Hosting Control Panel
All web hosts supply a control panel to their customers. The aim of a control panel is to allow simple graphical access to features and websites. Such features may include script installation, databases, site statistics, emails, FTP, data usage and more. There are several well respected and widely used control panel software choices available and it comes down to the web host to choose which they are going to provide their customers. Before deciding on a web host you should look into their control panel choice to see if it suits you.
Some of the most common uses of a Hosting Control Panel include:
- tracking visitor statistics through analytics software
- see disk space and bandwidth usage for the month
- file manager / FTP
- email account set up and maintenance
- Database management
- FTP user accounts
- Server logs
cPanel is the most widely used Linux control panel software but there are also many others:
- DirectAdmin
- H-sphere
- ISPmanager
- Plesk
- vSacs
- XPanel
- Sphera
- Baifox
cPanel provides users with a clear and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) to manage their website. It is very easy to use and provides virtually every function a webmaster needs including script installation through Fantastico, email management, FTP / file management, web statistics, database management and more.
Most people are aware of how cPanel works and what it offers so let's take a look at some of the other lesser known yet feature packed control panels.
Plesk Hosting Control Panel
Plesk simplifies website management and provides a large number of tasks for the webmaster. Plesk allows you to create multiple levels of login access which are each allocated different permission levels.
These include an administrator which is the highest level and allows you to do everything. The Client/Reseller login level lets you create domains and administer groups of domains. Domain Owner lets users manage a single domain. The bottom level of access is the Mail User which lets the user log into the email interface. These access levels are perfect if you are reselling hosting or building sites for clients that will need multiple people with various needs to log into Plesk for different reasons.
Other notable control panels are Baifox which is a light weight control panel, Sphera which is aimed at Windows hosting servers and Helm which is another Windows hosting management interface.
If you want to use a particular control panel interface then it is best to check with prospective hosts to find out exactly which one they use.