Resellers and WHMCS

How to sell hosting with LimePanel: the reseller area, branding, customers, WHMCS automation and the partner programme.

Two different things#

• Resellers inside the panel: the server administrator creates resellers, who in turn create customers and hosting accounts under their own brand, within a contract set by the administrator.
• LimePanel partner programme: a commercial agreement with Digital Dept for those who buy many panel licenses (hosting providers, agencies). It is described at the bottom of this page.

The three areas of the panel#

Use the area switcher at the top (or Ctrl+K) to move between areas. The colour strip and the breadcrumb always tell you where you are:

Creating a reseller#

The server administrator creates resellers in Server → Resellers and sets their contract: how many accounts, domains, mailboxes, disk space and traffic they can sell, and which packages they can assign.

The reseller contract#

Reselling → My contract shows one bar per item. Near the cap the bar turns amber, at the cap red, and creation stops with a message naming the exhausted item. A package that is not part of the contract cannot be assigned.

Branding#

Reselling → Brand: product name, logo, accent colour, support contacts and, if you like, your own domain for the panel. Your customers see your brand, including on the sign-in page when they come in through your domain; other resellers' customers do not.

Reselling → Name servers: your name servers (for example ns1.youragency.com). Your customers' zones are created with them. Remember the glue records at your registrar.

Customers and accounts#

1. Reselling → Customers → New customer: the account holder's name and email. The initial password is shown only once; the customer changes it at first sign-in.
2. New account: one screen where you pick the domain, the customer (new or existing) and one of the packages in your contract. Username and PHP version are suggested for you. The dialog shows the real steps (account, domain, site with DNS and mail) and, at the end, the customer's password and a button to open their panel.

Every account is an isolated system user with the package's limits: sites, domains, databases, mailboxes, disk, CPU and memory. The built-in packages:

Disk and processes scale accordingly. The server administrator can change them in Server → Packages.

Every new domain gets mail automatically (DKIM, mail.<domain>, webmail). A package created without "Includes email" leaves it out.

Acting on behalf of a customer#

Sign in as opens the customer's panel with one click. A banner always reminds you that you are acting on their behalf; the session expires on its own and is recorded in the activity log.

Suspending and deleting#

• Suspend stops the customer's sites without deleting anything. Sites answer 503 with a Retry-After header, so search engines do not index the placeholder page. Reactivate puts everything back as it was.
• Delete removes sites, zones, mail, FTP and scheduled tasks and locks the user. The home directory and databases stay on the server until its administrator decides otherwise.

Everything you do to customers is recorded in the server's activity log, with who did it and from where.

API tokens and webhooks#

Reselling → API tokens and webhooks (or Server → API tokens and webhooks for the administrator):

• tokens carry only the permissions you choose, an expiry date and the networks they may be used from; the secret is shown only once;
• webhooks deliver your customers' events signed with HMAC-SHA256 (X-LimePanel-Signature header), with retries on failure. Delivery is "at least once": use the event's id field to discard duplicates.

The WHMCS module#

The WHMCS provisioning module creates, suspends, reactivates, changes package, changes password, opens the panel with one click and deletes LimePanel accounts from WHMCS services, and updates disk and bandwidth usage.

Installation#

1. Copy the module's modules/servers/limepanel folder into WHMCS's modules/servers folder.
2. In the panel (Server → API tokens and webhooks) create a token with the permissions provisioning.run, plans.read, hosting.read and hosting.delete, restricted to the WHMCS server's IP. Copy it: it is shown only once.
3. In WHMCS, under server configuration, add a server of type LimePanel: the panel host name, port 8443, secure connection, and the token in the Access Hash field. "Test connection" must report OK.
4. In the product, choose the LimePanel module and the package: the list comes from the panel.

A reseller does the same from their own area: the module then works only on their customers and only with the packages they may sell.

With several servers, add one WHMCS server per panel, each with its own token.

How it behaves#

• An operation reports "success" only after the panel has verified its effect: creation waits for the site to respond, deletion waits for the account to be gone.
• Repeating an operation is safe: creation is tied to the WHMCS service id, and repeated suspensions, reactivations and deletions do nothing.
• For a new customer, the panel password is the WHMCS service password; an existing customer keeps theirs.
• One-click sign-in opens a session for the account holder without a second factor: by enabling the module you decide that WHMCS authentication is enough. The link is valid for one minute and once only, and it is logged.
• The token never ends up in the WHMCS module log.
• If the panel license has expired, the panel stops all services and every request from WHMCS gets a clear error until the license is valid again.

Partner programme#

For hosting providers and agencies using many licenses. Commercial terms are agreed directly with us.

The programme includes one free NFR (not for resale) lab license and, on request, a consolidated monthly invoice.

Reselling or sublicensing LimePanel licenses to third parties is allowed only under a partner agreement. To join, write to us from the Contact page.