Removing an Addon Domain from your Hosting Account

With Namecheap hosting plans (except EasyWP), you can host multiple domain names simultaneously. This means you can host additional websites and email accounts without purchasing a new hosting plan. An addon domain is the name for this feature.

Requirements for Addon Domains

To add a new domain name to your hosting account, there are two basic steps you need to complete:

1. Change the nameservers for your domain name to Namecheap ones.
2. Add your domain name to the server your account is hosted on.

Here are the requirements for addon domains:

1. The domain name must be pointed to Namecheap Hosting DNS. If you prefer to use PremiumDNS or third-party nameservers, you'll need to proceed with the validation process described in the "Domain name control validation" section.
2. The domain name should not already be present in the same hosting account as an addon or as a main domain name.
   

To change the nameservers for domains registered with Namecheap, follow this guide. If the domain is third-party, change the nameservers on your Registrar's side.

For instructions on adding an addon domain, follow the steps below. You can also watch a video tutorial here.

To get started, you'll need to point your domain name to our hosting nameservers:

If your domain name is registered with a third-party Registrar, contact their customer support and ask to change the nameservers to the ones mentioned above.

1. Log into your cPanel account. You can also use cPanel Shortcuts for quick access.

2. In the Domains section navigate to the Domains menu:

3. Click the Create A New Domain button:



4. Enter the domain name to add in the Domain text box:



5. Deselect the "Share document root (/home/username/public_html) with “domain.tld”." option and enter the directory where you want the files for this domain to exist:

NOTE: If this option is not deselected, the domain name will be added as a parked domain, not an addon. You can find more information about parked domains here.

6. Click the Submit button:



NOTE: The Subdomain field will be automatically filled in.

If your domain name was not previously pointed to our hosting nameservers, you will receive an error message when adding an addon domain:

In some cases, it may not be possible to point your domain name to our hosting nameservers. Here are a few reasons why:

• Certain domain name types require a DNS zone file to be created on the hosting provider's side in advance.
• You want to create a website first and connect the domain name with it later.
• You want to keep the domain name pointed to third-party nameservers.

If you face any of these cases, follow the validation process described in the next section.

Domain name control validation

If you are unable to change the nameservers for your domain name, you need to complete the domain name validation process:

This process involves one of three validation options: DNS-based validation, HTTP-based validation, or HTML-based validation.

• The DNS-based validation requires the creation of a TXT record in the DNS zone of your domain on the DNS provider side.
  
• The HTTP-based validation requires the creation of an HTML file on your current hosting provider's side.
  
• The HTML-based validation requires the addition of the provided code to the head section of the main website page on your current hosting provider's side.

Note that the validation code provided is only valid for one day.

Once the required validation record is created, try to create addon domain again. If you have any issues with the validation, contact our Hosting Support department through Live Chat or Ticket.

After validation is successful, you can upload content for your new domain name into the corresponding document root. For information on how to upload your website, see this guide.

If you wish to create an email account for your newly-added domain name, please refer to this guide.

1. Log into your cPanel account.
2. Navigate to the Domains menu and click on the Manage button next to the domain name you wish to remove:
   
   



3. Click the Remove Domain button:
   
   
   

Note: Even after you remove the addon domain, the document root and content associated with it will remain in your File Manager. If you want to delete these files, you will need to do it manually by removing the corresponding folder from File Manager.

4. To confirm that you wish to remove this domain, click Yes, remove this domain.



You can also refer to this video tutorial for more information.

And that's it!