Learn how to add multiple domains to a single cPanel web hosting account to save money when hosting. See how to configure sub-domain or add an alias domain.
When you host your website or create a cPanel account with Web Hosting Magic, you can control multiple domains from a single cPanel account.
There is no need to spend your hard-earned cash paying for extra hosting accounts.
cPanel recognizes three types of domain additions besides the primary domain:
- alias domains
- addon domains
- subdomains
cPanel though recognizes ONLY one domain as “primary” within an account.
Every other domain is technically a sub-domain of the primary domain including any add-on domain you may add even though that you can still access each individually.
Before you proceed, make sure that the addon domain name is a valid registered domain name.
Once your web hosting account is ready, log in to cPanel and scroll down to Domains.
Click Create a New Domain.
A new interface will appear.
Enter a fully qualified domain name in the Domain text box.
At this point, the question you will ask yourself is, what kind of domain am I trying to create?
I Want To Configure A Sub-Domain
The easiest way to create a subdomain is to use the link to cPanel’s Subdomains interface: cPanel >> Home >> Domains >> Subdomains.
But you can also use the cPanel Domain feature to create a sub-domain.
A subdomain is a subsection of your website that sometimes exists as a subdirectory of your public_html (document root) directory or your account’s home directory.
Subdomains use a prefix in conjunction with the domain name.
For example, if the registered domain name is domain_name.com, the sub-domain will be prefix.example.com.
You can use subdomains to create unique user accounts for vanity domains.
To do that, enter a new name followed by a period (.) and then the website’s domain.
For example, enter sub-domain.domain_name.com to create a sub-domain of domain_name.
The interface automatically populates the remaining text boxes, and we recommend that you use these values.
But you can also specify the directory where you want the files for the domain to exist (document root).
I Want To Configure An Alias Domain
The easiest way to create an alias domain, use the link to cPanel’s Alias interface: cPanel >> Home >> Domains >> Aliases.
But you can also use the cPanel Domain interface to create an alias domain.
An alias domain is a domain that you own, but which does not contain any content.
This kind of domain will point to the contents of another domain or sub-domain on your cPanel account.
To do that, leave the box “Share document root (/home/user/public_html) with “primarydomain_name.com”” checked when the page load.
You can use this to hold a domain that you will later sell, or use it redirect traffic to another domain.
This will create an alias domain.
But these are not what we want to do.
What we want to do is to add an add-on domain to our existing cPanel account so we can host multiple domains with one (1) cPanel account.
How To Add Domain In cPanel
To add a new domain and create a new document root, deselect or uncheck the Share document root with “domain_name.com”, where domain_name.com represents your main domain.
Click Submit or click Submit and Create Another Domain.
You’ll now be able to see this domain in the addon domains interface.
Probably the easiest way of adding an additional domain that you own and want to add to your master cPanel account is by logging in to cPanel, scrolling down to Domains interface and clicking on Addon Domains.
This one is more intuitive as all you need to do to create an addon domain is to:
Enter the new addon domain’s name in the New Domain Name text box. cPanel will automatically populate the Subdomain and Document Root text boxes.
If you enter a domain that resembles an existing domain on your account, the system will recommend that you create a subdomain for that domain.
This is to ensure that the name-servers properly manage the entries in the domain’s zone file.
To create multiple addon domains with the same username and different extensions (for example, domain_name.com and domain_name.net), manually enter a unique username in the Subdomain text box.
To choose a document root other than the automatically populated value, manually enter the directory name in the Document Root text box.
To create an FTP account for the new addon domain, select the Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain checkbox.
If you select this checkbox, additional settings will appear:
cPanel automatically populates the FTP Username text box.
To select a different FTP account username, manually enter the desired username.
Enter and confirm the new password in the appropriate text boxes.
Click Add Domain.
If your registered domain’s DNS zone records are incorrect, you may receive the following error: Could not determine the nameserver IP addresses for “subdomain.domain_name.com”.
To correct this, check that the domain is registered with a valid domain registrar.
And then use cPanel’s Zone Editor interface (cPanel>> Home>> Domains >> Zone Editor) to correct your DNS zone records.
If you are unable to do this, contact our technical support team for help.
To modify the document root for an addon domain, perform the following steps:
Click the edit icon for the addon domain that you wish to manage under the Document Root column.
Enter the new file path to the addon domain’s document root in the available text box.
Click Change.
To remove the domain from the cPanel account, perform the following steps:
Click Remove Domain.
To confirm that you wish to remove this domain, click Yes, remove this domain.
If you remove a domain that contains email accounts, those email accounts will not appear in the Email Accounts interface (cPanel >> Home >> Email >> Email Accounts).
However, the mail folders continue to exist on the server.
If you add the domain again, the email accounts will reappear.
If you have enabled a domain redirection for the add-on or would want to disable a domain redirection:
Click Manage Redirection for the addon domain that you wish to manage.
To redirect the domain, enter the link to which you wish to redirect the addon domain.
Click Save, or, to disable the redirection, click Disable Redirection.