subject: Which Host Is The Best? [print this page] Reseller Hosting is the general name for a variety of web hosting services that are available. The term doesn't refer to web hosting plans as much as it does the company you are purchasing your plan from.
A Hosting Reseller purchases a larger Web Hosting account from a Web Hosting company, and in turn sells portions of their account to their own customers. These resellers provide their customers with the hosting that the original host is providing, while they eschew the need to set up the costly technical hardware themselves. Reseller Hosting is growing in popularity among website design firms that want to offer hosting to their clients, new web hosting businesses that are trying to get one foot in the door, or companies with a number of websites.
A Reseller Host may offer deals on Shared, Dedicated or VPS space (this is further discussed in part 2.) The clients of a Reseller Host benefit by being able to purchase web space at a lower cost. The primary downfall of purchasing hosting from a reseller is the fact that your hosting company is beholden to the company which actually provides the hosting space. If you purchase an advanced hosting solution, it becomes more likely that a reseller can support your issues directly, though most issues which arise when hosting through a reseller need to be reported to the original hosting company by your reseller, even after you report it to them.
Essentially, reseller hosting becomes useful if you are interested in providing web hosting to others, or growing your own business by developing a collection of websites. If Dave does not intend to do one or the other of these tasks, he should most likely stay with Shared Hosting. This is the most popular kind of Hosting and one that will provide him with the benefits he needs.
But as of right now, Dave believes he is content with just one site, as he wants to maintain control of his website. His site is receiving a lot of visitors and he wants to change the site up a bit.