Create a Hosting Account in cPanel / WHM

A cPanel hosting account is a container for one website owner: it includes a home directory, email, databases, and a cPanel login. You create and manage these from WHM.

Before you start

You need at least one hosting package before creating an account. If you haven’t created one yet, see Create a hosting package first.

Creating the account

Log into WHM at https://YOUR_IP:2087.

Go to Account Functions → Create a New Account.

Fill in the Domain Information section:

• Domain: the primary domain for this account (e.g. clientdomain.com)
• Username: auto-generated from the domain, max 16 characters, lowercase. You can change it.
• Password: set a strong password or click Password Generator
• Email: the account owner's contact email (used for cPanel notifications)

In the Package section, select the package to assign. This sets the disk quota, bandwidth, email accounts, and database limits.

Leave Settings at defaults unless you have specific requirements.

Click Create. WHM provisions the account: creates the Linux user, home directory, mail configuration, and DNS zone.

Giving the client their login

After creation, give your client:

• cPanel URL: https://YOUR_SERVER_IP:2083 or https://yourdomain.com:2083
• Username: the username you set
• Password: the password you set (or they reset it themselves)

You can also send them an auto-generated welcome email from WHM during account creation by checking Send Welcome Email.

Setting resource limits manually

If you don’t want to use a package, you can set limits individually:

1. Go to Account Information → List Accounts
2. Find the account and click Modify
3. Scroll to the Quota section and set disk and bandwidth limits
4. Under Settings you can set specific limits for email accounts, databases, subdomains, etc.

Verifying the account

After creation, verify everything worked:

# Confirm the Linux user exists
id username

# Check the home directory
ls -la /home/username

# Verify the DNS zone was created
cat /var/named/username.com.db 2>/dev/null ||   whmapi1 getzone domain=yourdomain.com

Or in WHM: Account Information → List Accounts: your new account should appear there with the correct package and quota.

Suspending and unsuspending accounts

To temporarily disable an account without deleting it:

1. Account Functions → Manage Account Suspension
2. Find the account, enter a reason, click Suspend

The account’s DNS continues to resolve but the website shows a suspended page and email is blocked. Unsuspend the same way.

Deleting an account

Deleting a cPanel account removes all files, databases, email, and DNS. There is no undo. Take a JetBackup backup first.

1. Account Functions → Terminate Accounts
2. Find the account, check the checkbox
3. Click Remove Accounts