Features of cPanel web hosting
cPanel is the most popular site configuration and management software application. cPanel hosting is the standard for web hosting and even though there are other similar packages, cPanel is the preferred choice.
cPanel comes with tons of features and for a novice this could be pretty intimidating. Nobody says that you must start using them all right away – you can start with the easier ones and with those you will need on a daily basis. If your web hosting provider offers cPanel hosting, most likely the features you will see will be similar to the ones shown in the next screenshot and described later in this article:
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Each of the categories of options has subcategories. You can customize these options a bit but generally they are the following:
1. Preferences. The Preferences category of cPanel hosting contains options which allow you to make changes to the look and feel of cPanel, as well as some other administrative settings settings. Here you will find some guides and tutorials as well.
2. Mail. The Mail category of cPanel hosting is full of mail-related options. Here you can set email addresses for your domain, forwarders, mailing lists, spam killers, and other filters. This is one of the categories of cPanel hosting features you will use pretty often, so it makes sense to have a more in-depth look at it.
3. Files. The Files category of cPanel hosting contains options for work with files. From here you can make backups, manage files and disk space, set web disks, configure FTP access to your site, etc. Some of these options are among the ones you will use on a daily basis.
4. Logs. The Logs category of cPanel hosting is one of the most useful categories and probably you will use it on a daily basis because here you can find applications, which allow you to see how your site has been performing. The Latest Visitors and Awstats are especially useful because they contain a lot of information about your visitors, where they come from, which keywords they searched for, etc.
5. Security. The Security category of cPanel hosting is a very important one because there you will find some of the settings, which allow you to defend your site against unwelcome visitors. From here you can create password-protected directories, IP blacklists, security certificates, etc.
6. Domains. As the name itself suggests, the Domains category of cPanel hosting gathers the options you will need to manage your domains and subdomains. The options are not many but they are all you will need.
7. Databases. The Databases category of cPanel hosting is for managing your databases. You can access your databases directly or use tools such as phpMyAdmin or Remote MySQL.
8. Software/Services. The Software/Services category of cPanel hosting contains a few options might never use, such as the application installers Fantastico and Softaculous, or some CGI/PHP settings.
9. Advanced. The Advanced category of cPanel hosting contains some more options, which are not that advanced but still you will need them from time to time only. Here you will find options such as Apache Handlers, Image Manager, Index Manager, Error pages, Cron jobs, FrontPage® Extensions, Network Tools, and MIME Types.
The cPanel features we described apply to the Domain Owner version of cPanel hosting. In addition to the Domain Owner version, which is the most common one and most probably will be the only one you will ever use, there are also Root and Reseller and Reseller Domain panels. They have different options and if you want to see them, you can visit the demo page