1 server user per domain ? Why is it recommended to create a user for each domain that you host?

hello,

When hosting different domains on a dreamhost account, it is recommended to create a new “user” for each domain that you host.

Can you explain why it is recommended ?

I see a benefit hosting all domains under the same user"
when connecting to FTP, only 1 connection will allow me to work on all my domain files.

But if I have 1 FTP user per domain it means that I will have to connect to each user to be able to edit all my websites.

Can you tell me what are the reasons to recommend to create 1 new server user for each domain hosted on the same dreamhost account / server ?

Thank you.

On my current hosting setup I have 5 domains each with a different user name. But I can still access all the domains from one FTP connection and I only have one control panel account.

I suppose it depends how the hosts setup their system.

Thank you, but is it really useful to have different users ?

Why? The answer to that can be given in a single word. Security.

To put it longer, if one of your sites gets compromised then the hacker can only gain access to files and content from the one user account, if you have several accounts every site is isolated. If you run everything under one master account, then you have problems because once in, the hacker has access to everything.

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Agree with @TimIgoe
Security should always be a priority for hosting, when compared with the convenience of its use.

Yes - security is thing no. 1. Another thing - separate FTP accounts can be given to different people, who don’t know each other, to administer their own web sites without having access to other sites.

Sometimes, when I have a few small web sites that are custom made I put them under one account for convenience. But whenever there is something more serious to host or a web site made with one of the often hacked systems like Joomla or Wordpress - I always create a separate account for them.

Which comes back to security :slight_smile:

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