White label WordPress hosting for agencies means you sell hosting and site care to clients under your agency's name, while a provider runs the servers, updates and backups behind you. The client deals with you, pays you, and usually never hears the provider's name. What varies between arrangements is who answers support, who holds the domain and DNS, and how much of the work the provider takes on.
How white-label WordPress hosting works for agencies
The commercial side is simple. The provider bills you per site each month, usually at a lower rate as you add sites. You bill the client whatever you decide to charge, often bundled with maintenance and a few hours of changes. Your agency's name is on the proposal, the invoice and the email signature.
The practical side is a list of jobs that someone has to own for every site:
- keeping the server running and patched
- applying plugin, theme and WordPress core updates, and fixing whatever they break
- taking backups and restoring from them
- watching uptime and responding when the site goes down
- replying when the client emails about a problem
- sending the invoice
- renewing the domain and managing DNS
A white-label provider takes some of these off your plate, and which ones varies a lot. Some hand you a server and a control panel and leave the rest to you. Others handle updates, backups and monitoring and leave you with the client conversation and the billing. Both get sold as white-label hosting, so ask for the list before you compare prices.
Whose name the client sees
Your client should see your agency wherever they look: the invoice, the support address, any report or alert emails, and the signature on replies. A provider's name tends to slip through in a few predictable places, so check these before you resell:
- Automated emails. Backup notices, downtime alerts and update summaries often come from the provider's domain unless you ask for them to come from yours or be switched off.
- Dashboards. If the client logs in to anything beyond WordPress, look at whose logo is on it.
- DNS. Anyone who looks up the domain can see which nameservers it uses and where it points. Few clients ever check, and hiding it is rarely worth much effort, but you should know what they'd find.
- Support replies. If the provider ever writes to your clients directly, find out which address and signature they use.
Some agencies tell clients openly that a hosting partner runs the servers, and that's fine too. What clients don't want is to be passed back and forth between two companies while their site is down.
Who answers support when something breaks
Settle this first, because it decides how your week goes when a client site falls over. There are three common setups.
The agency answers everything. Clients email you, you fix what you can, and you pass server problems to the provider. You stay closest to the client, and you also get the late-night emails. This works if you have someone technical on staff and enough sites to keep them busy.
The agency answers first and the provider does the technical work. Clients email you, you forward anything technical, and the provider fixes it and tells you what happened. For a small agency this is often the sensible middle ground. Its weak spot is the handoff: if the provider takes a day to reply, your client waits a day and blames you.
The provider answers clients under your name. The client writes to a support address on your domain and the provider replies as you. This takes the most off your hands. It also means someone outside your agency is speaking for you, so you need to be comfortable with how they write and what they promise.
Whichever you choose, get the provider's reply time in writing and don't promise clients anything faster.
Who owns the client relationship and the billing
With white-label hosting the client is yours. You set the price and send the invoice, and if the client leaves, they leave you. The provider should have no reason to contact your clients about anything commercial, and it's reasonable to ask them to confirm that in writing.
The gap between what the provider charges you and what you charge the client pays for your time on the account and for the risk you carry, since your client calls you when the provider has a bad day.
Owning the relationship also means being able to leave. Before the first site moves, find out whether you can take sites to another host without the provider's help, whether you get copies of the backups, and how much notice either side has to give.
Who holds the domain and DNS
The domain should be registered in the client's name, with a login the client can use. That protects the client if your agency closes or you part ways, and it protects you from ever being accused of holding a business's domain hostage. Managing the registrar account on the client's behalf is fine as long as they're the registrant and can get in.
DNS is messier, because the records decide where both the website and the email go, and they often sit with whoever built the first version of the site. Decide who is allowed to change records, usually the agency or the provider, and write down where the nameservers point and who has the login. Our guide to DNS without the jargon covers how the pieces fit together.
Be careful with email. A careless DNS edit during a migration can stop a client's email without touching the website. Whoever touches DNS should know which records belong to email, and should check afterward that SPF, DKIM and DMARC are still in place. We explain those three records in making sure your email lands.
When reselling hosting makes sense, and when it doesn't
Reselling tends to work when:
- you build sites that need ongoing care, and clients already ask you where to host them
- you want recurring revenue that doesn't depend on winning a new project every month
- you'd rather fix problems on servers you manage than diagnose them on a host you've never logged in to
- you have enough sites that per-site discounts leave a margin worth the effort
It tends not to work when:
- you build a few sites a year and hand them over for good
- the client has its own IT staff who want control of the server
- nobody at your agency can reply to a support email the same day
- the site has compliance requirements you don't understand well enough to stand behind
Questions to ask a provider before you resell
- Who will I be dealing with when something breaks, and how quickly do they reply?
- Can support reply to my clients under my agency's name, and from which address?
- How often are updates applied, and what happens when one breaks a site?
- How often are backups taken, where are they stored, how long are they kept, and how quickly can you restore one?
- Will any automated email reach my clients with your name on it?
- What is the per-site price as I add sites, and does it change at renewal?
- Will you migrate my existing client sites, and what does that cost?
- Can I get a report for each client showing what was done that month?
- If I leave, how do I get the sites and backups out?
Pay the most attention to the answers to the first two. Almost everything else on the list can be worked around later, but slow or unclear support lands on your client first.
At Hosterr, agencies get multi-site pricing, free batch migrations of client sites, per-client reports under your agency's name that are ready to forward, and optional white-label support so emails to your clients come from your agency's domain. You deal directly with the developer, Ryan, and get a reply the same day. The details are on our agency and white-label hosting page.
Frequently asked questions
What is white label website hosting?
It's hosting you sell under your own business name while another company runs the servers. Your client sees your agency on the invoice and in support emails, and you pay the provider a per-site rate.
Is reselling hosting worth it for a small agency?
It can be, if you already look after client sites after launch and someone at the agency can answer support emails promptly. If you build a few sites a year and hand them over, the support load usually outweighs the margin.
Should the agency or the client own the domain name?
The client should be the registrant and have their own login at the registrar. The agency can manage DNS day to day, but the client should never need the agency's permission to reach their own domain.
