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I have an old website that is being hosted on Apache/CPanel site. I'm being charged for hosting this site, even though it's being redirected to another site. I'd like to delete the hosting of the old domain, but it seems like the only way to redirect is via htaccess (even if I do it through CPanel). If I delete the old domain's files, that would also mean deleting the htaccess file that is doing the redirecting.

Is it possible to redirect the old website without continuing to host the old domain?

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  • If the IP addresses of the sites are different updating DNS so that the old site points to the new IP AND making sure that the new site knows about the old domain name should work. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 15:21
  • I am not sure that is possible. May be you can check for cheaper hosting solutions and move the old domain there. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 15:25
  • @Dave, I did try to think of a way to do this through DNS, but the IP addresses are both the same already. And, I'm pretty sure that some process along the way has to modify the host header information. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 15:37
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    If you have access to Apache you could add an alias for the old domain to the virtual host entry for the new domain. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 15:39
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    Quite possibly but the net cost to them is zero and the change would take all of 30 seconds or so :) You're still paying a registrar for the domain name. Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 15:50

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Old website:

  • oldwebsite.tld
  • Has own cPanel account with separate cpanel username

Another website:

  • anothersite.tld
  • Has own cPanel account with separate cpanel username

To consolidate them do the following:

  • Verify that the anotherwebiste.tld cPanel account is allowed to add an additional addon domain
  • Verify that the anotherwebiste.tld cPanel account has the Addon domains feature enabled (Make sure the icon shows up)
  • Verify that you can add redirects in the Addon domain icon, or verify that the Redirects feature is enabled (make sure the icon shows up)

Then:

  • Cancel/Terminate the oldwebsite.tld cPanel account
  • Login to the cPanel account for anothersite.tld
  • Using the Addon domain icon, add oldwebsite.tld and optionally configure the oldwebsite.tld to redirect to anotherwebsite.tld
  • If you skipped the redirect configuration when adding the addon domain, you can use the Redirects icon to setup the redirect

If both domains are on the same cPanel account already, then you can't delete the hosting for one domain without deleting the hosting for the other domain.

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  • I edited this to put the "before terminating do this" part before you say "terminate" to help avoid tears and heartache for people who don't read all the instructions before acting :P Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 0:11
  • Thanks for the solid edit! Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 0:12
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    @Trebor If the old domain is already an Addon domain (or preferably a "Domain Alias" in this case) in cPanel then you can configure a redirect in .htaccess in a similar way you did before when the old domain was attached to a different account (which I assume was how it was previously configured). (?) Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 17:13
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    @Trebor "cPanel Aliases" are literally just a GUI method of adding an Apache virtualhost server alias: httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#serveralias Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 4:16
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    @Trebor An "Addon" domain is really intended for setting up an additional / entirely new website within the same hosting account (different domain, points to a different location and has its own document root). Whereas a "domain alias" (formerly called a "parked" domain in cPanel) is simply an alias for the primary domain (as thehostingadmin states) - so would be preferable in this situation. (Although with some URL-rewritting you can make a "domain alias" behave like an "Addon domain" if you wanted.) Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 11:01

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