What is the best way to host clients' sites?

I have been messing around with web design for a while and I want to do some freelance, but I am unsure about how to host clients' sites. I do not have my own server. Should I have clients buy their own hosting, or should I do it for them with a service that will allow me to have many domains? If I should do it myself what services are best?

I currently use godaddy hosting, but there is a limit on domains. I can add more but I think it is quite expensive.

Forgive my ignorance.

Thanks

Should I have clients buy their own hosting, or should I do it for them with a service that will allow me to have many domains? If I should do it myself what services are best?

You may do the following - charge your clients additionally for hosting their site, and buy the hosting for every client separately. It is better to tell them that you can host their site at this, this or this company. OR - you can by cheap but reliable hosting with unlimited domains allowed, (godaddy NOT RECOMMENDED), and host the sites by default and charge money for that - little bit more then you would spend for it...

Could you tell me a hosting company that allows unlimited domains (and lets people pay with their own credit card)?

Thanks

Look up ************.com - they have really low prices, accept paypal, and provide unlimited domains hosting. Have a look...

There are many companies, which provide unlimited domains, but I think this is cheapest solution.

I would avoid using a regular shared plan to host your clients but go with a Reseller plan with a reputable company if you wanted to host your clients.

If you go with a reseller plan each client will have their own control panel (whether or not you give them access to it is up to you) and should you need to move one of the sites to another provider or a client would want to do it then it would not be difficult.

If you host it all on one shared account (generally against the terms of service anyways) then all accounts will be linked and it would be much more work and more difficult to separate one of the sites out to be moved if it needed to be done.

Also if you get a reseller plan and give them access to the control panel they can create and delete their own email addresses etc... where as if you do it all on your own account you will have to manage everything from top to bottom.

If you do not want to provide hosting support there are a few companies out there that also provide end-user support but I have no experience with any of them so I cannot really point you to any certain one. In the end if you did not want to provide direct support for your clients HOSTING needs and could not find a hosting company that provides end user support that you felt you could trust it might just be better to place your clients with other hosting companies. If you do this, make sure to use their affiliate systems so that you get a little extra money from the deal for free

I do wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

I recommend a reseller account. I started my hosting company on one, and liked being able to login to my customers cpanel easily. At this point in time I have enough customers to justify a VPS and have moved to one from vpslink.com

Originally Posted by kurtisnelson I recommend a reseller account. I started my hosting company on one, and liked being able to login to my customers cpanel easily. At this point in time I have enough customers to justify a VPS and have moved to one from vpslink.com

Sometimes a VPS can be a step down in performance overall as you will generally have access to much less disk space/memory/cpu than you would on a reseller server.

It can also be a lot more work to keep the system updated and secure.

It really depends on what you need to do and how you want to do it.

Originally Posted by kurtisnelson I recommend a reseller account. I started my hosting company on one, and liked being able to login to my customers cpanel easily. At this point in time I have enough customers to justify a VPS and have moved to one from vpslink.com

VPSlink.com is a nice company but I'd recommend one more company that provides VPS deals on lovely conditions - ******.com. I have seen some really nice VPSs on different OSs at affordable prices.

Servage.net is really good, host unlimited domains and they have a great control panel. I wouldnt say it was amazingly cheap, but you pay a decent price for an amazing host!

They are a real company aswell, not like half the the bedroom hosts that advertise on here.

Plus if you sign up with the coupon on that link you get extra space

Originally Posted by paulOr Servage.net is really good, host unlimited domains and they have a great control panel. I wouldnt say it was amazingly cheap, but you pay a decent price for an amazing host! They are a real company aswell, not like half the the bedroom hosts that advertise on here. Plus if you sign up with the coupon on that link you get extra space

1. Really good? I beg to differ - run a search at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ or google about Servage and hacking and you might change your mind... Or maybe not.
2. A real company? What do you classify as a real company? Do they have to have their own dedicated office or is it ok to have satellite employees in different locations? So you're saying that any host whose owner works from home is not running a real business? Just curious as I wouldn't worry so much about where the people running the company are as long as they are competent and the hardware is located in a high quality datacenter facility personally but that's just me.
3. Wow, you get "Extra" space on top of the 500+gb of disk space you supposedly get for under $7/month. I'm willing to bet if you get even close to 500gb they'll suspend you for resource usage so what's the point of getting the "extra" space?