What is the difference between reseller and server hosting?

Can somebody tell me which is the difference between buying from a reseller and a server owner?

Which is the best?

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Reseller gets hosting accounts from a server owner and sells them to you adding a percentage to the price for his profit.

I don't think there is a reason to buy from the reseller, as the reseller does not have real control over the service that offers to you.

I think that the best is to buy from a  server owner, and even better from a 'small' one because he/she will give you more (and more friendly) services and customizations.

I used to do this before buying my own server and it is better than any other solution.

I would agree with Nikolas and say that buying from a server owner is the better option. Besides the fact that the reseller doesn't have real control over the hosting, there's also a reliability factor. I've never seen a hosting company that doesn't offer monthly payments for reseller accounts. It means that if the reseller is dishonest, he could accept a year's worth of hosting payment from you, and disappear when the month ends without paying the hosting fee- the actual hosting company won't be able to help and will have to close your account.

Also, hosting companies offer server rentals as well, so it might be hard to distinguish between a reseller who rents the entire server, and an actual server owner.

I agree with Nikolas and ag094, server hosting is the way to go.

reseller can be a cheap alternative but can also be bad

bad because you may be on a server with 10 thousand other resellers/clients

there is no real way to know

when buying always ask then to get a screenshot of the Server Status page

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