Guide to Reseller Accounts


Last modified: February 22, 2024

Overview

This document describes reseller account privileges and how to manage reseller accounts. A reseller is a cPanel account owner that also sells cPanel accounts to other users. A reseller purchases system resources from a hosting provider, and then allocates the resources to the cPanel accounts that they sell. Reseller accounts include additional privileges. The system allows reseller accounts access to a limited version of the WHM interface, which allows them to manage the cPanel accounts that they sell.

Warning:

While the system allows resellers to create other resellers (nested resellers), we do not support this configuration. We do not test cPanel & WHM in this configuration, and we strongly recommend that you do not configure your server to use it.

How to manage reseller accounts

To manage reseller accounts, use one of the following WHM interfaces:

  • The Resellers section (WHM » Home » Resellers) provides access to all of the reseller features.
  • The Reseller Center interface (WHM » Home » Resellers » Reseller Center) allows you to add or remove reseller privileges, and provides links to all of the other reseller features.

What privileges exist for reseller accounts?

The system grants a set of reseller accounts limited privileges by default. To add privileges to a reseller account, use the Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges interface (WHM » Home » Resellers » Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges).

Privilege categories

Resellers can access privileges from the following categories:

  • Initial Privileges — This list includes the privileges that the system assigns to newly-created reseller accounts.

  • Standard Privileges — This list includes basic reseller functions. For example, the reseller can add and remove accounts.

  • Package Privileges — This list includes the reseller’s ability to create and modify their own web hosting packages.

  • Global Privileges — This list includes privileges for server administrators, such as access to view and restart system services.

  • Super Privileges — This list includes settings such as account and quota modification.

    Warning:

    We do not recommend that you assign these privileges to your resellers.

    The following settings allow resellers to create accounts without packages and circumvent resource limits:

    • Account Modification
    • Bandwidth Limiting Modification
    • Quota Modification
  • Root Access — The All Features setting allows the reseller to access a fully functional WHM interface.

    Warning:
    • Do not enable the All Features setting under Root Access for your resellers.
    • The All Features setting overrides a reseller’s account creation limits. For example, if you set a reseller’s account creation limit to two accounts, and then you enable the All Features setting under Root Access, WHM will not limit the reseller to two accounts. The reseller can create as many accounts as they wish.
    • The All Features setting allows the reseller to view all of the accounts on the server. This includes accounts that they do not own.

Default reseller privileges

A reseller account has access to the following WHM features by default:

  • Basic WebHost Manager Setup — This feature contains some basic configuration settings for cPanel & WHM.

  • Manage External Authentications — This feature allows you to manage your server’s OpenID Connect-compliant identity providers.

  • Remote Access Key — This feature allows a reseller to generate and copy a key to allow remote access to WHM functionality.

    Note:
    • We deprecated WHM’s Remote Access Key feature in cPanel & WHM version 64. We strongly recommend that you use API tokens instead.
    • This interface will not appear on new installations of cPanel & WHM version 72.

  • List Subdomains — This feature displays a list of the reseller’s subdomains.

  • Web Template Editor — This feature allows a reseller to edit the default page that the system displays for a website that does not yet contain content.

    Warning:

    We strongly recommend that resellers include their contact information in the default page content.

  • Change WebHost Manager Theme — This feature allows you to select the theme for WHM.

    Note:
    • We added this interface in cPanel & WHM version 64.
    • We removed this interface in cPanel & WHM version 102. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan documentation.

  • Mail Delivery Reports — This feature allows a reseller to view users who have relayed mail.

  • View Relayers — This feature displays the total number of message delivery attempts that each domain on a reseller’s server makes.

  • View Sent Summary — This feature allows a reseller to change WHM themes.

  • Change Log — This feature allows the reseller to track changes in our software.

  • Customization — This feature allows a reseller to customize the cPanel interface that their customers use.

  • SSL Storage Manager — This features allows system administrators to view detailed information about their SSL resources.

  • cPanel Development Forum — This link allows resellers to access the cPanel Developers section of the cPanel Forums.

  • Developer Documentation — This set of documents provides helpful information for resellers of third-party products that interact with cPanel & WHM.

  • Manage API Tokens — This feature allows you to create, list, update, and revoke API tokens.

    Note:

    We added this interface in cPanel & WHM version 64.

  • Plugins — This feature displays interfaces from your server’s installed WHM plugins.

    Note:

    This interface does not appear for all users.

Which packages can resellers view and assign?

Packages allow resellers to assign limits and settings to cPanel accounts. For example, a reseller may want to assign disk quotas or monthly bandwidth restrictions. Hosting providers can create and modify packages for resellers or allow the reseller to do this for themselves.

Resellers can view and assign any package that contains their username. Additionally, hosting providers can enable the viewglobalpackages Access Control List (ACL), which allows resellers to view and assign global packages.

Type of package Example Description Reseller can view
Root root_package root, an underscore, and a package name. No
User reseller_package The reseller’s username, an underscore, and a package name. Yes
Global package A package name that does not contain any underscores. Yes, if the hosting provider enables the viewglobalpackages ACL for the reseller; otherwise, no.
Note:
  • The root user can view all packages.
  • Resellers can only view packages that contain their specific username.

Additional Documentation