A hosting affiliate programme is an advertising model in which a hosting company pays you a commission for any sales they make through your website or platforms.
On the other hand, reseller hosting refers to selling a hosting plan alongside your existing services. Deciding which path to take depends on the goals of your business and the needs of your clients.
The Affiliate Programme or Reseller Hosting?
Both have become popular ways for anyone with interest in the web hosting industry to make passive income, especially for website design and/or development freelancers, agencies and website design trainers.
They are in close contact with web hosting services more than anyone else.
So, if you are in website development, you must be pondering whether an affiliate programme or reseller hosting works best for you.
If you are still lost, don’t worry, we will explain the key differences between an affiliate programme and reseller hosting and how to choose the most beneficial option.
Introduction to Affiliate Programmes
A hosting affiliate programme refers to a commission-earning system adopted by web hosting companies to promote their products and services through online ambassadors.
A hosting company pays a commission to a blogger or professional, aka influencer or another company for growing traffic and conversions on its website or platforms.
At the heart of the affiliate programme is the affiliate link—a dedicated and unique URL that includes an affiliate ID.
Affiliate links allow you to track the performance of specific affiliates over a predefined period.
More specifically, as an affiliate marketer, you will embed one or more links to hosting companies on your website/platforms or provide them directly to customers.
You will then receive a commission every time someone uses your link to purchase a product. Commissions may vary depending on each hosting company.
New to Affiliate? Click here to read Exabytes Affiliate Starter Guide For Beginners.
Key benefits of affiliate programmes
All you need to do is to send traffic and customers to the hosting company, you don’t need to provide any sales support or customer service for those who purchase a hosting plan.
That is, you are not responsible for their experience or any further assistance they may need.
Joining an affiliate programme is free, you just need to get approval from the hosting company.
Some of the hosting companies will skip the approval stage in which you automatically join their affiliate programme after submitting your registration. This enables affiliate marketers to earn a passive source of income.
Although an affiliate programme is an incredible way to earn passive income, the hosting company don’t really offer an opportunity to grow your business. Instead, it gives you the bonus/incentives when you achieve the target.
Reseller hosting enables you to expand your exciting business into hosting while being an affiliate marketer is more about monetizing your website/platforms.
Exabytes Affiliate Programme
With 21 years of experience in the hosting industry, our affiliates mostly endorse us for quality services and products. Wish to establish a strong connection with your audiences?
Join Exabytes Affiliate Programme Today!
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Programme
| Pros | Cons |
| Get started in a few minutes | Commission-based only |
| Generate passive income | Unable to build customer base |
| No expertise needed | Stiff competition |
| Flexible and convenient | Sales are not guaranteed |
| Low level of responsibility |
Reseller Hosting in a Nutshell
On the other hand, reseller hosting is an opportunity for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) to sell hosting plans using web servers from third-party providers.
You typically pay a monthly fee, depending on how much resources you rent, and you can charge your customers whatever you like, depending on the profit margin you set.
Reseller hosting is ideal for agencies as it makes it easy to maintain multiple websites through the control panel.
With reseller hosting, your clients purchase and host their websites through you—you are acting as a hosting company.
At Exabytes, we offer competitive reseller hosting plans:
When you sign up for a reseller hosting plan, you can purchase hosting in bulk. Basically, it’s a lot of server space, which you can divide up any way you like.
You will also get access to attachment features like cPanel access, dedicated support, email management and a lot more.
Plus, all of this is white labelled, so you can brand it under your own company. There is no way your customer would ever know that you weren’t running the servers yourself.
Learn more about Exabytes Reseller Hosting
As a hosting reseller, you would need to pay a monthly or yearly fee to the hosting provider; hence, this can be risky for the company, especially not having as many projects in months.
Bear in mind that with reseller hosting, you must provide ongoing support to your customers.
Being a web host can be a demanding job in this digital era, so you need to be prepared for a long-term endeavour.
However, this is the easiest way to start a web hosting business or extend your service offering.
You don’t have to create a brand-new product from scratch. All you need to do is choose your hosting partner wisely and sell its products to your customers.
If you feel that reseller hosting might not be the most viable option for you just yet, you can choose to be part of an affiliate programme first, and upgrade to reseller hosting as your business grows.
Summary of the Pros and Cons of Reseller Hosting
| Pros | Cons |
| Create scalable business | Lots of hard work upfront |
| Affordable startup costs | The market is saturated |
| Full control over branding | There can be a technical learning curve |
| Technical support is covered by your hosting partner |
Exabytes Reseller Hosting
We’ve built high-performance reseller hosting plans that work perfectly for web developers, designers and agencies.
Our reseller hosting plans start from only S$37.50/month, and as you know, everything is backed by Exabytes’ 21 years of know-how!
How to choose the best option for your business
Since both reseller hosting and affiliate programme have their advantages, it can be difficult to decide which is better for you (as an individual or business) and your customers.
The best way is to compare both directly.
The key aspect to consider is the time it takes for you to succeed. While being a hosting reseller is more profitable in the long run (for you and your clients), it also requires more work than being an affiliate marketer.
If you’re still undecided, keep this in mind when making a decision. Do you have enough time and resources to make reseller hosting work?
If the answer is no, joining an affiliate programme might be a better option for you at this stage.
Most affiliate programmes are free to join. With reseller hosting, you are required to pay the hosting company a monthly or yearly fee.
However, the cost is justified because reseller hosting typically offers significantly higher sales potential, depending on how you price your plans.
In other words, reseller hosting gives you more control over the services offered.
Lastly, don’t forget to consider your customers’ needs. It’s important to choose the service they’ll actually benefit from.
For example, if you’re a software developer, can you support your customers long-term (reseller hosting), or would you prefer to send them to a hosting company you trust and earn a commission (affiliate programme)?
Remember, your customers are the ones who keep your new business going, so providing them with value should be your main goal.
Key Differences between Affiliate Programme and Reseller Hosting
In Closing
If your business involves creating websites, your customers will need web hosting. Both the affiliate programme and reseller hosting can help you with that.
However, it’s important to make sure you’re using the right option to cater for your business needs.
In general, reseller hosting is more suited to those who have the time and resources to make it a success.
Affiliate programme, on the other hand, is best for individuals or businesses that are looking to earn a commission.
Get started today! Increase your revenue with one of our programmes:
- Reseller Hosting (starts from only S$37.50/month)
- Affiliate Programme (earn up to S$100 for every referral)
