How do I Create and Remove an Addon Domain? | HostGator Support
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How do I Create and Remove an Addon Domain?

Addon domains are secondary domains hosted on a cPanel account. Addon domains typically have their distinct website.

The cPanel will allow you to add the addon domain even if you do not own (register) the domain name or if your name servers (DNS) have not propagated. However, the domain will not work until the domain is both registered and connected to the server where your website content is set up. Your new domains may be registered for this purpose at https://www.hostgator.com/domains.

This article will discuss the following topics.


How to create an Addon domain

With addon domains, you can host multiple domains with different website content, all under the same disk space and bandwidth of one cPanel.

After purchasing a domain, or if you already own a domain you would like to host as an addon, you need to connect it to your HostGator account. For more information on how to connect your domain to your server, please see the following article.

WHM users cannot create an addon domain in your cPanels unless you set Max Addon Domains to more than zero in your WHM packages. You must also have subdomains set to a number equal to (or greater than) the number of addon domains you wish to allow. Please visit the following article for more details.

To create an addon domain:

  1. Log in to cPanel.
  2. In the Domains section, click on Domains.

    cPanel - Domains - Domains

  3. On the next page, click Create A New Domain.

    cPanel - Create a new domain

  4. Enter the new domain into the Domain field.

    cPanel - Enter domain name

  5. Make sure NOT to select the "Share document root (/home/username/public_html) with “domain.tld." option.

    Deselect the checkbox

  6. Enter a directory name for the domain. Please note that this is the folder where the site files/contents of the domain (your website) will be saved, also called the "document root."
  7. Once done, click the Submit button.

Your new domain is now successfully added!

Tip! You can directly go to your addon domain's folder (document root) by clicking the link under the domain's Document Root.

Go to Document Root


How to remove an Addon domain

Removing the addon domain only removes the domain from the DNS and server configuration. It does not affect the deleted domain's files and databases. While you can no longer access the affected files through the deleted domain name, you can still see them in your File Manager.

To delete an addon domain:

  1. In the Domains section, look for the addon domain you want to delete, then click on Manage.

    cPanel - Manage addon domain

  2. Click on the Remove Domain button.

    Remove addon domain

  3. Click Yes, Remove This Domain to confirm.
    Confirm removal of domain

How to point an Addon domain to another directory or folder

Sometimes you already have content uploaded to a specific folder on your account, or you want the content to be in a different folder than the default. In that case, you would specify the correct folder in the Document Root field of your domain.

If the folder already exists, it may give you a warning. In this case, you entered something that already exists on purpose. You can safely ignore this warning since you intend to point the addon domain to that folder.

For instructions on updating the document root of your domain, please visit the following article:

What document root directories you CAN NOT use

Please note that there are some directories you cannot use for your addon domain(s) as a document root directory.

  • The account’s home directory itself (/)
  • Directories outside of the account’s home directory (./ and ../)
  • .cpanel
  • .trash
  • etc
  • mail
  • ssl
  • tmp
  • logs
  • .cphorde
  • spamassassin
  • .htpasswds
  • var
  • cgi-bin
  • ssh
  • perl5

Need additional assistance? HostGator's Support is here to help. Please contact us via phone or chat so we can assist!