What are these domains?
A domain name is the address of your website, like a street address for a house. The primary domain is the first domain tied to your hosting account. An addon domain is an extra website you add to the same account.
cPanel is the control panel where you manage your hosting. You cannot change the primary domain with one click in cPanel. It was set when the account was created.
Your options
- Ask support to change it. Support can change the main domain of the account for you.
- Do it yourself with a new account. You move the site to a new account that uses the new domain as primary.
Warning: Changing the primary domain can break your website and email. Take a full backup first. A backup is a spare copy of everything on the account.
Steps: ask support to change it
- Log in to the client area.
- Open a support ticket.
- Write the current primary domain and the addon domain you want as primary.
- Ask whether the change is possible on your plan.
- Wait for support to reply and follow their advice.
Steps: make a full backup before any change
- Log in to cPanel.
- Open Backup or Backup Wizard.
- Choose a full backup.
- Download the file to your computer.
What to check afterwards
- Open both websites in your browser. Make sure each one loads.
- Send a test email to each email address on the domains.
- Check that your SSL certificate (the padlock that makes a site secure) still works on both sites.
- Check your DNS records. DNS is like a phone book for the internet. It turns a website name into a number computers understand.
Tip: Email accounts and databases are linked to the old setup. Look at them after the change and fix any that stopped working.
Quick recap
- The primary domain is the first domain on a hosting account.
- cPanel has no button to swap it with an addon domain.
- Ask Hostvento support, or move the site to a new account.
- Always take a full backup first.
- Test your sites and email afterwards.