What Exactly is cPanel Web Hosting?

For your information, it's useful to know that most of the cPanel-based web hosting offerings on the present-day website hosting market are furnished by a very inconsiderable marketing segment (when it comes to annual cash flow) known as reseller hosting. Reseller website hosting is a type of a small marketing niche, which supplies a huge quantity of different web hosting brands, yet furnishing absolutely the same solutions: mainly cPanel web hosting solutions. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Because at least 98% of the web hosting offerings on the whole website hosting market provide one and the same thing: cPanel. There's no variety at all. Even the cPanel-based web hosting prices are similar. Very similar. Leaving for those in need of a top web hosting service practically no other web hosting platform/website hosting Control Panel choice. So, there is just one fact: out of more than two hundred thousand website hosting trademarks all over the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than two percent! Less than 2%, remark that one...

200k "web hosting companies", all cPanel-based, yet distinctly dubbed

The web hosting "diversity" and the web hosting "offers" Google shows to all of us boil down to merely one and the very same thing: cPanel. Under hundreds of 1000's of different web hosting trademarked names. Assume you are just an ordinary fellow who's not very familiar with (as the majority of us) with the web site making processes and the hosting platforms, which actually power the various domains and sites. Are you prepared to make your hosting decision? Is there any hosting variant you can select? Sure there is, at the moment there are more than 200k website hosting vendors out there. Formally. Then where is the problem? Here's where: more than 98% of these 200,000+ unique website hosting brands all over the world will give you absolutely the same cPanel website hosting Control Panel and platform, named in a different way, with exactly the same price tags! WOW! That's how huge the diversity on the present hosting marketplace is... Full stop.

The web hosting LOTTO we are all part of

Simple math reveals that to run into a non-cPanel based web hosting provider is a huge strike of luck. There is a less than one in 50 chance that a phenomenon like that will take place! Less than 1 in 50...

The strong and weak sides of the cPanel-based web hosting solution

Let's not be relentless with cPanel. At least, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was trendy and possibly covered all web hosting industry requirements. In brief, cPanel can do the job for you if you have just a single domain name to host. But, if you have more domain names...

Inconvenience No.1: A dumb domain name folder configuration

If you have 2 or more domains, however, be very watchful not to remove fully the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will dub each new hosted domain, which is not the default one: an add-on domain). The files of the add-on domains are very easy to remove on the server, because they all are located into the root folder of the default domain, which is the quite popular public_html folder. Each add-on domain name is a folder placed inside the folder of the default domain name. Like a sub-folder. Next time attempt not to delete the files of the add-on domain names, please. Observe for yourself how good cPanel's domain name folder configuration is:

public_html (here my-default-domain.com is located)
public_html/my-family (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/my-second-domain.com (an add-on domain)
public_html/my-second-wife (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/my-second-wife.net (an add-on domain)
public_html/my-third-domain.com (an add-on domain)
public_html/my-third-wife (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/my-third-wife.net (an add-on domain)
public_html/rebeka (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/rebeka.my-third-wife.net (a sub-domain of an add-on domain)

Are you becoming puzzled? We undoubtedly are!

Negative Sign No.2: The same mail folder setup

The email folder structure on the hosting server is absolutely the same as that of the domains... Making the very same mistake twice?!? The sysadmin blokes firmly fortify their faith in God when managing the email folders on the mail server, praying not to mess things up too severely.

Drawback No.3: An utter absence of domain name manipulation tools

Do we have to cite the sheer absence of a contemporary domain name administration user interface - a location where you can: register/migrate/renew/park or manage domain names, change domain names' Whois details, protect the Whois info, edit/set up nameservers (DNS) and Domain Name System resource records? cPanel does not include such a "modern" tool at all. That's a major weakness. An inexcusable one, we wish to point out...

Negative Point Number Four: Numerous login locations (min two, maximum three)

How about the demand for another login to utilize the invoice transaction, domain name and technical support management GUI? That's beside the cPanel login credentials you've been already provided by the cPanel web hosting supplier. At times, depending on the invoicing transaction tool (particularly made for cPanel only) the cPanel web hosting corporation is utilizing, the keen customers can end up with two additional logins (1: the invoice transaction/domain administration GUI; 2: the ticket support software solution), ending up with a total of 3 login locations (including cPanel).

Predicament No.5: More than one hundred and twenty hosting CP menus to learn... quickly

cPanel offers to your attention more than 120 sections inside the web hosting Control Panel. It's a marvelous idea to pick up each of them. And you'd better get to know them quickly... That's very impertinent on cPanel's side.

With all due veneration, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel-based web hosting service providers:

As far as we are informed, it's not the year 2001, is it? Remark that one as well...