Good agency hosting in South Africa is less about raw server power and more about operations: keeping dozens of client sites organised, billing hosting without losing money on admin, giving your team the right access, and handing a site over cleanly when a client moves on. Get those right and hosting becomes a steady, low-effort part of your business. Get them wrong and it becomes the job nobody wants. This guide covers the decisions agencies should make up front.
Decide your hosting model first
Agencies usually fall into one of three models. Each has trade-offs:
| Model | How it works | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client owns the account | Client signs up and pays the host; you're given access | Clear ownership, no billing admin for you | Less control; renewals depend on the client paying |
| Agency hosts everything | All sites in your account; you bill clients | Full control, one dashboard, recurring revenue | You carry the admin, the payments risk and the support load |
| Hybrid | Small clients on your account, large ones own theirs | Flexible | Needs clear rules so nobody is confused |
Whichever you choose, write it into your proposals and contracts. Most agency hosting disputes start with "we assumed..."
Ownership: settle it in writing
Clients will eventually leave, sell their business or switch agencies. Make it painless by being clear from day one:
- Domains belong to the client. Register domains with the client as the registrant, even if you manage them. Holding a client's domain hostage damages your reputation and may create legal problems.
- Code and content ownership should be defined in your contract, including what happens on termination.
- Credentials for third-party services (payment gateways, analytics, email marketing) should be in the client's name where possible.
- Data: under POPIA, the client is usually the responsible party for their customers' personal information, and you and the host act as operators. Keep an operator agreement in place. See POPIA-compliant hosting.
Organise client sites
With 20 or more client projects, structure saves hours:
- Consistent naming for apps, databases and repositories, for example
clientname-site,clientname-api,clientname-db. - One repository per project, with the hosting connected to Git so a push deploys. No FTP uploads, no "which version is live?".
- A standard stack where you can. The fewer frameworks and versions you support, the easier updates and handovers are.
- A project register listing each client, their domain, hosting location, repository, renewal dates and who owns what.
- Documented environment variables per project (names and purpose, not the secret values).
Plans for agencies at NewHost
NewHost's Agency plan is built for this kind of workload: R1,499/month excluding VAT for up to 30 apps with 4 GB RAM, 150 GB NVMe storage, 40 databases, unlimited team seats and daily backups kept 30 days. Business (R599/month, 10 apps, 3 seats) suits smaller studios.
Other features that matter for agencies:
- Deploy from GitHub or GitLab on every push, with configurable build and start commands.
- Branch preview deploys, so clients review changes on a preview URL before they go live.
- Managed MySQL databases, with PostgreSQL or MS SQL on request.
- Free Let's Encrypt SSL on every domain.
- Plesk web and email hosting for WordPress and PHP client sites.
- REST API and webhooks for automating setup and notifications.
Coming soon: client sub-accounts and a white-label panel are on the roadmap, but they are not available yet. Until then, a client who wants direct access can have their own account for their site, or you manage sites on your account and report to clients yourself.
Team access
Your team changes more often than your client list. Use individual seats with roles instead of a shared login:
- Admins: the owner and a technical lead.
- Developers: your developers and trusted contractors.
- Billing: your bookkeeper.
- Viewers: account managers who need to check status without changing anything.
Require two-factor sign-in for everyone and remove contractors when their work ends. Hosting for development teams has onboarding and offboarding checklists.
Billing clients for hosting
If you host sites on your account, treat hosting as a product, not an afterthought:
- Price for your time, not just the server. Your hosting fee should cover the hosting cost, monitoring, updates, backups and a reasonable amount of support.
- Bill yearly in advance where possible. It reduces invoice admin and late payments.
- Align renewals. Put all clients on the same billing month, or bill at signup anniversaries consistently.
- Pay your host reliably. NewHost offers auto-renew, card or instant EFT, bank EFT and a prepaid rand wallet, with VAT invoices for your bookkeeping.
- Suspension policy. State in your terms what happens when a client doesn't pay, and give warnings before anything goes offline.
Bundle hosting with maintenance where it makes sense; see what a website maintenance plan should include.
Handover: when a client leaves
A clean handover protects your reputation. Keep a checklist:
- Confirm the client is the registrant of their domain, and provide the transfer (EPP/auth) code if they're moving it.
- Export the code repository, or transfer it to their Git organisation.
- Provide a fresh database export and a copy of uploaded files.
- Document environment variables and third-party services, and help them rotate credentials you had access to.
- Agree a cut-over date for DNS, and keep the old site running until the new one is confirmed.
- Remove your team's access to their systems once the handover is done.
- Delete their data from your account after the agreed period, and confirm in writing.
Migrating your existing clients
Moving many client sites at once is best done in batches: start with a simple site, perfect the process, then move the rest in groups. Contact us and our team can help plan an agency migration.
Frequently asked questions
Should my agency resell hosting or let clients buy their own?
Reselling gives you control and recurring revenue but adds billing and support work. Client-owned accounts keep ownership clear and remove payment risk. Many agencies use a hybrid, and what matters most is writing the model into your contracts.
Who should own a client's domain?
The client should be the registrant. You can manage it on their behalf, but keeping the domain in the client's name avoids disputes and makes handover simple.
Does NewHost offer white-label hosting?
Not yet. A white-label panel and client sub-accounts are coming soon. Today, the Agency plan provides 30 apps, 40 databases and unlimited team seats under your own account.
How do I give a client access to their site without giving them everything?
Until client sub-accounts arrive, the cleanest option is an account in the client's name for their site, which you manage on their behalf. Check what a role can see before inviting anyone outside your team, and never share your admin credentials.
See the Agency and Business plans on the pricing page, or contact us to talk about moving your client sites.