API-mode vs hosted: which kind of reseller are you

2026-10-17 · Bazyl

After this you will have picked a mode, and the pick takes five lines at the end. Most applicants get one thing wrong first: they treat the two modes as two products with two prices. They are one partner account, one pool and one price list. The mode is a setting on that account, and it decides who builds the customer-facing side.

What both modes share

Everything about supply is identical. Both modes run on the same pool, with the same partner API and the same portal, one account per customer with usage per customer, and gateways whose authentication challenge names no supplier.

The money terms are identical too: a $0 monthly fee, a 100 GB first order, branding removal included, and pool gigabytes that never expire.

Support is the same in both. Me, by ticket.

The call that proves it is GET /me. It returns the same account, the same pools[] and the same rate limit whichever mode the account is in:

# The same call in both modes: one account, one pool.
curl -s "https://api.basilproxies.com/api/reseller/v1/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BASIL_PARTNER_KEY" \
  | jq '.pools[] | select(.product == "residential2") | {balanceMb, balanceGb}'

If you've done week one and read the ledger, none of it changes with the mode. The ledger is the same ledger.

Where they differ: who builds the customer side

Five things differ, and all five are the surface your customers touch:

• Customer dashboard. API: you build it. Hosted: hosted by us, on your domain.
• How your customers pay. API: you, however you collect. Hosted: your own Stripe account, with you as the merchant of record.
• Emails to your customers. API: yours to send. Hosted: from your own domain.
• Discord login and server gate. API: your bot's. Hosted: included.
• Your own proxy hostname. API: on request, as a CNAME to our gateway. Hosted: included.

The API side, as an example: a bot that takes a payment, creates and funds the customer with POST /customers, and posts the credentials back is the whole product. Three calls from sale to working proxy, and nothing of ours in front of the buyer.

The hosted side: the same buyer logs in with Discord on a dashboard at your domain, pays into your Stripe account, and gets the confirmation email from your domain. You wrote none of it.

Hosted is set up by hand today

The hosted plan is sold now and built by hand for each partner. You apply, and we set it up with you. I'm not promising a date for anything more automated than that, because I'd rather say "by hand" than print a date I made up.

In practice that means an API partner is live the same day: the partner account, the first key and the first sale are three actions on my side, and the key works the moment it exists. A hosted partner's extras, the hostname and the dashboard, are set up with you over the following days.

Every partner so far is an API partner

As of 1 October 2026, every active partner is an API partner.

They all arrived with a bot or a storefront already running and wanted supply behind it.

That is not a verdict on hosted. It is who has shown up so far, and it tells you the API path is proven while the hosted path is young. If you are the first hosted partner, you will know it, and the setup happens with you rather than from a form.

The mode is a setting

You can start in API mode and switch. Both modes share one partner account and one pool, so a switch moves nothing: no second pool, no re-bought gigabytes, no new customer accounts. Your ledger continues.

Example: you launch with a bot in your Discord on the API plan, and six months later you want a dashboard on your domain without building one. That is a ticket, not a migration.

Pick in five lines

• You have a developer or a bot already: API.
• You have a storefront or a checkout you control: API.
• You have a Discord and no developer: hosted.
• You want your domain on the dashboard, the emails and the hostname without building any of it: hosted.
• You are not sure: API, and switch when you are.

What neither mode does

Neither mode puts us in front of your customers. There is no Basil dashboard, login or email for them in either plan, we never see them or their money, and your prices are yours to set.

And neither mode changes what we answer for. We answer for the proxy being live and reachable, not for it working on a particular site, and that holds for your customers the way it holds for ours.

Pick a line above and apply on the partner page; a two-line message is enough to start.