What Actually is cPanel Hosting?
For your information, it's useful to know that most of the cPanel-based Hosting offerings on today's web hosting market are provided by a very insignificant marketing niche (when it comes to annual capital flow) named reseller hosting. Reseller web hosting is a type of a small-size marketing niche, which supplies an enormous quantity of different web hosting trademarks, yet supplying literally the same services: mostly cPanel web hosting services. This is bad news for everybody. Why? Because of the fact that at least 98 percent of the website hosting offerings on the entire web hosting marketplace supply the very same service: cPanel. There's no difference at all. Even the cPanel-based Hosting price tags are similar. Very similar. Giving those who require a top web hosting service practically no other web hosting platform/hosting Control Panel alternative. So, there is only a single fact: out of more than 200,000 website hosting brands all over the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than 2%! Less than two percent, remark that one...
Two hundred thousand "Hosting companies", all cPanel-based, yet distinctly named
The Hosting "variety" and the website hosting "offerings" Google presents to us come down to merely one solution: cPanel. Under 100's of thousands of different website hosting trademarked names. Imagine you are only a regular guy who's not very well aware of (as the majority of us) with the web site development processes and the website hosting platforms, which actually power the individual domain names and sites. Are you ready to make your web hosting selection? Is there any website hosting alternative you can settle on? Sure there is, today there are more than 200k website hosting distributors in existence. Officially. Then where is the problem? Here's where: more than 98 percent of these 200,000+ unique web hosting brands all over the world will offer you strictly the same cPanel hosting CP and platform, branded in a different way, with the very same price tags! WOW! That's how enormous the variety on the contemporary hosting marketplace is... Period.
The Hosting LOTTO we are all participating in
Simple mathematics demonstrates that to stumble upon a non-cPanel based web hosting service provider is an enormous stroke of luck. There is a less than 1 in 50 chance that an event like that will occur! Less than 1 in fifty...
The strengths and weaknesses of the cPanel Hosting solution
Let's not be merciless with cPanel. After all, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was modish and possibly answered most website hosting industry preconditions. To put it briefly, cPanel can do the job for you if you have just a single domain name to host. But, if you have more domains...
Drawback Number One: A moronic domain name folder arrangement
If you have two or more domain names, however, be very watchful not to delete fully the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will call each new hosted domain name, which is not the default one: an add-on domain name). The files of the add-on domains are very simple to remove on the server, because they all are created into the root folder of the default domain name, which is the very well known public_html folder. Each add-on domain is a folder placed inside the folder of the default domain. Like a sub-folder. Next time attempt not to erase the files of the add-on domains, please. Verify for yourself how great cPanel's domain folder setup is:
public_html (here my-default-domain.com is placed)public_html/my-family (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/my-second-domain.com (an add-on domain name)
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 name)
public_html/my-third-wife (a folder part of my-default-domain.com)
public_html/my-third-wife.net (an add-on domain name)
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 name)
Are you becoming disorientated? We undeniably are!
Negative Aspect Number Two: The very same mail folder setup
The mail folder arrangement on the web hosting server is exactly the same as that of the domain names... Repeating the same error twice?!? The sysadmin boys strongly enhance their belief in God when dealing with the mail folders on the email server, praying not to botch things up too severely.
Negative Side Number Three: An absolute lack of domain management user interfaces
Do we have to bring up the thorough shortage of a contemporary domain management tool - a location where you can: register/relocate/renew/park or manage domain names, change domain names' Whois info, shield the Whois information, change/set up nameservers (DNS) and DNS resource records? cPanel does not contain such a "contemporary" interface at all. That's a major inconvenience. An unjustifiable one, we want to add...
Weak Side Number 4: Multiple user login places (minimum 2, maximum three)
How about the necessity for another login to avail of the invoicing, domain and technical support management GUI? That's aside from the cPanel account login credentials you've been already given by the cPanel Hosting company. Occasionally, depending on the billing platform (particularly tailored for cPanel only) the cPanel Hosting vendor is making use of, the enthusiastic users can wind up with two additional login locations (1: the invoicing transaction/domain name management tool; 2: the ticket support software), winding up with an aggregate of 3 user login locations (counting cPanel).
Inconvenience Number 5: 120+ web hosting Control Panel areas to get acquainted with... quickly
cPanel presents to your attention more than 120 areas inside the web hosting Control Panel. It's a fabulous idea to get acquainted with each and every one of them. And you'd better memorize them swiftly... That's very insolent on cPanel's side.
With all due veneration, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel Hosting distributors:
As far as we are aware of, it's not the year 2001, is it? Mark that one too...
| Professional | Expert | Webmaster | Beginner |
| Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage |
| Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth |
| 5 websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | 1 website hosted |
| 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial |
| $3.92 / month | $8.67 / month | $12.50 / month | $3.00 / month |