Why Reseller Isn’t a Dirty Word (and Why Reselling Hosting is a Smart Move for Agencies)
Have you ever heard “reseller hosting” and immediately thought “cheap,” “unreliable,” or “just a middleman”? We talk to thousands of agency partners on an ongoing basis. One thing we hear over and over is that “reseller” is a dirty word.
And you know what? We agree.
To be clear, we agree that reseller has rightfully become a dirty word. But if we look deeper, it’s easy to see how providing hosting for your clients is actually just smart business. In fact, it’s a key component in building scalable, sustainable growth for your agency.
For a lot of agencies, thinking of “reseller” as a dirty word hasn’t kept them from reselling hosting. They just call it something else. But persistent myths about reseller hosting have prevented newer agencies from seeing its true potential as a powerful growth tool and a vital revenue stream.
These misconceptions lead to missed opportunities for enhanced profitability and deeper client relationships. Plus managing your clients’ hosting is a more holistic approach to site development. It often solves many common pain points for both you and your clients.
Providing hosting for your clients is not about cutting corners or passing on a service. It’s about forging smart partnerships and delivering an enhanced, integrated service that benefits everyone involved.
So let’s dive in and start debunking some of the most common myths surrounding reselling hosting. We’ll look at its modern capabilities and strategic advantages, why the negative stereotypes are unfounded, and how this model can be a smart, profitable, and client-centric choice for your agency.
Debunking the myths
We get it. In the early days of the internet, enterprising, if not ethically dubious, companies tried to capitalize on a burgeoning new market by renting the cheapest server they could from a local provider and then cramming as many sites on there as possible. But that’s so early 2000s dot-com boom thinking. Let’s look at the myths from that dark time and the reality of what providing hosting to your clients today.
Myth 1: It’s inherently cheap and low-quality
The outdated view
Many assume that because you’re “reselling,” the underlying service is inferior, cut-rate, or prone to issues like frequent downtime or slow loading speeds. This perception stems from early, less informed days of hosting, where some providers did indeed offer unreliable services.
The modern reality
The reality is far from this outdated stereotype. Today, many high-quality providers, particularly those specializing in managed hosting offerings like WP Engine, offer robust hosting reseller programs.
We’re not talking about generic, bargain-basement services. Instead, quality hosting partners build on enterprise-grade infrastructure, with offerings designed for peak performance, ironclad security, and unwavering reliability.
For instance, our infrastructure utilizes containerized components to efficiently run your clients sites, including WordPress, databases, caching systems, and more. This approach ensures consistency, scalability, and faster updates, delivering a reliable and high-performance experience for your clients.
The “reseller” label simply means you’re acting as the client-facing entity, while confidently leveraging a powerful, well-maintained backend. You’re not buying cheap; you’re gaining wholesale access to premium, high-availability infrastructure that would be prohibitively expensive to build and maintain yourself.
Focus on the source
The quality of your hosting offering is entirely dependent on the hosting partner you choose to build your service on.
A reputable hosting reseller program invests heavily in actively managing their network, performing proactive maintenance, and continuously investing in new features and tools to empower your business.
They differentiate themselves by offering superior uptime guarantees, rapid disaster recovery, 24/7 technical support, and consistent performance. This dedication sets them apart from cheaper commodity hosting providers. Always vet potential partners thoroughly to ensure their infrastructure, tooling, and security and maintenance protocols align with your quality standards.
Myth 2: You’re just a passive middleman with no real value
The misconception
Some say offering reseller hosting makes you an intermediary, simply passing on a service without adding value yourself. This view often overlooks the crucial role agencies play in translating technical solutions into client success.
Your role as a trusted partner
When you resell hosting, you are far more than just a middleman. Combined with your development, design, and marketing expertise, you become a trusted partner for your clients.
Your agency specializes in solving complex, technical challenges for your clients and their digital presence. Where your solutions are hosted is a critical technical component of your offerings. Reselling quality hosting is simply how you ensure your clients are getting a comprehensive solution.
Clients depend on you to translate technical concerns into best-in-class digital experiences, optimized to their unique needs. They rely on you to offer expert consultation on how their digital properties grow and evolve over time.
Owning the client relationship
Crucially, when you provide hosting, you own the client relationship in its entirety.
All communication, support inquiries, and billing go directly through your agency. This provides a seamless, single-point-of-contact, simplifying the client experience. This reduces their “vendor fatigue,” and positions your agency as a true, indispensable partner.
You’re not just selling hosting; you’re providing peace of mind, integrated expertise, and a streamlined approach to their digital presence.
Myth 3: Reselling hosting will compete with your core competencies
The fear of fractured offerings
Agencies often shy away from reselling hosting due to the mistaken belief that it requires an increased technical skillset. They believe it requires deep server administration knowledge, constant monitoring of server health, or complex technical troubleshooting of infrastructure issues.
But you didn’t get into the “make cool stuff for clients” business because you wanted to be their IT administrator. In fact, the thought of managing Linux servers, Apache configurations, or database optimizations might just make your eye twitch.
Enter managed hosting
Modern reseller hosting platforms are explicitly designed with agencies in mind, aiming to manage the underlying technical complexities for you.
Providers like WP Engine feature intuitive, user-friendly dashboards that centralize management for all your client sites. On top of that, quality managed hosting solutions offer automations for time-consuming tasks like daily backups, security scans, and updates.
You don’t need to be a certified server admin, or have a large in-house IT department, to offer hosting to your clients.
Leveraging expert support
By partnering with a quality hosting provider, you’re leveraging their dedicated expert infrastructure and support teams.
This means your hosting partner handles complex server maintenance, critical security patches, continuous network monitoring, and ensuring robust uptime guarantees. They deal with issues like DDoS attacks, hardware failures, and intricate network configurations.
Your agency’s role stays in strategic consultancy and creation, freeing up your team to focus on core competencies and building value for clients.
Myth 4: It adds unnecessary risk and liability to your agency
The concern
Agencies worry that reselling means taking on significant liability for downtime, catastrophic security breaches, or irreplaceable data loss. They fear any issue will fall squarely on their shoulders.
Shared responsibility with trusted partners
While you are the client’s direct point of contact, a high-quality hosting partner provides robust infrastructure and comprehensive guarantees to help mitigate risk.
Look for advanced security measures such as Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), sophisticated DDoS protection, regular security audits, and proactive threat detection systems that run 24/7.
A quality host will also offer resilient disaster recovery solutions. These are designed to eliminate downtime by transferring traffic to an alternate data center in the event of an outage. These types of failover solutions ensure compliance with industry regulations while reducing potential downtime from hours to minutes.
All this means you’re not shouldering the technical burden alone. Instead you’re leveraging a partner’s specialized expertise and resilient infrastructure to minimize risk for both your agency and your clients.
The smart move: Why reselling hosting is a smart play
After debunking some of the common reseller myths, it becomes clear that reselling hosting is more than just viable. Instead it’s a genuinely smart and strategic move for agencies seeking sustainable growth and a competitive edge.
Some additional benefits of becoming a hosting reseller include:
New recurring revenue stream
Reselling hosting services creates a predictable monthly revenue stream for your agency. This consistent income significantly enhances your agency’s financial stability, allowing for better forecasting, budgeting, and strategic planning for long-term investments.
This also leads to a higher Client Lifetime Value (CLV), as clients consume ongoing services. Not only are you ncreasing the overall revenue generated from each client, but you’re also providing opportunities to add on additional services over time.
Enhanced client stickiness and simpler management
By providing a critical service in addition to your digital creations, clients are more likely to consider you an indispensable partner. This strengthens their relationship with you and makes them far less likely to churn.
This single point of contact also simplifies their vendor management and strengthens your position as their trusted web expert.
Improved focus on core competencies
By partnering with a trusted hosting partner, you effectively offload complex server management, security updates, and infrastructure maintenance.
This strategic outsourcing frees up your internal team to focus on your core competencies. That means the rockstars you hired spend their time on innovative design, cutting-edge development, or impactful marketing strategy.
This model also offers immense scalability. You’re able to easily add new client sites as your agency grows without upfront infrastructure investment or additional hires. You leverage your partner’s resources, enabling seamless expansion.
Reselling: No longer a dirty word
Becoming a hosting reseller, when done right, with a reputable partner, is far from a “dirty word.” It’s actually a strategic offering for modern agencies. It drives predictable recurring revenue, fosters deep client loyalty, and significantly improves operational efficiency.
By understanding what reselling hosting looks like today and moving past outdated myths, agencies unlock a potent growth tactic. This not only enhances your agency’s offerings, but boosts your financial health.
Ready to unlock a powerful and stable revenue stream for your agency? Chat with one of our agency experts today or continue learning by exploring our agency offerings and our Agency Partner Program.