Explanation of cPanel Hosting
For your info, it's useful to be aware that the majority of the cPanel Hosting offerings on today's web hosting market are supplied by a very inconsiderable business segment (when it comes to yearly cash flow) dubbed reseller hosting. Reseller web hosting is a type of a small-size marketing segment, which generates a huge quantity of different web hosting brand names, yet furnishing literally the same thing: mostly cPanel web hosting services. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Because of the fact that at least 98% of the website hosting offerings on the whole web hosting marketplace offer one and the very same thing: cPanel. There's no difference at all. Even the cPanel Hosting prices are similar. Very much alike. Leaving for those in need of a top web hosting service practically no other web hosting platform/website hosting Control Panel alternative. So, there is simply one fact: out of more than 200,000 website hosting brand names around the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than 2%! Less than two percent, mark that one...
200k "Hosting corporations", all cPanel-based, yet uniquely branded
The Hosting "diversity" and the website hosting "offers" Google presents to all of us boil down to merely one thing: cPanel. Under hundreds of thousands of different web hosting trademarked names. Assume you are only an ordinary guy who's not very well acquainted with (as the majority of us) with the site making processes and the web hosting platforms, which actually power the separate domain names and web portals. Are you prepared to make your hosting choice? Is there any website hosting variant you can select? Of course there is, at present there are more than 200k web hosting service providers out there. Formally. Then where is the problem? Here's where: more than 98% of these 200,000+ unique web hosting brand names all over the world will give you precisely the same cPanel website hosting Control Panel and platform, named in a different way, with absolutely the same price tags! WOW! That's how large the variety on the current hosting market is... Full stop.
The Hosting LOTTO we are all part of
Simple arithmetic shows that to encounter a non-cPanel based web hosting corporation is a mammoth strike of luck. There is a less than 1 in fifty chance that a thing like that will take place! Less than one in 50...
The strengths and weaknesses of the cPanel Hosting solution
Let's not be unfair with cPanel. After all, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was trendy and probably covered most web hosting industry prerequisites. In brief, cPanel can do the trick if you have just one domain name to host. But, if you have more domains...
Disadvantage Number 1: A stupid domain folder arrangement
If you have 2 or more domains, however, be extra watchful not to erase entirely the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will call each subsequent hosted domain, which is not the default one: an add-on domain). The files of the add-on domains are very simple to erase on the server, since 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 remove the files of the add-on domains, please. Decide for yourself how great cPanel's domain name folder system is:
public_html (here my-default-domain.com is situated)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 name)
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)
Are you getting bewildered? We clearly are!
Weak Point Number 2: The very same email folder setup
The e-mail folder structure on the hosting server is precisely the same as that of the domain names... Making the same mistake twice?!? The sysadmin chaps firmly fortify their faith in God when managing the electronic mail folders on the email server, praying not to screw things up too seriously.
Problem Number Three: A thorough deficiency of domain manipulation tools
Do we have to refer to the entire absence of a modern domain manipulation user interface - a place where you can: register/relocate/renew/park or administer domain names, alter domain names' Whois information, protect the Whois details, change/set up nameservers (DNS) and DNS records? cPanel does not contain such a "contemporary" section at all. That's a mammoth problem. An unjustifiable one, we would like to add...
Negative Side Number 4: Numerous login places (min 2, maximum three)
How about the need for an additional login to make use of the invoicing, domain name and tech support administration section? That's aside from the cPanel login credentials you've been already provided by the cPanel Hosting distributor. Occasionally, based on the billing system (principally devised for cPanel only) the cPanel Hosting corporation is making use of, the zealous users can wind up with two additional logins (1: the billing/domain name management GUI; 2: the trouble ticket support user interface), winding up with a total of 3 user login places (including cPanel).
Inconvenience No.5: More than a hundred and twenty website hosting CP areas to learn... quickly
cPanel presents for your consideration more than one hundred and twenty menus inside the hosting Control Panel. It's an excellent idea to become acquainted with each and every one of them. And you'd better get acquainted with them quickly... That's quite impertinent on cPanel's side.
With all due appreciation, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel Hosting suppliers:
As far as we are aware of, it's not the year 2001, is it? Mind that one too...
| Business | Starter | Unlimited | Business Plus | Starter Plus | Business Extra |
| Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | 300 GB storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage |
| Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | 3 TB bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth |
| 5 websites hosted | 1 website hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | 2 websites hosted | 1 website hosted | 19 websites hosted |
| 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial |
| £6.57 / month | £5.10 / month | £15.00 / month | £14.32 / month | £5.58 / month | £7.16 / month |