What is cPanel and Why Would Someone Need It?

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, we were compensated to publish this article on our website.

If you’ve purchased any kind of web hosting service in the past, you’ve probably run into cPanel at some point or another. If you’re creating a website for the very first time, cPanel can be a tiny bit confusing. We know that starting a site for the first time can be a daunting task. Let’s take a look and see if we can uncomplicate your life just a tiny bit and demystify the puzzle known as cPanel.

What is It?

When you’re looking for a web host, you’ll probably have a ton of jargon thrown your way. You’ll hear about things like shared hosting, VPS hosting, FTP, and of course, cPanel. Some novices even conflate cPanel with their hosting plan itself. So what is cPanel? Well, to put it simply, cPanel is a Web Hosting Control Panel, no more and no less. No matter what hosting package you pick, websites are located on physical hardware known as a server. cPanel is simply the software that allows you to control what your data is doing on that hardware, not unlike an operating system.

It is a web-based graphical user interface that allows you to manage the various every facet of your web hosting account. Do you need to create a new site on your hosting package? Do you need to create new domains or subdomains? Do you need to add new FTP accounts so that you can access your site with FileZilla? cPanel allows you to do all these things fairly quickly, as long as you know where to look. You can also manage email accounts and your content delivery network.

Why cPanel specifically?

Relieved that you now know a little bit about cPanel? Knowing is, as they say, half the battle, but what’s the other half?  Well, for one, you’d want to know why cPanel is the benchmark rather than any other web hosting control panel. There are other options out there like Plesk, Froxlor, and the very creatively named ZPanel. 

However, cPanel has risen above all of its competitors to be available as a standard on most hosting platforms. Why is this? Let’s take a look at the different reasons.

Security

The term “industry standard” is bandied about quite frequently when talking about cPanel, and there’s a reason for that. Frequent updates and security features make it so that it is incredibly difficult for anyone to inflict harm upon your website, either knowingly or unknowingly. cPanel has been developed with security in mind. Security vulnerabilities are addressed almost immediately with their lightning-quick updates. If you’re looking for peace of mind, be sure to select a platform with cPanel, like GreenGeeks Web Hosting.

Ease of Use

One does not require technical knowledge to upload files and install apps or plugins using cPanel. The GUI is user-friendly and simple. There are no functions buried underneath some deep rabbit-hole of labyrinthine menus. All features are easy to find and readily available with one or two clicks. If you’re really having trouble, cPanel has an integrated tutorial to help you get where you need to go.

Whatever task you need to accomplish will take you mere seconds. Want to create three separate websites on your hosting account? cPanel will create the databases in seconds whether you’re a technical aficionado or a caveperson who isn’t quite sure how a keyboard works.

Unlimited Power

When software is easy to use, the stereotype is often that its feature-set will be limited. While this is true in some cases, cPanel doesn’t just buck this trend. Rather, it takes a chainsaw to this assumption. While the GUI looks like a simple OS, cPanel has the most features of any web hosting software. Everything is easy to locate within intuitive, collapsible categories.  The feature-set is so robust that you can even manage a WordPress site without logging into your admin panel.

Conclusions

For all the above reasons, we highly recommend that you pick a hosting package that uses cPanel. Luckily, most providers will include it as a part of your plan. cPanel is easy to use and highly secure. Furthermore, its feature-set is out of this world. There is no reason any webmaster needs to use any other hosting management software.