What is cPanel Web Hosting?
For your info, it's useful to be aware that the majority of the cPanel-based Web Hosting offers on today's web hosting market are provided by a quite insignificant marketing niche (when it comes to annual cash flow) called reseller hosting. Reseller web hosting is a sort of a small-sized marketing segment, which generates a vast amount of different web hosting trademarks, yet offering exactly the same thing: mostly cPanel web hosting services. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Because at least 98 percent of the web hosting offers on the whole hosting market provide precisely the same solution: cPanel. There's no difference at all. Even the cPanel Web Hosting prices are identical. Quite similar. Giving those who demand a top web hosting service almost no other hosting platform/CP alternative. Thus, there is simply a single fact: out of more than 200k web hosting trademarks in the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than two percent! Less than two percent, mark that one...
200k "Web Hosting providers", all cPanel-based, yet uniquely dubbed
The Web Hosting "diversity" and the hosting "offers" Google presents to us boil down to merely one and the same thing: cPanel. Under 100's of thousands of different web hosting trademarked names. Assume you are simply an ordinary person who's not very well acquainted with (as the majority of us) with the web site development procedures and the web hosting platforms, which actually power the respective domains and web sites. Are you ready to make your web hosting selection? Is there any website hosting variant you can select? Sure there is, nowadays there are more than two hundred thousand website hosting service providers in existence. Officially. Then where is the difficulty? Here's where: more than 98% of these 200,000+ unique website hosting brands worldwide will offer you absolutely the same cPanel website hosting Control Panel and platform, branded differently, with exactly the same price tags! WOW! That's how huge the variety on the present-day web hosting market is... Period.
The Web Hosting LOTTO we are all part of
Simple arithmetic demonstrates that to come across a non-cPanel based web hosting firm is a gigantic strike of luck. There is a less than one in 50 chance that a phenomenon like that will happen! Less than 1 in 50...
The strong and weak points of the cPanel Web Hosting solution
Let's not be fierce with cPanel. At least, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was fashionable and perhaps met most web hosting market demands. To put it briefly, cPanel can achieve the desired result if you have only a single domain to host. But, if you have more domain names...
Shortcoming Number One: An imbecilic domain name folder structure
If you have 2 or more domain names, however, be extra cautious not to delete fully the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will call each next hosted domain, which is not the default one: an add-on domain name). The files of the add-on domains are quite simple to erase on the server, since they all are situated 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 located 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. Determine for yourself how fantastic cPanel's domain folder setup 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 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)
Are you becoming nonplussed? We surely are!
Weak Side Number 2: The same e-mail folder arrangement
The e-mail folder arrangement on the web server is literally the same as that of the domains... Making the very same error twice?!? The admin guys strongly reinforce their faith in God when tackling the email folders on the e-mail server, hoping not to screw things up too fatally.
Predicament No.3: An entire lack of domain name manipulation tools
Do we need to point out the total absence of a modern domain administration tool - a location where you can: register/move/renew/park or administer domain names, alter domain names' Whois information, protect the Whois information, modify/set up nameservers (DNS) and DNS resource records? cPanel does not have such a "contemporary" menu at all. That's a gigantic problem. An unpardonable one, we would like to point out...
Negative Point No.4: Multiple login locations (min 2, max three)
What about the need for an extra login to avail of the invoicing, domain name and tech support administration interface? That's aside from the cPanel account login credentials you've been already supplied by the cPanel Web Hosting supplier. Sometimes, depending on the billing transaction tool (especially made for cPanel solely) the cPanel Web Hosting vendor is using, the eager customers can wind up with 2 additional login places (1: the invoice transaction/domain administration section; 2: the trouble ticket support interface), ending up with an aggregate of three user login locations (counting cPanel).
Downside Number 5: More than one hundred and twenty website hosting CP sections to learn... rapidly
cPanel offers for your consideration more than one hundred and twenty menus inside the Control Panel. It's a fabulous idea to memorize each one of them. And you'd better become acquainted with them briskly... That's very arrogant on cPanel's side.
With all due veneration, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel Web Hosting service providers:
As far as we know, it's not the year 2001, is it? Mark that one too...
| Standard | Express | Pro | Turbo |
| Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage |
| Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth |
| 1 website hosted | 5 websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted |
| 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial |
| $3.20 / month | $5.12 / month | $8.67 / month | $12.50 / month |