What Is an Addon Domain vs. a Parked Domain in cPanel?

If you use shared hosting, there is a good chance your control panel is cPanel, and an equally good chance you have wondered what to do with a second domain. Older tutorials tell you to choose between an addon domain and a parked domain. Newer cPanel versions talk about aliases and a single Domains page instead. The underlying ideas have not changed much, but the names and screens have, which makes old guides confusing. This article explains what addon and parked domains are, how they map to the current cPanel interface, when to use each, and how to set them up and redirect them correctly. If you want the bigger picture of serving several sites or names from one domain, see how to use one domain for multiple websites.

The Short Answer

• An addon domain is an extra domain that hosts its own, separate website inside your cPanel account, with its own document root (folder).
• A parked domain, now called an alias, is an extra domain that shows the same website as your primary domain. It shares the primary domain's document root.

Feature	Addon domain	Parked domain / Alias
Website content	Its own, separate site	Same content as the primary domain
Document root	Its own folder, e.g. public_html/shop.com	Shares the primary public_html
Typical use	Running a second, independent site	Alternate extensions, typos, old brand
Email accounts	Yes, separate addresses	Yes, addresses can be created on it
Counts toward plan limits	Usually limited by the hosting plan	Usually limited separately
SEO concern	None special	Duplicate content unless redirected

What Is a Primary Domain?

Every cPanel account has exactly one primary domain (sometimes called the main domain), chosen when the account was created. Its website lives in public_html. Addon domains and aliases are additional domains attached to that account. Changing the primary domain is usually something your hosting provider or the WHM administrator does, not something you can do from cPanel itself.

What Is an Addon Domain?

An addon domain lets you host a completely separate website on the same cPanel account. If your primary domain is mybusiness.com and you add myhobbyblog.com as an addon domain, cPanel:

1. Creates a document root for it, such as /home/username/myhobbyblog.com or /home/username/public_html/myhobbyblog.com depending on your choices and the server's settings.
2. Creates a web server virtual host so requests for myhobbyblog.com are served from that folder.
3. Adds a DNS zone for the domain on the server's name servers (if the server runs DNS).
4. Lets you create email accounts, SSL certificates, and other services for it.

Historically, cPanel implemented each addon domain by also creating a hidden subdomain of the primary domain, for example myhobbyblog.mybusiness.com, that points at the same folder. That is why on some accounts the addon site can also be reached at a URL like myhobbyblog.mybusiness.com. If that matters to you, a redirect or canonical tag can tidy it up; see the redirect section below.

Use an addon domain when you want to run a second, independent website (different content, different CMS install) without paying for a second hosting account.

Things to keep in mind:

• All addon sites share the account's resources: disk, CPU, memory, and inodes. A busy or compromised site can affect the others.
• A security problem in one site's code can often reach files of other sites in the same account, because they run as the same user. Keep every CMS and plugin updated.
• Many shared hosting plans limit how many addon domains you can create.

What Is a Parked Domain (Alias)?

A parked domain in cPanel is an extra domain that serves exactly the same content as your primary domain. Visit mybusiness.net and you see the same public_html files as mybusiness.com.

This is a different meaning of "parked" than the one used by registrars and domain investors, where a parked domain is an unused domain showing a placeholder or ad page. That is covered in what domain parking is.

Use an alias when you own extra extensions or typo variations of your brand and want them all to reach your site. In practice, you should almost always combine an alias with a redirect to your primary domain, so search engines and visitors see a single canonical URL.

How cPanel Changed the Names and Screens

This is where most of the confusion comes from. cPanel's interfaces evolved in stages:

1. Classic cPanel had separate Addon Domains, Parked Domains, and Subdomains icons in the Domains section.
2. cPanel & WHM version 64 (2017) renamed Parked Domains to Aliases. The functionality stayed the same: an alias shares the primary domain's document root.
3. Later versions introduced a unified Domains interface. Instead of separate pages, you click Create A New Domain and decide, via a Share document root checkbox, how the new domain behaves. Over subsequent releases the separate Addon Domains and Aliases pages were retired in favour of this single page, although some hosts and older servers may still show the classic icons.

Inside the unified Domains interface:

• Share document root checked with the primary domain's public_html: the new domain behaves like an alias (parked domain).
• Share document root unchecked with a new folder: the new domain behaves like an addon domain with its own website.

The cPanel APIs still use the older vocabulary. For example, account information lists addon_domains and parked_domains separately, so you will continue to see the old names in scripts, logs, and support articles.

How to Add an Addon Domain (Current Domains Interface)

Before you start, the domain must be registered and its DNS must point to your hosting server, usually by setting the name servers your host gives you. See how to update nameservers for a domain.

1. Log in to cPanel and open Domains (in the Domains section).
2. Click Create A New Domain.
3. Enter the domain, for example myhobbyblog.com.
4. Uncheck "Share document root" so the domain gets its own folder.
5. Confirm or edit the Document Root, for example myhobbyblog.com.
6. Click Submit.
7. Upload the site files to the new folder or install a CMS into it, then issue an SSL certificate (AutoSSL usually handles this automatically once DNS resolves).

On servers that still have the classic Addon Domains page, the fields are nearly the same: New Domain Name, Subdomain, and Document Root.

How to Add an Alias (Parked Domain)

1. Open Domains, then Create A New Domain.
2. Enter the extra domain, for example mybusiness.net.
3. Check "Share document root" so it uses the primary domain's public_html.
4. Click Submit.

On older servers, use the Aliases page (or Parked Domains on very old versions). After creating the alias, add a redirect so visitors land on your canonical domain.

Redirecting an Alias to Your Primary Domain

Without a redirect, mybusiness.net and mybusiness.com serve identical pages at different URLs, which is duplicate content. The classic Aliases page offers a Manage Redirection link, and the Redirects page in cPanel can also create one. You can also add the rule yourself in the shared .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

# Send every alias (and www variant) to the canonical primary domain
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.mybusiness\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.mybusiness.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L,NE]

Because aliases share the same public_html and therefore the same .htaccess, this one rule handles every alias at once. Make sure your canonical hostname matches what you choose in www vs. non-www. For redirect types and other ways to forward a domain, see what domain forwarding is.

The same idea can tidy up the hidden subdomain of an addon domain. In the addon site's own .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.)?myhobbyblog\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://myhobbyblog.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L,NE]

Managing Domains From the Command Line

If you have shell access (or you are a server administrator), cPanel's command-line API tools let you inspect and script domain setup. List every domain on an account, grouped by type:

uapi --user=username DomainInfo list_domains

The output separates main_domain, addon_domains, parked_domains, and sub_domains, which is a quick way to see what an account really has, regardless of which interface created it.

The legacy cPanel API 2 functions for creating addon and parked domains can be called with cpapi2, for example from WHM's root shell:

# Create an addon domain with its own document root
cpapi2 --user=username AddonDomain addaddondomain \
  newdomain=myhobbyblog.com subdomain=myhobbyblog dir=myhobbyblog.com

# Create an alias (parked domain) of the primary domain
cpapi2 --user=username Park park domain=mybusiness.net

cPanel has been moving functionality to UAPI and WHM API 1 and marks API 2 as deprecated, so check your server version's documentation before building automation on these calls.

DNS Checklist for Addon Domains and Aliases

Whether you add an addon domain or an alias, the domain only works when its DNS points to your server. Verify after setup:

dig +short NS mybusiness.net
dig +short A mybusiness.net
dig +short A www.mybusiness.net

The NS results should be your host's name servers (or, if you manage DNS elsewhere, the A records should be your server's IP). If you keep DNS at an external provider, you must create the A, www, and MX records there yourself, because cPanel's zone on the server is ignored unless the domain is delegated to it.

Addon vs. Parked Domain FAQ

Conclusion

The difference between an addon domain and a parked domain is simple once the naming is clear. An addon domain runs its own website from its own folder. A parked domain, now called an alias, mirrors your primary website from the same public_html. In current cPanel versions, both are created from the single Domains page, and the Share document root checkbox is what decides which one you get.

Use addon domains to host extra, independent sites on one account, keeping in mind that they share resources and a security boundary. Use aliases for alternate extensions and typo domains, and always pair them with a 301 redirect to your canonical domain. Either way, confirm that the domain's DNS points to your server before expecting it to work.

Here are some useful references for going deeper on cPanel domain management:

1. cPanel Docs: Domains — documentation for the unified Domains interface and the Share document root option.
2. cPanel Docs: Domains Section — the index of cPanel domain tools, including aliases (formerly parked domains).
3. cPanel API Docs: UAPI DomainInfo list_domains — the API call that lists main, addon, parked, and subdomains.
4. Apache HTTP Server: mod_rewrite Reference — official documentation for the rewrite rules used in redirects.
5. Google Search Central: How to Specify a Canonical URL — why and how to consolidate duplicate URLs across hostnames.