In cPanel, addon domains are top level domains (TLD) that you can add to your shared hosting account. Addon domains are by far the best way to save with hosting expenses. Using this cPanel feature can save you a lot, if you have multiple sites that you can host with one account. Instead of buying hosting for each domain, you can add all of the domains to just one account.
Even if you host only one site and you are looking for a hosting provider, I recommend you check if they provide this feature, because most likely you might want to add sites to your original site in the future.

Usually hosting providers limit the number of addon domains you can use. At tdothost.com, we allow unlimited number of addon domains.

Theoretically an addon domain is build as subdirectory of you current hosting main folder. To your visitors, your added site will appear as a seperate and independand website.

I think addon domains can be a perfect choice, if you have many mini sites and want to manage them with one cpanel account. Or you can just offer it to friends and family who are starting out and are not sure yet of what site they want to build.
All your sites will share the same space and bandwidth. You will benefit from the savings of having multiple websites.

Here are the Pros and cons of addon domains the way I see it:

Pros

• Creating multiple independent addon sites with one shared hosting account.
• Savings. The more the sites, the more the savings.
• Easy manage you account with one cPanel account. No need for a userid and password for each site.
• Seperate ftp account for each site.
• If addon site is for someone else, he/she will not be able to use your cPanel account.

Cons

• All your sites are sharing the same ip address, not so good for a linking strategy.
• Space and Bandwidth is limited by your account limitation.
• Only one cPanel account, will make it more difficult to track statistics. You can use Google webmaster tools to track statistics and make up.

How to addon a domain:

First make sure that your hosting provider has the addon feature. Some allow 5 addons and some allow more. We are still one of the few that allow unlimited addon domains. This is limited only to the space that your main account has got.

Before you add a domain, make sure your new domain is registered and that you already have configured it to point to your web site’s servers. In other words you set up the name servers given to you by the hosting provider.

To add a domain to your web site:

1. Log into cPanel.
2. Click the Addon Domains icon. This will take you to the Addon Domain Maintenance form.

3. Type your domain name without the http://www. in the ‘New Domain Name’ text box and press the tab key. When you press the tab key the ‘Username/directory/subdomain Name’ box will automatically be filled with the domain name.

4. Change the ‘Username/directory/subdomain Name’ that was automatically filled out when you completed the previous step to the desired folder name. For example, if it is a long name, you can shorten it. I left mine here the same.

5. Click the Add Domain button.

Note: When you add a domain, cPanel does a lot under the hood. cPanel will add the new domain as a subdomain and create the directory for it. It will get the nameserver info and create a DNS entry for the new domain…

Because of this, something might go wrong. Just contact your support at the hosting provider and they will help.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and/or comments below.

Regards.

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