WHM is Web Host Manager. It is the admin panel above cPanel. A reseller uses WHM to create hosting packages, add a cPanel account for each client, and watch how much disk those accounts use. The client logs into cPanel. They do not get the WHM login.
If a host only gives you cPanel, you are a customer with one website account. If you can open WHM, you are running the layer that creates those accounts. That is the difference people are searching for when they ask what WHM is, and when they ask how it differs from cPanel.
The difference between cPanel and WHM
cPanel is one account. Inside it you create mailboxes, install WordPress, add a database, turn on SSL, and download a backup of that site. Shared hosting is cPanel only. It is the right product for your own brochure site.
WHM sits above a group of those accounts. From WHM you decide the disk quota, create the account, suspend it if a client does not pay you, and manage DNS for the domains you host. You do not edit the client’s WordPress posts in WHM. You create the account, then do the site work in that client’s cPanel, or let them do it.
- cPanel: one website, its email, its files. This is what you hand to a client.
- WHM: many cPanel accounts. This login stays with you.
- A VPS: the whole machine, with root access. You only need that when WHM is too small.
WHM does not replace WordPress, and it is not WHMCS. WHMCS is separate billing software. HSJ Host reseller plans do not include it. Many agencies invoice hosting in their own accounts and never run a billing panel.
What a reseller does in WHM
You need a package before you can attach a domain. A package is the plan you give a client: disk, mailboxes, databases. In the left menu that is Packages, then Add a Package. Disk is entered in megabytes. 5GB is 5120 MB. The steps are in How to Set Up Packages in WHM.
Then open Account Functions and Create a New Account. Type the domain with no www and no https://. Press Tab and WHM fills a username. Choose the package, set a password, and click Create. That password is the client’s cPanel password. Keep WHM for yourself. The click-by-click version is How to Create an Account in WHM.
Creating the account does not put the site on the public internet. The domain’s nameservers still have to point at the reseller. Use both ns1.whitelabelhostingplatform.com and ns2.whitelabelhostingplatform.com. That domain is HSJ Host’s own DNS brand. Custom nameservers, such as ns1.yourstudio.com.au, are not a setting you switch on yourself. Open a ticket in the client portal and wait until support finishes it. The domain steps are in How to Connect a Domain to Your Reseller Account.
Leave the WHM theme alone. Changing it can break the panel. After the account exists, install WordPress with Softaculous inside that client’s cPanel, not inside your own.
Who should have the WHM login
You should, if you look after more than one client website and each client needs their own email, files and login. A designer with four brochure sites, a freelancer who keeps getting asked to host the site as well, or a small agency that wants the hosting under its own name: that is the job WHM is for.
The client should not have it. Send them the cPanel address for their domain and the password from the confirmation page. If they have WHM, they can see every other client on your reseller account.
You do not need WHM for a single site of your own. Shared cPanel hosting is one account, and it is enough. A longer explanation of the product around WHM is in What is reseller hosting.
What HSJ Host includes with WHM
Reseller plans on HSJ Host all include WHM. The servers are in Sydney. There is no setup fee. Prices are GST inclusive: Starter is $29.95 a month, Business is $49.95, Enterprise is $89.95. Confirm the live figure on the reseller hosting page before you order. This article is the explanation. That page is the checkout.
- Starter: 30GB SSD and up to 10 cPanel accounts
- Business: 75GB SSD and up to 30 cPanel accounts
- Enterprise: 200GB SSD and up to 50 cPanel accounts
Disk is one pool, not a fresh 30GB for every client. If you sell ten people a 10GB package on Starter, you have promised more disk than the plan has. Bandwidth on these plans is unlimited. Each account includes Let’s Encrypt SSL. White label is included, which means you can present the hosting as yours. The WHM reseller page is the product detail. The white label page is the branding side.
HSJ Host supports the platform: the server, WHM, and billing. You support your clients. You do not need SSH for ordinary reseller work.
When you do not need WHM
Skip it when the job is one WordPress site. Skip it when the client needs root access, Docker, or a Windows server. Those belong on a Linux VPS, and that VPS is unmanaged: you patch it yourself. Reseller hosting with WHM is the step before that, not a smaller version of root.
Also skip it if you wanted a commission link and no accounts to look after. That is the affiliate program, not WHM.
If the work in front of you is several client sites, each with its own cPanel, start in WHM. Create a small package, create one account, point the domain at ns1.whitelabelhostingplatform.com and ns2.whitelabelhostingplatform.com, and hand over cPanel only.
