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How to start selling VPS as a beginner?
Long story short, I started a web hosting reseller business in late 2023, and without spending a dime on ads, I’ve made $4.5K so far! just from shared hosting and reselling domains. It's only a part time business since I have a full time job besides this. Now, many of my customers are asking for VPS, and I've received lots of similar questions in the past, but I've never tried it before. I know VPS is challenging, and the market is overcrowded. I am specifically targeting a small country where most of my customers are located. So, what’s the easiest or most cost-effective way to start selling VPS without getting overwhelmed? Thanks!
Please don't demotivate me or spread unnecessary hate
Comments
You are already used to reselling in some ways, reselling VPS is an option if you find someone willing to work with you.
Since it seems you have a large customer base already, reselling to them might be an option?
I don't know if this would be profitable on LET if you try to resell here though. (cost wise)
Depending on your level of expertise. You could automate almost everything in WHMCS. Also, learn virtualization software and for how you want the VPS to function.
A virtualization software that a lot of people use because it's free is called proxmox.
When you figured all that out and start selling, start small and scale to what you think you can handle without getting overwhelmed.
I am no pro, I don't even have tag
I would love @Francisco @MannDude @advinservers to give you their 10cents. They all run/ran successful hosting companies that are the best amongst LET.
Let's hope they'll chime in.
On mobile and away from my desk at the moment but the short advice is: Do not compete on price. 10 higher paying customers paying $100/mo is better than 100 lower paying customers paying $10/mo. Don't get caught up in the numbers too much, and learn to say no when people beg you to offer more for less. You can't please every one.
I would first try to familiarize yourself with other VPS providers in the industry, such as OVH, Hetzner, or any of the smaller providers that are on LET. Prior to starting my company, I used to own a lot of VPS at a lot of different providers to host my various projects. This made me a bit familiar with the pricing, specifications, and specific features that helped my projects.
I would also say to try out Proxmox. It can be hosted on any dedicated server or small PC, and it's a free panel that allows you to create virtual machines. I would say that Proxmox isn't particularly popular for selling VPS hosting, but learning how to use it will probably get you a bit familiar with how it all works. It's extremely well documented and there's many tutorials on how to use and install it. Having the exposure will be helpful, even if you don't end up using it to sell VMs down the line.
If you are ready to sell VMs, I would highly suggest checking out VirtFusion, a VPS control panel that seems to be a popular choice amongst a lot of providers in the industry. We use Convoy, which is built on top of Proxmox, but we had to implement a lot of modifications to make it work well when scaling up.
You will need somewhere to host the VPS. Personally, I would recommend starting off with renting a dedicated server, especially if you have a lower budget. There's plenty of dedicated server providers on LET and elsewhere. I started out with a small <$100/month server from OVH and scaled up from there. If you are looking for a dedicated server, also keep in mind of the IPv4 pricing that these providers charge, since every VPS typically needs a dedicated IPv4 address (I mean, not really, but it's what most clients expect).
Thanks! It helps a lot. Just one quick question about IPv4 addresses, where can I buy them, and can I use them with Proxmox or tools like VirtFusion?
I also run a hosting business in my country just like you, and I’m happy to help you.
If you’re looking to resell VPS services profitably, the best way is to purchase Cloud VPS servers from providers like Hetzner or OVH and resell them. You will need to provide your customers with a panel that allows them to reboot the VPS, power it on/off, and reset the root password. For this, there are WHMCS modules available in the WHMCS Marketplace for both Hetzner and OVH. You can install one of these modules and connect it to your WHMCS via API integration.
Hetzner Cloud VPS is billed hourly, which gives you more flexibility. For example, if a customer requests a refund, you can simply delete the VPS and only charge them for the hours used—returning the rest of the money to them. This way, you won’t incur any loss. Additionally, Hetzner bills you only at the end of the month.
OVH, however, requires upfront payment for the VPS. If a customer requests a refund, you might face a loss because the amount is already paid and not refundable.
Keep in mind: Hetzner has strict policies. If one of your customers violates their terms, they will notify you via email. If the violation is serious, your account can be suspended or terminated. So, it's important to monitor emails and act quickly. On the other hand, OVH is more lenient—I haven’t received any such emails from them so far. If you want to resell without that risk, OVH might be the safer option.
You also have the option to purchase a Dedicated Server and create your own VPS instances. For this, you’ll need to purchase additional IPs and a Virtualizor license. If you go for the Virtualizor Professional License, their team will help you set everything up quickly.
If you need someone to provide Managed Support for your VPS customers, I can help with that as well.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions—I’m happy to offer free support.
Alert me again to say No to some request. Thanks, Dude.
You can't exactly buy IPv4 nowadays. You can rent them for given period of time, there's a thread on LET for that.
The price of one IPv4 seems to be around $0.4/IPv4 address / month currently.
You can, it just isn't cheap. Prices are around $20 - $25 per IP, depending on broker, etc. I think single /24's are still in the 30s or more though.
Off the top of my head:
1) Don't launch 10 locations hoping that one of them sticks so well it pays for the other 9.
2) Make sure whomever you decide to start with can support you past the 1st node. Who cares if the 1st node is $50/m when the next is $250/m?
3) Find an IP leaser you can trust if your direct datacenter can't guarantee (read: put it in writing for long terms) pricing. IPXO isn't someone I'd trust to do any long term leasing from.
4) Expect to pay yourself $0/m for the first year or two if you can last that long.
5) Keep at least 6 months of runaway in a separate bank account.
6) Loss leaders are probably a bad idea from the start. If your target market is here or some of the china blogs, the users are unlikely to ever move up off those loss leader plans.
7) Colo is great if you're not wanting absolute monster hardware ("i need 1TB RAM and 64TB of NVME", etc)
8) Older generation hardware is just fine if the rest of the resources are good and not overloaded. You can find Intel Skylake gold/plats for cheap on ebay ($500/node/each if you're into colo).
Francisco
@MikeA you have also been summoned to give us your 10cents.
Nah bro I don't have 10c and the genie escaped from the bottle.
thats it im making a gay porn ad for extravm brb
Thank you, let me know when it's done so I can review for payment. Let me enable my VPN first since that's banned in the great state of Texas.
I will say though, this sounds like a bad idea. Unless you have good marketing and already have some local clients like some small businesses, targeting a small area will probably be a loss for a very long time or never be profitable while selling standard VPS. But if you already sell web hosting maybe you can convert some of those or incentivize an upgrade.
Sometimes making 1 specific product for 1 specific market segment is better than making a product for everyone.
If you are new to VPS, get a small server and start setting up a VPS to see if it is for you. Proxmox is if you want free but reliable. As others have mentioned already, you can resell others' VPSs too.
You can start reselling ready-made VDS, or take a pool of resources and make your own VDS configurations, later you can take dedicated servers and make VDS yourself.
start a porn server.
VPS reselling more profitable than shared hosting?
You can choose a VPS Reseller plan and get started as a beginner. Later on, you can even choose a cheap Dedicated server at your desired location.
All plans come with:-
White Label Name Servers.
Your control panel to manage (create, delete, edit, start, pause & stop) your resold VPS.
Free MSSQL 2017 / 2016 / 2019 SQL on all resold VPS
Full Administrator Access (RDP) to you & your customer
Hyper-V Based Virtualization Technology
You can offer a Choice of Windows 2019 / 2016 OS to your clients
+1 do it but only if its gay porn and also send me link
That’s honestly some of the best advice anyone can give.
Start with that mindset, and also take into account what other experienced providers have shared here — I agree with all of it.
Read the forums and search how others failed, you will learn a lot from that.
Focus on something you truly excel at and build around that, even if it means targeting a niche. It’s just a matter of time and patience until you succeed. Trying to cover everything from the start is not only overwhelming, it's physically impossible with limited resources.
Beyond that — I wish you success, and when things get tough, just remember:
"Welcome to the hosting industry!" 😄
First learn how to host 500gb porn in FTP.
Is that joke still running 😂😂
Charityhost if I remember correctly
and don't forget if other people have porn on their server, make sure to check those videos.
or alternatively - and preferably - you could hire an external porn inspector like myself?
+1 I strongly recommend him, really good inspector.
please note that this is not a sponsored, but authentic, organic review, thanks
my hourly rate is $3.50
Mine is $6.90
stop interfering with my business before i sue you too
i have to pay my buyvm invoice somehow...