There have been a few developments recently in reseller hosting that focus the spotlight on some of the differences between different resellers and their approaches. Here are three resellers that have quite different approaches, but all offer solid products and services if you line up with the right one for your needs.

First on our list is the HostGator reseller program. That being said, the company is owned and run by Brent Oxley - a great young entrepreneur who has made service a genuine part of the HostGator culture. The other plus to this brand is that it is probably the single most popular subject at Web Hosting Talk. You can view this thread as an example of what users have to say regarding reselling through HostGator.

The next reseller program is one that while the smallest in our survey, may be the most compelling. The hosting reseller program at cheap web hosting company 34sp.com was recently in the news for a major revamp of the program. The reseller program is described on the company’s site as: ”You choose how your resources are allocated, you decide what domains you host and you control their exact setup. Reseller hosting is also provided in a non branded manner allowing you to resell hosting to your clients at any price you select.”

The 34sp.com program is probably best suited for those resellers in the European market or those who need a boutique style of truly personalized service. The reseller accounts are designed for those hosting between 1 and 50 accounts with larger reseller needs moving on to a VPS server. According to information provided by the company, each account ”permits the simultaneous hosting of 50 websites as standard. The plan also comes with support for 500 mailboxes, 50 MySQL databases, a full 1.5 GB of disk space, and a generous 15 GB of monthly transfer. Every reseller account also includes support for PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, full log file access, cron and .htaccess. 34sp.com also includes a number of industry-leading tools with each account including free blog, CMS and forums installation.”

The company is owned and operated by two young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Daniel Foster and Stuart Melling. These partners run the business directly and have a strong sense of what can make resellers successful. As decribed by Mr. Melling, ”Mr. Melling added, ”Our reseller hosting accounts are perfect for professional developers, web designers, and small businesses looking to resell hosting services. The plan takes all the hassle out of multiple domain hosting. Everything within each account is controllable through a straightforward and easy to use online control panel. Clients can add, delete or modify their domain hosting as they want, and whenever they want. Each reseller account is backed by our renowned customer service team, which consists of experienced webmasters and developers. They know exactly what our customers need and how to best help them.”

The final reseller is also Europe based, but has recently announced a push to launch its reseller services in the U.S. Fasthosts operates a reseller program that begins to approximate the size and complexity of large reseller brands like ViaVerio. A great way to understand what the company is trying to accomplish is to view this video interview with the Chief Marketing Officer of Fasthosts, Steve Holford.

The company describes its reseller program as follows, ”Host as many domains and sub-domains as you need on your choice of Windows 2003 and Linux. No need for separate accounts or reseller web hosting providers. Set up and configure websites instantly.” Being a sister company to web hosting behemoth, 1 and 1 hosting, is both a plus and a minus for this company. The vast resources and marketing muscle of the world’s largest web host will launch the brand forward. The drawback is that huge scale makes swift change and nimbleness practically impossible.

One fact is evident from the recent developments in reseller web hosting - there is a wealth of opportunity is reselling web hosting on both sides of the equation.

This content was written by Derek Vaughan exclusively for WebHostBlog.com.