Suspend, unsuspend, and terminate sub-accounts (resellers)

As a reseller, you have full control over the cPanel accounts you create — you can suspend an account temporarily (e.g. unpaid invoice), unsuspend it later, or terminate it entirely. All of this happens in WHM. This article walks through each option.

Where to find the controls

1. Log in to WHM (typically https://yourserver.canspace.ca:2087 or your branded equivalent).
2. In the left sidebar, click Account Functions → List Accounts.
3. You'll see a table of all your cPanel accounts. Each row has action icons on the right.

Suspend an account

Suspending an account makes the website inaccessible to visitors and disables email delivery, but preserves all files, databases, and email contents. Use it when you want to put service on hold (unpaid invoice, abuse investigation) without destroying data.

1. From List Accounts, find the account row.
2. Click the + at the start of the row to expand actions, or use Account Functions → Manage Account Suspension.
3. In Manage Account Suspension, select the account from the dropdown and click Suspend.
4. Optionally enter a reason (visible only to you; useful for record-keeping). The reason can also be shown to the account holder if you enable that option.
5. Click Suspend to confirm.

What happens immediately:

• Visitors hit a "This account has been suspended" page on every domain on the account.
• Incoming email is rejected.
• The cPanel user can no longer log in.
• Cron jobs stop running.
• Files, databases, and email storage are all preserved.

Unsuspend an account

1. Go to Account Functions → Manage Account Suspension.
2. Select the suspended account.
3. Click Unsuspend.

The account is fully active again within seconds — websites load, mail flows, the user can log back in.

Terminate an account (permanent)

1. Go to Account Functions → Terminate an Account.
2. Select the account from the dropdown.
3. Tick I understand, then click Terminate.

WHM removes the cPanel user, the home directory, all databases owned by the user, all email data, all cron jobs, and the DNS zone. The username is freed up for reuse if needed.

Best practice: take a backup before terminating

If a client wants to leave or the account is being retired, generate a full backup first so you have a copy in case anything is needed later:

1. From WHM home, search for and click Backup → Backup Restoration (or use Generate/Download Full Backup from inside the user's cPanel).
2. Or, on shared servers, our daily server-wide backups will retain the account for ~3 weeks even after termination — you can ask us to restore from a backup snapshot if needed within that window.

Bulk operations

For one-off operations, the per-account UI is fastest. For bulk work (suspend a batch of accounts at once), use WHM's Multi-Account Functions menu — it lets you check off multiple accounts and apply the same operation. There's also Modify an Account for changing a single account's package, primary domain, or quota without touching anything else.

Common scenarios

Related articles

• Create a new cPanel account in WHM
• Create packages in WHM
• Set up branded reseller nameservers

Need help with reseller account management? Open a support ticket