Firstly, for anyone who hasn’t heard of it before, CPanel is a web hosting control panel. What this means is that it provides a single, web based, graphical interface for your hosting account on the web server. Of course, this begs the questions, what does CPanel have to offer and why is it better than other similar applications like Plesk or Baifox?
Secure Web Access
Traditionally, remotely managing your web server meant remoting in with an SSH client like PuTTY. For those who are uncomfortable with command line interfaces, this can be a daunting task. CPanel greatly simplifies this process by allowing you to connect to your server through a graphical web interface. This gives you a straightforward and intuitive way to manage your server, regardless of your hosting environment.
All Your Tools in One Place
CPanel provides one central management application for tasks from server configuration to SQL, Email, Website Hosting and FTP. It also allows you to view logs, analyze your network traffic and access monitoring data. This lets you manage everything from a single interface, saving time and simplifying the process of web hosting.
Diverse Application Support
CPanel provides support for a wide variety of development languages and tools such as PHP, Pearl, C/C++, Python and FrontPage. This gives developers the flexibility to code in the language of their choice.
Optional Modules
A wide variety of packages are available for CPanel. These include various forms, forums, chat applications, shopping carts, counters and other useful web elements. WordPress, phpbb and Joomla are some examples. Having these built into the management solution makes installation quick and easy, not to mention saving you time and money when it comes to either buying these features or developing them yourself.
Hosting Resale tools
When it comes to selling server space and bandwidth, good management is key. Trying to provide a management solution for everyone who needs access to server resources can be a daunting challenge. CPanel makes this complicated task simple by providing separate interfaces for server administrators, resellers and the end user. For each different level of user, CPanel provides the necessary level of access and allows for straightforward management at every tier.
Backup for Mission Critical Data
There are few things which have as much capacity to cripple a company as data loss. It is critical that you have backups of your data so that you are protected in the event of unexpected hardware failure. CPanel allows you to create secure backups of all your data, both your websites and your databases.
Automatic Updates for Critical Packages
This is where many web hosting control panels fall flat. One of the major objections to control panels which abstract the user from the day to day operation of the web server is with potential security issues. This stems from the fact that failure to patch critical services can lead to known security vulnerabilities remaining open. Unlike many competing applications, Plesk in particular, CPanel automatically updates important modules such as Apache, MySQL and PHP using Softaculous. Cpanel also includes Fantastico De Luxe, which is a manual way of updating scripts.
CPanel is a comprehensive package which allows you to manage all the aspects of your web server. Whether you’re thinking of setting up your own server or shopping around for a managed hosting solution, CPanel is definitely a key application to consider.
Chris Ricard is the owner of TheWeb-Factory.com, a Canadian Web Hosting Company that uses Cpanel, an easy-to-use control panel with tools for business owners to make Canadian e-commerce web hosting, business quality web hosting and even personal web hosting manageable for anyone.
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