What Precisely is cPanel Web Hosting?
For your information, it's useful to know that the majority of the cPanel-based web hosting offers on the current website hosting marketplace are generated by a very insignificant marketing segment (as far as yearly money flow is concerned) named hosting reseller. Reseller web hosting is a kind of a small-sized business niche, which supplies a huge quantity of different web hosting brands, yet offering the very same thing: mainly cPanel web hosting solutions. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Owing to the fact that at least 98% of the hosting offerings on the whole website hosting market offer the same service: cPanel. There's no variety at all. Even the cPanel web hosting prices are identical. Quite similar. Giving those who need a top web hosting service virtually no other web hosting platform/web hosting CP choice. Thus, there is simply one single fact: out of more than 200k website hosting brands in the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than 2%! Less than two percent, mark that one...
200k "web hosting firms", all cPanel-based, yet diversely branded
Unlimited bandwidth
1 website hosted
30-Day Free Trial
Unlimited bandwidth
5 websites hosted
30-Day Free Trial
The web hosting "diversity" and the web hosting "offers" Google presents to all of us boil down to merely one solution: cPanel. Under hundreds of 1000's of different web hosting trademarked names. Suppose you are merely an ordinary person who's not well aware of (as most of us) with the web site creation processes and the website hosting platforms, which actually power the individual domain names and web pages. Are you prepared to make your web hosting decision? Is there any web hosting option you can pick? Of course there is, right now there are more than 200k website hosting firms in existence. Formally. Then where is the difficulty? Here's where: more than 98 percent of these 200k+ different web hosting brand names all over the world will offer you literally the same cPanel hosting Control Panel and platform, named in a different way, with the very same price tags! WOW! That's how great the diversity on the contemporary website hosting market is... Full stop.
The web hosting LOTTO we are all participating in
Simple math demonstrates that to pick a non-cPanel based web hosting distributor is a mammoth stroke of luck. There is a less than 1 in fifty chance that an event like that will occur! Less than 1 in 50...
The positive and negative aspects of the cPanel-based web hosting solution
Let's not be harsh with cPanel. After all, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was modern and perhaps fulfilled most web hosting industry prerequisites. In brief, cPanel can do the trick if you have just a single domain to host. But, if you have more domain names...
Disadvantage Number One: A stupid domain folder configuration
If you have 2 or more domain names, however, be extra careful not to remove entirely the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will dub each next hosted domain, which is not the default one: an add-on domain). The files of the add-on domains are very easy to erase on the server, because they all are situated into the root folder of the default domain name, which is the very popular public_html folder. Each add-on domain name is a folder situated inside the folder of the default domain name. Like a sub-folder. Next time try not to delete the files of the add-on domain names, please. Check for yourself how marvelous cPanel's domain name folder system 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)
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 bewildered? We undoubtedly are!
Shortcoming Number Two: The same electronic mail folder system
The mail folder configuration on the web server is exactly the same as that of the domains... Making the very same error twice?!? The sysadmin blokes firmly reinforce their belief in God when managing the e-mail folders on the e-mail server, praying not to muck things up too harshly.
Disadvantage Number 3: A total shortage of domain administration sections
Do we have to mention the thorough deficiency of a contemporary domain manipulation tool - a location where you can: register/transfer/renew/park or administer domains, modify domain names' Whois details, protect the Whois info, modify/set up nameservers (DNS) and Domain Name System records? cPanel does not supply such a "modern" GUI at all. That's a vast inconvenience. An unforgettable one, we wish to point out...
Negative Sign No.4: Numerous user login places (minimum 2, maximum three)
What about the need for an additional login to use the invoice transaction, domain and technical support management menu? That's beside the cPanel login credentials you've been already supplied by the cPanel-based web hosting corporation. Now and then, depending on the billing transaction tool (principally made for cPanel solely) the cPanel web hosting firm is utilizing, the enthusiastic users can wind up with two extra logins (1: the invoicing transaction/domain name management system; 2: the trouble ticket support interface), winding up with a total of 3 user login places (counting cPanel).
Weak Point No.5: 120+ web hosting CP menus to become acquainted with... rapidly
cPanel offers for your consideration more than a hundred and twenty sections inside the CP. It's a terrific idea to pick up each of them. And you'd better learn them fast... That's very insolent on cPanel's side.
With all due respect, 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? Remark that one as well...