Why You Should Start Your Own Hosting Business

You're building a great web business.

Maybe you're a designer, a developer, or someone who's been taking existing sites and turning them into search-engine-optimised powerhouses.

You love building websites. But once a project's done, your clients vanish until something breaks — and you're back to chasing new leads just to keep your revenue steady.

But what if you didn't have to start from scratch each month? What if you could build recurring revenue straight into your business?

What if you offered web hosting as part of the package?

Where do your clients' websites live?

When you're building sites for your clients, do you expect them to buy their own hosting? Do you help them choose, and then leave them to it? Do you end up juggling a pile of different accounts on different platforms, logins and billing cycles?

It can be a logistical nightmare. Even if you're sticking with one provider, your clients can still go rogue and buy something completely different. You can explain the specs until you're blue in the face, but there's always one client who thinks they know best.

It doesn't have to be this complicated.

Offer hosting yourself, and you're managing all your clients' websites in one place, with your preferred specs and setup. They get peace of mind knowing the person who built their site is also taking care of it. No more last-minute scrambles for forgotten logins, no frantic late-night calls about a site being down. You're right there, taking care of everything.

What are your options for running a hosting business?

There's more than one way to offer hosting — it depends on what you're building, what your clients need and how hands-on you want to be. Each option has its own pros and cons.

The good news? We offer all of them. So whatever stage you're at, there's a setup to help you expand your business.

Managed WordPress Agency Packages

If you work mainly with WordPress, and want to offer your clients reliable performance and updates, a Managed WordPress package gives you the tools and support to deliver it.

Here, your host handles things like updates, security and performance optimisation. You build the site, choose your favourite plugins and keep things running begins the scenes to give your customers the site of their dreams.

Your clients get access to wp-admin, but you're still managing the overall WordPress installation and updates. This is great for sites that need regular updating, like news, blogs and online shops, but you get to keep a close eye on the site's backend.

It does cost more, but you can pass the cost down to your clients. You're offering a premium setup, and that's worth charging for — make sure they know what a great package they're getting along with your skills.

Example: Eddie is a WordPress developer who specialises in e-commerce. He uses his go-to plugins to optimise WooCommerce sites. With a Managed WordPress Agency 3 plan, he can run up to 25 WordPress sites on 150GB of storage for £250 a month. And because he's giving them the best possible WordPress hosting, he charges £25 a month for hosting. He only needs 10 to break even — anything else above that is profit.

Reseller Hosting

Ready to go full hosting business? Reseller hosting gives you the tools to automate the entire process.

With WHMCS (a web hosting control panel), you can create your own hosting packages, manage billing and support — all under your own brand.

It's really flexible — you can offer hosting to your own web clients, or even sell packages to people who want to build their own websites. Your clients get access to cPanel, and you control everything from account limits to support tickets. All you need to do is answer those support tickets and make sure you aren't hitting the limits of your own package.

Reseller hosting is usually based on a shared hosting server, so performance still depends on usage. And you'll need to be able to manage some of the more technical aspects of hosting as well as integrating your billing, but once you jump over those low hurdles, it's a clear run.

Example: Becky has been part of the digital scrapbooking community for years, and knows how hard it is to find a good web host. She has a bit of technical knowledge about hosting and buys herself an Infinity Reseller package with 250GB of storage to split between her customers. She sets up 10 25GB cPanel accounts and charges her customers £50 a month, giving them access to a range of e-commerce software packages and plenty of email addresses. She earns over £400 every month in profit as a Reseller host, and all she has to do is answer support tickets and make sure no one's overloading their space.

Virtual Private Servers

If you've got technical skills and want full control, a VPS gives you exactly that. It's your own virtual server, so you're not sharing resources and you can run things however you like. Set up your server as you see fit, give your customers websites that are tailored specifically to their needs, and never worry about other websites crowding out your customers.

You're free to install your preferred software, configure the environment for each project and tailor hosting to fit your clients' needs. As long as you abide by our Acceptable Use Policy, you're fine.

A VPS, while ideal for developers who need flexibility, can be daunting if you haven't done system administration before. You're responsible for running this server, including security, updates and maintenance. But if you have some experience and are building sites that need more customisable permissions and settings, it can be a great option.

Example: Joe is a talented developer who's been running his own dev server for a while. Now he's ready to host client sites too. He picks a high-spec VPS with plenty of storage and RAM for £91/month, loads it with his go-to tools, and customises performance per project. His clients pay based on their resource needs, and this tailored approach means that while every site is different, it's bringing in fantastic revenue every month.

Cloud Hosting

This is the top tier of web hosting. With multiple servers across different locations, cloud hosting is scalable, reliable and fast, making it perfect for complex apps, fast-growing businesses or clients who need serious resilience.

Through your cloud hosting control panel you can quickly deploy software, access resources and adapt hosting packages to meet your clients' needs. It might be overkill for smaller businesses and small hosting packages, but if you're building the next big app for a client, cloud hosting is going to be a lifesaver. You'll need to be confident managing deployments and watching resource usage, but the flexibility and power are unmatched.

Example: Joe's outgrown his single VPS and needs something global. He grabs a couple of Katapult virtual machines with plenty of memory, adds on even more storage, and spreads his clients across a scalable cloud setup. He's not just hosting websites anymore, he's helping a startup launch their brand new app — and getting a pretty penny for hosting it as well.

Why would I want to host my clients' websites?

It all comes down to trust.

You're no longer a one-time contractor who disappears after launch. You're the expert they rely on to keep their site secure, fast and online. Their success becomes part of your success, and that's the foundation for a long-lasting, profitable relationship.

It's no longer just a project-to-project grind, constantly struggling to find new clients. By offering hosting, you're giving yourself space to breathe, building your business into something that's stable, thriving and ready for anything.

Got questions about setting up hosting for your clients? Get in touch with us. Our friendly, expert team is always happy to help.