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Installing in Sub-domain versus Sub-Directory - (Security & Benefits?)


keithd77

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Hi there,

 

I'm ready to install WHMCS and was wondering if there are any benefits to installing in a sub-domain versus a sub-directory. Security advantages or one over the other, etc?

 

I use Wordpress for my main site. I may possibly want to include a login to the client center directly from my main site. I've noticed a number of larger hosts seem to have their client centers in sub domains versus sub directories.

 

Thoughts?

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en.example.com

example.com/en

forum.example.com

example.com/forum

 

Talking about SEO it's all the same. Search engines don't care if you use subdomains, aliases or directories. If you decide to put "forum" as subdomain rather than directory nothing changes. Anyway I personally wouldn't focus on this very small thing when the entire language system of WHMCS is entirely based on sessions :-P it's the worst possible thing for SEO (it causes duplicate content) but at least it's possible to fix it.

 

Talking about security the simple fact that you are using a sub-domain or a directory doesn't change anything. There are other things to consider (separate FTP accounts, PHP permissions etc.) but the sub-domain itself doesn't make your website more secure.

 

Talking about performances it can help a bit. For example having all images on a subdomain allows the browser to load images and all other elements of the page in parallel.

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From a hosting account standpoint, if you have your whmcs in a subdomain, you can host the instance at a separate location/provider/server than your main website, which can sometimes be handy.

 

example:

mysupersite.com -> hosted cheap place, etc

secure.mysupersite.com -> hosted secure vps, etc

 

In otherwords, your marketing/sales website doesn't have to live the same place as your whmcs installation.

 

bh

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Hello Keithd77,

 

A sub domain is the only place you want to install your WHMCS. (Security point of view)

 

This fact is then intensified x1000 since your website is wordpress.

 

Your wordpress website and its many plugins are much more likely to be hacked than your WHMCS. But once wordpress and therefore (in many cases) the cPanel account and all its sub domain and sub-directories are compromised.

 

So with that knowledge what you do to start out is very simple.

 

Let's assume cPanel since it is most popular.

 

1. Using WHM create a cPanel account for your main website. (yoursite.com)

 

2. Using WHM create another SEPARATE cPanel account for the sub domain (aka WHMCS) https://clients.yoursite.com

 

3. No special tricks needed cPanel will do what is needed for you.

 

4. Now you have one set of credentials to upload and interact with files for your wordpress website and a totally different set of credentials for your WHMCS files.

 

5. If your wordpress website gets compromised the hacker will not be able to easily copy/edit or delete all your files as they easily could if sub-domain or sub-directory were under the same cPanel account as your wordpress website.

 

6. And customers browsing the internet do not know or care that they are not in the same cPanel account as their web browser loads https://yoursite.com and https://clients.yoursite.com exactly the same as if they were under the same cPanel account.

 

Hope that answers your question and helps you get started off on a secure foot!

 

Best,

Trevor~

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