Using Third-Party Domains with InMotion Hosting

If you registered a domain with another registrar and want to host it on your InMotion Hosting account, you can do that without transferring the domain. You point the domain’s nameservers to InMotion, then add it to cPanel as an addon domain. By the end of this guide, your third-party domain will be live on your InMotion hosting plan.

This process works with any Top Level Domain (TLD), including extensions that InMotion does not sell directly. If InMotion does not support a particular TLD at registration, you can still host a site on that domain.

Prerequisites

• An active InMotion Hosting account with a shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting plan.
• A domain registered at a third-party registrar.
• Access to your registrar’s control panel to update nameservers.

Step 1: Point Your Third-Party Domain to InMotion Nameservers

Nameservers tell the internet which hosting provider controls a domain’s Domain Name System (DNS) records. You update them at the registrar where the domain is registered, not in cPanel.

1. Log in to the control panel at your domain registrar.
2. Locate the nameserver settings for your domain. The exact location varies by registrar, but it is usually under DNS, Domain Settings, or Nameservers.
3. Find your account’s nameserver values. Your welcome email contains the exact nameserver values assigned to your account. You can also find them in AMP at secure1.inmotionhosting.com/amp. InMotion’s public nameservers follow the pattern ns1.inmotionhosting.com and ns2.inmotionhosting.com, but your account may use different values, so always confirm your own before making the change.
4. Replace the current nameservers with your InMotion nameserver values.
5. Save the changes at your registrar.

Note: Nameserver changes propagate across the internet over 24 to 48 hours. Your site may be intermittently reachable during this window. For more on managing DNS entries once propagation completes, see How to Set DNS Records for 3rd Party Services.

Step 2: Add the Third-Party Domain to cPanel

After updating nameservers, add the domain to your cPanel account. This creates a separate site directory for the domain, independent of your primary domain and any other addon domains.

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. In the Domains section, click Domains.
3. Enter your domain name in the New Domain Name field. cPanel automatically fills in the subdomain and document root.
4. Click Add Domain.

For a detailed walkthrough of the addon domain form, see How to Add Addon Domains in cPanel.

Troubleshooting

Domain still resolves to the old host after 48 hours

DNS propagation typically completes within 24 to 48 hours, but some resolvers cache records longer. First, confirm the nameservers were saved correctly at your registrar by looking up your domain with the ICANN Lookup tool at lookup.icann.org, which reports the nameservers currently on record for the domain. If the lookup still shows the old nameservers, the change was not saved. If it shows the InMotion nameservers, the update is in progress, and you need to wait for your local resolver’s cache to expire.

cPanel returns an error when adding the addon domain

If cPanel returns an error indicating the domain is already configured on the server, the domain is likely associated with a different cPanel account on the same server. Contact InMotion Hosting support to have the existing association removed before adding the domain to your account.

Conclusion

Your third-party domain is now pointed to InMotion Hosting and registered in cPanel as an addon domain. Once nameserver propagation completes, you can upload files to the domain’s document root and install applications through Softaculous. If you need to configure email or other DNS records for the domain, see How to Set DNS Records for 3rd Party Services and New Domains: Addon, Parked, and Subdomains.