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How Do I Create and Remove an Addon Domain?

 

An addon domain is a secondary domain 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 different 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 that you would like to host as an addon domain, you need to connect it to your HostGator. For more information on how to connect your domain to your server, please see the following article.

WHM users will not be able to 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 check out this article for more details.

Here is a video tutorial on creating an addon domain in cPanel.

The buttons, links, and icons in your cPanel may look slightly different from the video; however, their functionalities in cPanel should still be the same.

To create an addon domain:

  1. Log in to cPanel.
  2. Look for the Domains section, then click on Addon Domains.

    cPanel Addon Domains icon

  3. In the Addon Domains section, fill out the following fields.

    Enter details of addon domain

    • New Domain Name -  Enter the new domain name (do not include http:// or www).

      The Subdomain and Document Root fields will auto-populate. If you want the addon domain to use a different directory or folder, enter the directory name in the Document Root field.

    • Create an FTP account associated with this Addon Domain - Put a checkmark if you want to create a separate FTP account for the addon domain. Once checked, the text boxes for the FTP username and password will be displayed. Enter your preferred FTP username and password.

      Addon domain - Create an FTP account

  4. Once done, click on the Add Domain button. 

Your new domain is now successfully added!

Tip! You can directly go to your addon domain's directory by clicking the link under the domain's Document Root.

Edit 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 your actual files and databases. However, you can no longer access the affected files through the deleted domain name).

To delete an addon domain:

  1. In the Addon Domains section, look for the addon domain you want to remove. 
  2. Once found, click the Remove link under the Actions column.

    Remove addon domain

How to point an Addon domain to a specific or existing 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 in the Addon Domains section. If the folder does not exist, cPanel will create one for you.

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.

Click here to know what document root directories you CAN NOT use

 

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

  • 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

For new addon domains:

  1. After providing the new addon domain, replace the auto-populated Document Root entry with the folder or directory that you want your addon domain to use.

    New Addon - Document Root

  2. Click Add Domain.

 

For existing addon domains:

  1. Locate the domain you want to edit and click its pencil icon under the Document Root column.

    Edit Document Root

  2. In the pop-up window, enter the path of the addon domain's new folder or directory name.

    Change Document Root popup

  3. Click Change.

How to manage an Addon domain's redirection

To enable redirection of your addon domain:

  1. In the Addon Domains section, look for the addon domain you want to manage.
  2. Click its Manage Redirection link on the far right.

    Addon Domains - Manage Redirection

  3. On the next page, enter your preferred redirection URL for the addon domain.

    Enter Addon Domain Redirection URL

  4. Click Save.
  5. A confirmation prompt will be displayed, notifying you of the successful redirection

 

To disable an addon domain's redirection.

  1. In the Addon Domains section, look for the addon domain you want to manage.
  2. Click its Manage Redirection link on the far right.

    Addon Domains - Manage Redirection

  3. Click Disable Redirection.

    Disable Redirection

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