What is an Addon Domain?
An addon domain is a term that cPanel uses for adding another domain to your hosting account. An addon domain basically tells the server “I own this domain and now I want to host it on this server and do something with it.” You may have already registered a domain but now want to setup email or a website with it and you're not seeing it yet in cPanel.
While a subdomain is a branch off of your current domain (i.e. test.yourdomain.com), an addon domain is a separate, fully functional domain added onto the hosting account you already have (i.e. yourseconddomain.com)
This article will walk you through the process of obtaining the additional domain, adding it to your account, and transferring the domain to Reclaim Hosting.
Obtaining an Addon Domain
You can buy a new domain name directly from us through your client portal by going to Domains > Register a New Domain:
…or you can transfer a domain you have from another registrar to your Reclaim Hosting account. For this post, we’ll go over how to set up a new domain (purchased from us) first, and go over how to transfer in a domain from another registrar at the end.
If you’d like to transfer a domain from another registrar, jump down to the transferring a domain from another registrar section of this tutorial.
Setting up your new domain
After purchasing the new domain, head to your cPanel, scroll down and click Domains. Click the Create A New Domain button. Next, type in your newly purchased domain in the Enter the domain that you would like to create: field. Be sure to uncheck the Share document root option if you don't want the Addon Domain to share the same document root as your primary domain. Keeping the Share document root option checked will make the new domain an Alias Domain of the primary domain.
Once you’re done setting up your domain options, click Submit and wait a few seconds for your changes to process. That’s pretty much it!
Installing Applications on your Addon Domain
Once your domain is set up, you can select and install applications like WordPress or Omeka like normal. Find out how to get started with WordPress via our Installing WordPress community post, or learn to work with Omeka Classic via our Installing Omeka Classic community post.
Transferring a domain from another registrar
Transferring a domain you already own is not too much different from registering a new domain, except the transfer process requires an EPP code, or an agreement code obtained from your registrar that allows the registrar to release your domain.
Head to your Client Area and click Domains > Transfer Domains to Us .
You will be prompted to enter your EPP code on the same screen where we ask if you’d like to buy the identity protection.
How to find your EPP Code:
- Namecheap (they provide some of the most comprehensive info on this process, if you’re interested)
- Godaddy
- Network Solutions
- Hover
At this stage, here are a few items to note:
- If you have whois protection enabled through your outside registrar, you must disable it temporarily before you initiate the transfer. This is because we will send an authorization email to confirm the email address paired with your domain. (This is a “are you really sure you want to transfer?” message.)
- You must click the confirmation link in the email we send, or you will have to start the process over!
- The domain must be older than 60 days.
- The domain must have no other transfers in the last 60 days.
- The domain transfer process can take up to 5 days.
If your domain registrar doesn’t appear here, you can do a Google search for “epp code” and then the name of your registrar. If you’re still having troubles finding your EPP code, send a support ticket our way.
Once we confirm that your domain has successfully been transferred, you can head back up to the setting up your new domain section of this tutorial to set it up as an addon domain.