The different types of domains (Main Domain, Add-on Domains, Alias Domains, Sub-Domains) and how to manage them

Depending on the hosting type and hosting plan you have chosen, you'll be able to host additional domains under your hosting account/server. Either as a simple redirect to the main domain (or to a custom URL), or as a separate domain with its own website.

In cPanel, you can manage your domains and sub-domains under the "Domains" page.

Types of Domains

There are 4 types of domain names:

1. Main domain
   Example: www.yourdomain.tld - showing the content in the public_html directory.
2. Sub-domains
   Example: blog.yourdomain.tld - showing the content in public_html/blog directory (or any other defined document root).
3. Alias or Parked domains
   Example: yourotherdomain.tld - showing a mirror of the main domain with the content in the public_html directory.
4. Addon domains
   Example: yourotherdomain.tld - showing its own content from the public_html/yourotherdomain.tld directory (or any other defined document root).

Hence, if you purchased additional domain names and you wanted them all to mirror the main site, you can add them as parked/alias domains. If you want each domain to have its own content, you can add them as addon domain names. If you want one domain to have its own content and the others to redirect, you can add the one domain as an addon domain and the others as parked/alias domains with a redirect to the main domain or any other domain or URL you need.

How to Add a new domain or sub-domain to your cPanel account

To add a domain or sub-domain to your cPanel account, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your cPanel account (see here how)
2. Navigate to the Domains category and click on the Domains button
3. Enter the domain that you would like to create in the Domain input field
4. Under Document Root (File System Location), untick the box Share document root, unless you want to create an alias/parked domain
   • If the domain should have its own site/folder, we recommend choosing a folder outside of the public_html folder for compatibility reasons (i.e. simply enter additional-domain.tld without any slashes [replace additional-domain.tld with the actual domain, or any other folder name you prefer])
5. Click on the Submit button

You can now add/upload the content for the domain to its document root folder, unless it's an alias/parked domain.

How to Remove an existing domain or sub-domain from your cPanel account

To add a domain or sub-domain to your cPanel account, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your cPanel account (see here how)
2. Navigate to the Domains category and click on the Domains button
3. Under the Actions column, click on the Manage button next to the domain that you want to delete
4. Click on the Remove Domain button (after you are aware of the warning message above it)

If you no longer require the content of the removed domain, you should remove the folder and MySQL databases that were assigned to it or used by it.

Update by SP on 10/01/2023