We can add an alias for you, but you won’t be able to manage it via cPanel.
It is possible to convert an addon domain to a stand-alone hosting account. Please open a ticket if you would like us to do so.