Web Hosting Control Panels 101 – cPanel

Managing a web server isn’t as technical as it used to be when I started 13 years ago. Back then we needed to edit all configuration files manually, restart services to apply changes, etc.

Now you’ve got plenty of control panels that allow you to manage your webserver and / or your website account. Let’s see some of the most well known control panels. Hopefully this will help you make a better choice when it comes to choosing a web host.

cPanel and WHM

cPanel and WebHost Manager have to be some of the most popular control panels and have been around for quite awhile. They offer you 4 level of management:

• WebHost Manager (WHM) – [Server administrator login]: This allows the system administrator to manage the webserver. Some of the possible tasks are managing website accounts, managing services like Apache and MySQL, perform backup operations, etc. You will usually find WHM offered with Virtual Private Server or Dedicated Servers packages and not on shared hosting plans.
• WebHost Manager (WHM) – [Reseller login]: When logged into WHM with a reseller account, you can manage your client’s hosting account. While you only get limited access to WHM, you can also perform backup tasks and other operations permitted by the server administrator. You will find this type of WHM access on web hosts that offer reseller hosting.
• cPanel – [Domain owner login]: Logged in cPanel as the domain owner, you can manage all of your website aspects: create databases, add subdomains, manage FTP and email accounts, password-protect directories, etc.
• cPanel – [Mail user login]: This allows your email users to manage their mailbox, change their password and access their webmail client.

I have personnally been using cPanel and WHM for a long time and while I could pretty much do whatever I want without it, I wouldn’t live without it since it saves me a lot of time.

There are two features I really like about WHM:

• Easy webserver clustering: this allows you to run two webservers with the same content so if one becomes inaccessible, the other one carries on. Makes me sleep better at night.
• Moving accounts between webservers: if your web host sucks, than just find another one who offers cPanel / WHM and move your website, email accounts, databases, etc. within a few clicks.

You can try a demo here: http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpwhm/cpanel11/demo.htm

cPanel Web Hosting

Some of the best web hosting companies offering cPanel and WHM are:

• HostGator – Starting at $4.95
• InMotion – Starting At $3.00
• LunarPages – Starting At $6.95 (cPanel available as an option)
• HostMonster – Starting At $5.95
• Bluehost – Starting At $6.95
• HostPapa – Starting At $5.95
• AN Hosting – Starting At $6.95

Stay tuned for the next part as we’ll see another great control panel: DirectAdmin.