How to Add a Subdomain, Addon Domain or Parked Domain

If you're coming from cPanel, you're used to three separate pages: Subdomains, Addon Domains and Parked (Alias) Domains. In OpenPanel there's just one: Domains. All domains are equal - every domain or subdomain you add gets its own:

• website folder (document root),
• free SSL certificate,
• DNS records,
• web server configuration and statistics.

What makes a domain a "subdomain", "addon" or "parked" domain is only how you set it up.

Add a Subdomain​

1. Go to OpenPanel → Domains and click Add Domain.
2. Enter the full subdomain, e.g. blog.example.com.
3. Optionally change the Document Root (default: /var/www/html/blog.example.com).
4. Click Add Domain.

When the main domain (example.com) is already in your account:

• the subdomain's DNS records are added to the main domain's DNS zone - nothing to change at your registrar if example.com already uses your nameservers,
• the subdomain does not count toward your plan's domain limit.

If example.com is hosted elsewhere, add an A record for blog pointing to your server's IP at your current DNS provider.

You can now install WordPress or any other app on the subdomain, just like on a main domain - see Install Apps.

Add an Addon Domain (Another Website)​

An addon domain is simply another domain with its own website.

1. Go to OpenPanel → Domains → Add Domain.
2. Enter the domain, e.g. another.com, and click Add Domain.
3. Point the domain to the server: either set its nameservers at the registrar to your server's nameservers (see Configure nameservers), or create an A record for another.com and www pointing to the server's IP.

Addon domains count toward your plan's domain limit.

Add a Parked (Alias) Domain​

A parked domain shows the same website as another domain - for example example.net and example.co showing example.com. There are two ways:

Option 1: Same content on both domains​

1. Go to OpenPanel → Domains → Add Domain and enter example.net.
2. Set Document Root to the main domain's folder, e.g. /var/www/html/example.com.
3. Click Add Domain.

Both domains now serve the same files, each with its own SSL certificate.

Option 2: Redirect to the main domain (recommended)​

1. Add example.net on the Domains page (any document root).
2. Click Redirect next to it and enter https://example.com{uri} - the {uri} part keeps the page path.

Visitors and search engines are sent to your main domain. See How to redirect a domain.

Change or Remove a Domain​

• Move a site to another folder: Change document root.
• Temporarily disable a domain: Suspend a domain.
• Remove a domain: delete it from the Domains page. For a subdomain, this also removes its records from the main domain's DNS zone.

Troubleshooting​

Related​

• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS, www or another domain
• Add new domain
• Troubleshooting DNS