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Ordering cPanel hosting

This page walks through buying a cPanel hosting account: opening the package picker, choosing a package and billing term, deciding what the account's main domain should be, paying, and watching the account appear. For what a cPanel account actually is and how it compares with a managed WordPress site, start at cPanel hosting on CloudPress.

A cPanel account is a product in its own right. You order it from the cPanel Accounts list in the workspace sidebar, and you do not need an existing WordPress site — or any site at all — to buy one.

Before you start

  • cPanel Accounts in the workspace sidebar. Availability is enabled per workspace; if the item isn't there, see Checking whether your workspace has it.
  • A workspace on a paid plan. A trial workspace cannot order or manage cPanel hosting — every cPanel page redirects a trial to the plan-upgrade screen with "Activate a paid plan to use cPanel hosting."
  • Optionally, a domain that already exists. A main domain is not required at order time, but if you want one, the name has to be registered already — see Setting the main domain below.

Opening the package picker

  1. Open cPanel Accounts. Select cPanel Accounts in the workspace sidebar.

  2. Choose Get cPanel hosting. The button sits in the header of the accounts list, and it is also the action on the No cPanel Hosting Found empty state if this is your first account.

  3. Land on the order screen. The page is headed Generate Your cPanel Account, and its only step is Select your package. Cancel Order returns you to the accounts list at any point.

If no packages appear

The cards are drawn from the catalogue attached to your workspace's plan. If that catalogue has nothing in it, the screen shows A problem has occurred with the message "There are no packages configured on this platform, and therefore the order can't proceed. Please contact support." — contact us rather than retrying.

Choosing a package and term

  1. Pick a billing term first. A Monthly / Annual toggle sits above the cards, with a Best value hint on the annual side. Flipping it repaints every card with that term's price, so set it before you compare. The toggle only appears when both terms are actually priced for your workspace — if you see no toggle, only one term is on offer and there is nothing to choose.

  2. Compare the cards. The packages are named Mini, Basic, Pro and Max. Each card carries a one-line description, the storage the account gets, how many mail accounts and websites it allows, and the price for the term you selected. One tier is marked Most popular — which one comes from the catalogue, so treat it as a hint rather than a rule. On an annual term, a card whose annual price beats twelve monthly payments also shows a Save {pct}% badge.

  3. Watch for terms a package doesn't offer. A package with no price for the selected term shows a dash instead of a price, the note Not available on {term}, and a disabled Not available ({term}) button. Switch the toggle to the other term to buy that tier.

  4. Select your package. Choosing Choose on a card marks it Selected and enables the Continue to cart button, which stays disabled until a package is picked. You can change your mind by choosing another card.

  5. Continue to cart. This hands the selection to the standard CloudPress cart, where a cPanel hosting line shows the package and the term you picked. Back to hosting in the cart returns you to the accounts list.

Setting the main domain

The cart shows a Choose your domain card with the hint "Enter the primary domain for your cPanel hosting account." Type the name into Domain name and select Use this domain; the cart then shows Existing domain added to cPanel hosting.

This step is genuinely optional, and it behaves differently from a WordPress order in two ways worth knowing before you type anything:

  • The cPanel cart links a domain, it doesn't register one. There is no search-and-buy step here — the only action offered is using a domain that already exists. If the name isn't registered anywhere yet, the cart refuses it with "{domain} isn't registered yet. Email and hosting can only be set up for a domain that exists — register or transfer it first." Register it first through Purchasing a domain, then come back and order the hosting.

  • A domain already live on another hosting account is refused. The cart checks the name against the cPanel servers before accepting it and answers "This domain is not available for your hosting account." if it is in use elsewhere. If the check itself can't complete, you get "Domain availability could not be verified. Please try again in a moment." — that one is worth retrying. The check exists so a duplicate is caught before you are charged, rather than after.

You can also skip the domain entirely. Leave the card alone and check out: the account is provisioned against a placeholder domain that cPanel generates for it. Adding your real domains to the account afterwards is a normal, supported thing to do — see Managing domains on a cPanel account.

Paying

Checkout is the ordinary CloudPress cart checkout, so nothing here is specific to cPanel: the button reads Pay {amount}, and the account is invoiced as a subscription from then on. The Payment method step stays greyed out with "Save your billing details to continue." until the billing details above it are saved — that is the usual order of the checkout, not a cPanel restriction. If you'd rather have a card on file before you start, see Adding a payment method.

You do not have to be the workspace's billing manager to place the order. If you aren't, the cart skips the billing-details step and charges the billing account's saved payment method instead.

For a walkthrough of the cart and checkout screens themselves, see Placing your first order.

While the account is being created

Payment and provisioning are separate steps, and the account does not exist the moment you pay.

  1. The order status page tracks the work. It lists a cPanel hosting row that moves from Queued through Processing — described as "Provisioning now" — to Completed, "Ready to use". Open accounts takes you to the list.

  2. The accounts list shows the new account early. It appears with its username, a Provisioning… badge and the note "Account is being set up on the server", with the rest of its columns blank until the server finishes.

  3. The username is generated for you. It is derived from the main domain where you set one, and from the workspace name where you didn't, so it won't necessarily be a name you would have picked.

  4. You don't need a cPanel password to get in. A password is generated during provisioning, and the Log in action on the account signs you into the control panel without it — see Logging in to cPanel. Set a password of your own with Change password when you need one for other tools: Changing your cPanel password.

If provisioning fails

Payment has already been taken by this point, so a provisioning failure is handled after the fact rather than by refusing the order. The order status page turns to Something went wrong — "One or more items couldn't be completed. Our team has been notified — please contact support if you need help." Don't order a second account to work around it; contact us with the order and we'll sort it out.

Ordering over the API

Ordering has a REST equivalent, so an integration can buy accounts unattended. The endpoint takes the package key (mini, basic, pro or max), an optional monthly / annual term, and an optional domain, and returns 202 Accepted with a poll URL — the account is provisioned asynchronously, exactly as it is from the dashboard.

Two differences from the dashboard are worth planning around:

  • The API is stricter about the domain. It accepts only a domain the workspace already owns, and rejects one that is merely registered elsewhere; the dashboard cart is happy to point a domain you hold at another registrar. Registering a domain in the same request isn't supported either — order the domain first.
  • The call needs an API key, not an OAuth token — ordering moves money, so OAuth tokens are refused whatever scopes they carry. A trial workspace is refused with trial_account, and the acting user must have permission to manage billing, which the dashboard cart does not insist on.

Full parameters, response shape and error codes are on the cPanel Accounts API reference.

Next steps