Subdomain or ordinary subfolder

[Bob Barr]

I want to set up individual test sites so that clients can view their web pages during development and OK them before going live with their sites.

Are there any particular benefits and/or drawbacks to setting up a formal subdomain through cPanel versus just creating a subfolder under my main domain?

Creating a subdomain allows access through clientname.example.com and access to an ordinary subfolder is through example.com/clientname, right? (Actually, I'm not entirely certain that both addresses don't work identically.)

Is there anything that I'm missing here?

[Early Out]

I'm pretty sure it's mostly just aesthetics, but there are a few advantages to actually making it a subdomain.

First, the subdomain.example.com form of the address works only if you've made it a subdomain (the example.com/subdomain form works no matter what).

Second, the subdomain.example.com form is a little neater, and less likely for a user to louse up.

Third, you can get awstats on a subdomain, but to get stats on a simple subdirectory, you'd have to parse the raw access logs yourself (in effect, impossible). That's especially handy for doing things like tracking down 404 errors, which awstats gathers for you.

[Bob Barr]

I'm pretty sure it's mostly just aesthetics, but there are a few advantages to actually making it a subdomain.

First, the subdomain.example.com form of the address works only if you've made it a subdomain (the example.com/subdomain form works no matter what).
Thanks, I didn't realize that.


Second, the subdomain.example.com form is a little neater, and less likely for a user to louse up.
Good point, I hadn't considered that.


Third, you can get awstats on a subdomain, but to get stats on a simple subdirectory, you'd have to parse the raw access logs yourself (in effect, impossible). That's especially handy for doing things like tracking down 404 errors, which awstats gathers for you.
Since these will be password-protected test sites, I wasn't planning to concern myself with any sort of stats. It's good to know, though, that separate stats are available if I do other subdomains in the future.

Thanks for your thoughts.