Addon Domains

Addon Domains

Addon domains allow you to control multiple domains from a single account. An addon domain links a new domain name to a subdirectory of your account's public_html (document root) directory, and then stores its files in that subdirectory.

Important:

  • Your hosting provider can specify a maximum number of addon domains that you can create in WHM's Modify an Account  interface (Home >> Account Functions >> Modify an Account).
  • Your hosting provider must specify a maximum number of addon domains that you can create greater than 0. A value of 0 prevents addon domain creation.

Create an addon domain

To create an addon domain, perform the following steps:

  1. Enter the new addon domain's name in the New Domain Name text box.

    Note:

    When you enter the domain name, cPanel automatically populates the Subdomain or FTP Username text box. To create multiple addon domains with the same username and different extensions (such as example.com and example.net), manually enter a unique username in the Subdomain or FTP Username text box.

  2. Enter the directory that you wish to contain the addon domain’s files in the document root text box.
  3. Enter and confirm the new password in the appropriate text boxes.

    Notes:

    • The system grades the password that you enter on a scale of 100 points. 0 indicates a weak password, while 100 indicates a very secure password.
    • Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. A green password Strengthmeter indicates that the password is equal to or greater than the required password strength.
    • Click Password Generator to generate a strong password. For more information, read our Password Generator documentation.

  4. Click Add Domain.

    Note:

    When you create an addon domain in the cPanel interface, the system automaticallycreates a subdomain. To alter or delete the subdomain after you create it, you may alter or delete the information that the addon domain's website displays.

  5. To add files to the addon domain’s home directory, click File Manager.

Note:

The system stores and displays the addon domain's traffic statistics as part of the subdomain's traffic statistics.

Modify Addon Domain

Modify the document root for an addon domain

To modify the document root for an addon domain, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the edit icon  next to the addon domain that you wish to manage.
  2. Enter the new file path to the addon domain's document root in the available text box.
  3. Click Change.

Enable or disable addon domain redirection

To disable or enable redirection of an addon domain, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the  link next to the addon domain that you wish to manage.
  2. To redirect the domain, enter the link to which you wish to redirect the addon domain in the available text box.
  3. Click Save.
    • To disable the redirect, click Disable Redirection.

Remove an addon domain

To remove an addon domain, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the Remove link next the addon domain that you wish to remove.
  2. Click Yes.

Email accounts in addon domains

Note:

In the following examples:

  • old_account represents the cPanel account from which you wish to move the addon domain's email account or accounts.
  • new_account represents the cPanel account to which you wish to move the addon domain's email account or accounts.
  • domain_name represents the addon domain's name.
  • email_account represents the name of the addon domain's email account that you wish to move.

You can create email accounts for addon domains. To learn how to set up an email account for an addon domain, read our Email Accounts documentation.

When you remove the addon domain, its email accounts will no longer appear in the cPanel interface. However, the contents for this email account still exist in the home/username/mail directory.

  • If you add the domain back to the same account as the primary domain, an addon domain, or a parked domain, the email accounts reappear in the cPanel interface.
  • If you move the domain to a different account, you must add the email accounts manually and move the contents of the email account manually. The email accounts must follow the same name and domain format that they previously followed.
    • Use the Email Accounts interface to add new accounts, or run the /scripts/addpop script to manually add new email accounts.

    • To move one email account under a domain, you can run the following command:

       mv /home/old_account/mail/domain_name/email_account /home/new_account/mail/domain_name/

      After you run this command, the system creates the /home/new_account/mail/domain_name/ directory.

    • To move all the email accounts under a domain, run the following command:

      mv /home/old_account/mail/domain_name /home/new_account/mail

       After you move the files, run the following command to change the ownership of the new account:

      chown -R new_account:new_account /home/new_account/mail/domain_name.

Note:

Verify ownership of the email account after you move it.

Search addon domains

To search the list of addon domains, perform the following steps:

  1. Enter the search criteria into the Search box.
  2. Click Go.

The interface lists results that match your search criteria.

Addon vs. alias domains

Characteristic
Addon domains
Alias domains
The main domain appears in the address bar. Yes No
The domain uses the following Apache directive: VirtualHost ServerAlias
The domain uses separate logs. Yes No
The domain uses separate stats. Yes No
The system treats the domain as a subdomain (other than the URL). Yes No
This type of domain is ideal for multiple domains that share the same address. No Yes
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