HostShop – Products & Services Questions
HostShop products and services support: articles about how a set up and manage the items you sell - web hosting, domains and more - via HostShop.
How do I add and sell VPS Backups?
If you’ve set up and configured VPS services to be sold in HostShop, you may want to add an extra potential revenue stream with VPS backups. You can add backups as an add-on product to the VPS services which your customers can then also buy.
To set these up, you’ll need to:
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Log in to My20i
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Head to Customers > Product Catalogue
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Select the VPS Services tab
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Locate the VPS Backup Services section.
In our example, we’re going to add the backup service for a 1 GB VPS that we’ve already configured to sell. We’ll simply select VPS Backups (1 GB VPS) from the drop down.
A default recommend price has already been added based on the price of 20i reseller price for these types of backup which is £2.99. So the price of £3.75 has been added giving you a £0.76 per month markup.
We’re then going to click the blue plus and select the Annually option from the Select Period dropdown. A price is prefilled with the recommended default, so we’ll just select Save to add this billing period.
How do I add and sell SSL certificates?
Adding SSL certificate options to your reseller hosting services offers more choice for your customers, matching their specific needs, which leads to happier customers and a healthier bottom line.
We provide a free SSL certificate, which you can pass on for free to your customers or put your on price own it to make some extra profit. This one's supported by Let's Encrypt, giving a leg up to your clients' Google ranking and site security. It covers subdomains too, but bear in mind, it needs our nameservers to work properly.
For some customers, particularly those running ecommerce sites, they might be after a bit more. That's where our Simple SSL certificates step in. These SSL are backed by GeoTrust They don't need our nameservers, and they come with a $10,000 warranty. Please note, the Simple SSL only covers the primary domain (and www.), so if the site you want to secure has multiple subdomains you should look at the Wildcard SSL below.
For sites and applications that have multiple subdomains then the Wildcard SSL from GeoTrust will ensure all of those subdomains are secure as standard.
But then, some customers want the full Monty, and that's when you can roll out the Extended SSL certificate. This one costs a bit more, but it has the most rigorous checks, a hefty underwritten warranty of $1.5 million, and an Extended Validation (EV) Certificate.
Please remember that while the term 'SSL Certificate' is widely used, all of our certificates utilize the more modern Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.3.
How to add an SSL as a product
With HostShop you can easy add chargeable SSL certificates to your product lineup. This means you can resell the Simple and Extended Validation certificates.
To set these up, you’ll need to:
- Log in to My20i
- Head to the Product Catalogue section.
- Select the SSL Certificates tab.
There are two types of SSL available to resell: the SSL Simple and the SSL Extended. You can read about the differences between those SSLs here.
In our example we’re going to set up the Simple SSL. Select this from the dropdown menu and select Add SSL Products.
This product can only be renewed on an annual basis. You’ll see we’ve added our recommended price of £49.99 to this product, giving you a £15.00 markup from the 20i Reseller discounted price of £34.99.
Select Save next to the price. Then head to your shop and select the SSL Certificates category and you’ll see your Simple SSL for sale and ready to be bought by your customers.
How do I add a MSSQL database as a product?
If you provide Windows hosting as a service, you may wish to also provide Microsoft SQL databases to customers via HostShop.
To set an MSSQL database up, you’ll need to:
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Log in to My20i
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Head to Customers > Product Catalogue
- Select the Hosting Services tab
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Scroll down to the Add-On Products section.
Select the Add Add-on Product dropdown menu and choose MSSQL Database.
A recommended price of £14.99 will already have been set, giving you a markup of £4.99. The original £10 price of an MSSQL database is the price of the licence provided directly by Microsoft. Select Save.
Next we’ll add an annual renewal option by clicking the + sign and selecting Annually from the menu. We’re going to offer a £2.00 per month discount if you pay yearly, so we’ll add the price £155.88 to the field and select Save.
If you now head to your shop, and then select to head to the Client Area, you’ll see the ability to order an MSSQL database.
How to add custom categories to HostShop?
By default your HostShop will have five product categories. These are:
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Virtual Private Servers
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Domain Names
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Additional Products & Services
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Web Hosting
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SSL Certificates
By default each category will show if there are appropriate products for it set up in the product catalogue. The categories Domain Names, Additional Products & Services and SSL Certificates are only customisable with the settings available in the product catalogue.
However if you go to https://my.20i.com/reseller/hostshop/product-categories you can add new categories which include any Web Hosting and VPS products.
When adding a category you need to give the following:
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Title - the name the category will be known by
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Description - the description of the category shown in the shop
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Products - what products are part of the category. These can only be from the Hosting Services and VPS Services of the product catalogue.
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Link Text - this is the text shown on the button users click to go to the category
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Sidebar Icon - here you can set a FontAwesome class to be used as an icon for the category. You can find a list of available icons here.
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Visible - this determines whether the category shows in your shop.
Default Product Categories
Here you can disable (hide) the default Web Hosting and VPS categories so they aren't displaying in your shop.
How can I add and sell balance products in HostShop?
In HostShop you can allow customers to add balance to their accounts with you. This balance can then be used to purchase products within HostShop.
Balance can be added in two ways:
- Via the affiliate system as commission. You can read more about the affiliate system here.
- By paying for balance as a product, which is what we will go through here.
To add balance as a product that users can purchase you need to go to Product Catalogue > Other Products & Services > Balance.
Here you can add the amounts of balance you want your StackCP Users to be able to purchase. To do that you need to enter an Amount, click Add Balance Product and then click Save on the created product. In our example we're adding a product for £10 of balance.
Once you have Balance products set up in your HostShop your StackCP Users will be able to buy them. To do this, they need to go to their account, access the dropdown menu in the top right under their name and select Account Credit.
This will then take them to their Account Credit page where they can add credit in any amounts you have set and see their Current Balance.
How do I add a billing contract to a service?
You can manually assign a billing contract for a current hosting service to a StackCP User. This is so you can bill them automatically for a set price and set renewal period.
To do this:
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Log in to My20i.
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Head to Customers > StackCP Users.
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Select Options > Manage on the StackCP User who has the service you want to add the billing contract to.
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Under the Access & Contracts section, you can add a contract to a service (with the exception of a package), by selecting Manage > Add Contract to Service.
With packages, rather than adding a contract to the service you need to add the package to a Plan. There are two ways you can do this. You can either add a plan to the StackCP User and then assign the package to the Plan or you can directly convert the package to a Plan.
- To do the former you need to click on Add Plan at the bottom of the Access & Contracts section.
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Select the Plan you wish to add.
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Then on the Plan select Manage > Manage Packages.
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You can then select the packages you wish to add to the Plan.
Alternatively you can select Manage > Add Service to a Plan and this will let you add the package to a new Plan.
How do StackCP Users pay with balance in HostShop?
Before StackCP Users can pay with balance in HostShop you will need to either add balance as a product they can purchase or they will need to earn balance as commission from the affiliate system. You can find more information on these topics here:
Once a StackCP User has some account credit they can select it as the payment gateway at the checkout.
What are the product description variables in HostShop?
When creating a Product for your HostShop setup and adding a description, you’ll note that there are some variables you can add. These list the limitations and features that are - and are not - available for that package type, dynamically.
Complete List of Product Description Limit Variables
This information pulls directly from your set package type limits. So, if you set up a package type to have the Malware Scanner available and have mailboxes up to 10GB in size, these variables will display these values accordingly. It means that you don't have to copy them across for every one of your Products manually.
These will need to have double curly brackets around them, and start with the tag ‘limits.’, for example:
{{ limits.display.mailboxes }}
{{ limits.malwareScan }}
You can also use an if statement with the variable to check if it’s true and take action as necessary. For example, if we wanted to check if the Web Builder is available for a package and then display something accordingly, you can use:
{% if limits.webBuilder %}
Here's a full list of the available variables for package limits:
- accessErrorLogs
- accountSummary
- addFreeWeb
- additionalFtpUsers
- allFutureOneClick
- allowExternalSsl
- appManager
- autoDiagnostics
- awstats
- backups
- bandwidth
- blockVisitors
- canSetEmailQuota
- canSetQuotaNotification
- cdnCaching
- cdnOptimisation
- cdnSecurityHeaders
- cdnStatistics
- changeParent
- contacts
- customDocRoot
- customPrimaryDocRoot
- directoryIndexing
- dkimSignatures
- dns
- dnsSec
- domainContacts
- domainPrivacy
- domains
- emailSummary
- fileManager
- filePermissions
- freeSsl
- ftp
- googleTranslate
- highEmailNotification
- hotlinkProtection
- htaccessErrors
- imapSync
- lock
- lowEmailNotification
- mailAutoresponders
- mailboxes
- mailCatchAllForwarders
- mailDistributionLists
- mailForwarders
- mailJunkFilterLogs
- mailJunkFilters
- maintenanceMode
- malwareReport
- malwareScan
- manageAppPool
- manageWpAdminUsers
- manageWpChecksumReport
- manageWpDatabase
- manageWpPlugins
- manageWpSearchReplace
- manageWpSiteSettings
- manageWpStaging
- manageWpThemes
- manageWpUpdates
- manageWpUsers
- maxMailboxSize
- mssqlDatabases
- mysqlDatabases
- names
- nameserverCheck
- nameservers
- passwordProtectedDirectories
- phpConfig
- phpMyAdmin
- platformReinstall
- primaryFtpUnlock
- pushTransfer
- remoteMysql
- scheduledTasks
- sitemapGenerator
- ssh
- stackUsers
- statsBandwidth
- statsDisk
- subdomains
- switchPhpVersion
- temporaryURL
- timelineBackups
- usageormation
- webalizer
- webBuilder
- webForward
- webmail
- webRedirect
- webspace
- whois
- wpAdmin
The following relate to the one-click installs available, and would only be usable on package types based on our Linux hosting platform.
limits.apps
'limits.apps' is how you'd get those apps, so rather than {{ limits.AppName }} it's {{ limits.apps.AppName }}
- abantecart
- agoracart
- b2evolution
- backdrop
- bamboo
- buddypress
- cachet
- cakephp
- cmsmadesimple
- concrete5
- coppermine
- craftcms
- cubecart
- dolphin
- dotproject
- dolibarr
- drupal
- e107
- elgg
- expressionengine
- fengoffice
- flarum
- fluxbb
- formalms
- formtools
- freshrss
- geeklog
- gibbon
- gnusocial
- helpcenterlive
- invoiceninja
- invoiceplane
- joomla
- kanboard
- laravel
- limesurvey
- magento
- mambocms
- mantisbt
- matomo
- mediawiki
- modx
- moodle
- mybb
- nucleus
- opencart
- openwebanalytics
- oscommerce
- oscomphoenix
- osticket
- phpbb
- phpcoin
- phpformgenerator
- phpfreechat
- phpfusion
- phplist
- phpmailer
- phpmyfaq
- phpnuke
- phproject
- phprojekt
- piwigo
- prestashop
- processwire
- reviveadserver
- roundcube
- salessyntax
- serendipity
- silverstripecms
- simplemachinesforum
- slim
- snipeit
- squirrelmail
- suitecrm
- tcexam
- textpattern
- troubleticketexpress
- typo3
- vtiger
- webcalendar
- wordpress
- xerte
- zencart
- zenphoto
How do I offer hidden products, purchasable only via a direct link?
If you wish to make a product purchasable only via a direct link rather than being publicly accessible via the shop, you can set a product to Hidden. This will prevent it from showing on your HostShop order page when users and customers view your shop. The generated link provided in your Product Catalogue will still work as normal, allowing you to still offer these products directly to specific clients as required.
To make a product hidden, head to your Product Catalogue within My20i by going to Customers > Product Catalogue. On the product or service you wish to hide, select the Hidden checkbox, but make sure the For Sale checkbox is selected as normal.
When selected, this product now will no longer appear in your HostShop, but you will be able to send customers the Product Link to buy the product directly.
How do I set domain name prices?
With HostShop, you can resell domain names with your 20i Reseller account domain discount. Some of these domain prices are at wholesale price, giving you the opportunity to make as much profit margin as possible. To set the prices for the domain names you wish to sell, you’ll need to:
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Log in to My20i
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Head to the Product Catalogue section
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Select the Domain Names tab.
From here you can add and set the prices for the Top Level Domains (TLDs). In our example, we’re going to select the Add Popular TLDs (10) button which will automatically add: .biz, .co, .co.uk, .com, .info, .me.uk, .net, .org, .org.uk and .uk TLDs to our list.
You’ll notice right away that the prices have already been set. This is because we have the Guideline Pricing checkbox enabled next to each TLD, so we’ve pre-populated the price for registration/renewal and the price for a transfer to be our recommended price.
If you'd like to customise a specific price, uncheck the Guideline Pricing checkbox. You’ll then be able to add your own custom price.
If you then head to your shop and select the Domain Names section, you can search for any of the TLDs you’ve made available. Customers will then be able to register domain names with these TLDs.
How do I add my own custom products and services?
HostShop is extremely flexible. Not only does it allow you to resell 20i’s hosting products and services easily, but you can also add and bill customers for your own services, such as web design, SEO, themes or advertising.
To set a custom product up, you’ll need to:
- Login to My20i.
- Head to Customers -> Product Catalogue.
- Select the Other Products & Services tab.
In our example we’re going to add web design as a service, for a small website and/or blog.
In the Add Service field we’ll type ‘Web Design’ and select Add Service.
Before adding a price, we’re going to select Edit Description so we can tell our customers about this service. We’ll type our description and select Save Changes.
We’re going to select One-off from the Add Renewal Period dropdown and input a price of £199.99, then select Add Pricing Option.
Now, when we head to our shop, when a customer selects to view the Additional Products & Services category, they’ll see our web design service as a purchasable product.
How do I add a Malware Scanning as a product?
At 20i we provide a free, on-demand malware scanner. This is a product that's often charged for by other hosting companies.
With HostShop, you can offer this service to your customers for a price, giving you chance to make 100% mark-up. To set up malware scanning as a product, you’ll need to:
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Log in to My20i
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Head to Customers > Product Catalogue
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Select the Hosting Services tab
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Scroll down to Add-On Products section.
Select the Add Add-on Product dropdown menu and choose Malware Scanning.
As malware scanning comes at no extra cost to you as a Reseller, you can price the service at any price you think is suitable. In our example, we’re going to add a monthly price of £4.99.
Now, when you head to your shop you’ll be able to go to the Client Area and see Order Malware Scanning as an option.
Customers can then select this and purchase it straight from your shop.
How do I add domain privacy as a service?
With HostShop you can resell Domain Privacy as an add-on to the purchase of domain names themselves.
To set up Domain Privacy, you’ll need to:
Log in to My20i
Head to Customers > Product Catalogue
Select the Domain Names tab
Scroll down to the Domain Privacy section.
From here you can give your Domain Privacy product a name and a price.
The option to purchase the Domain Privacy add-on will then show for your customers to purchase for their existing domains when managing them within StackCP.
How do I add and sell VPS services?
With HostShop your product lineup isn’t just limited to hosting and domains. You can also resell virtual private servers (VPS) with your 20i reseller discount.
To set these up, you’ll need to:
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Log in to My20i
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Head to the Product Catalogue section
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Select the VPS Services tab.
In the VPS Services section you’ll be able to select the dropdown menu and add one of the 5 pre-defined VPS Services. The list of specs for each VPS can be found in the table below:
In our example we’ll be adding the 1 GB VPS. We’ve selected the 1 GB VPS and hit Add VPS.
We now can add a price and other renewal periods. A default price of £9.99 has been added which we’re going to leave in place. This gives us a markup of £2.50 per month on top of the 20i reseller price of the VPS which is £7.49.
We can now set another renewal period by using the dropdown menu.
We’re going to add an annual plan to this VPS product. To do this, click on the blue plus and select Annually from the Select Period dropdown. A recommended price has been pre-filled giving further markup on the annual price.
When now heading to the VPS section of our customers' control panel, we can now order a 1GB VPS on a monthly or annual renewal period.
Business tips
If you need advice about how to sell VPS to your customers, please see our VPS Product Guide or this blog post: How to sell Virtual Private Servers. It covers how to explain what a VPS is, customer myths, marketing and sales tips.