What Is cPanel? A Quick Guide for WordPress Beginners
When you first start thinking about launching a WordPress website, be it a gaming website, a dropshipping site, or a fashion blog, you can notice the word “cPanel” popping up left and right. You might notice it in the offers of some web hosting providers. Tutorials for website management will often reference it, too. Often, fixing some issues with your website will require you to access this or set that via cPanel. So even without knowing what exactly cPanel is, you can easily conclude that it’s kind of important. At the very least, as a WordPress user, learning what is cPanel and why it’s so useful is very useful.
If your goal is to get a quick explanation about cPanel and its many uses, you’re in the right place! In this article, we’ll discuss the web hosting control panel and some of the things that make it one of the most widely used pieces of software of its kind. Stay tuned to learn:
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cPanel is a web host control panel, a place where you can go to manage your hosting account. Just like the WordPress dashboard lets you install a plugin on your WordPress website, implement themes, or create and publish posts and pages, the control panel gives you a dashboard where you can, for starters, install WordPress, manage files, and even install software. It’s just that, with cPanel and related software, you’re managing things on the server.
Most web hosts will provide a web host control panel to their users. It would still be possible to manage a server without them, but it would be very demanding on the users, as they’d have to know what the command line is and how to use it. Control panels make it much more friendly to users of all levels of knowledge, the way graphic interfaces usually do.
Of the web hosts that provide control panels to their users, a sizable chunk, if not the majority, will offer cPanel. As long as your web host runs Linux servers, you’ll be able to come across cPanel whether you’re using shared hosting, managed hosting, or even a dedicated server. cPanel is often listed as the gold standard for web host control panels.
cPanel’s popularity isn’t without reason. The people behind cPanel seemed to have achieved that rare feat of developing a product that has a lot of pros and very few cons. The reasons why a host would decide against installing cPanel are limited to its price and the fact that its popularity makes it a target for hackers, the same charge that’s routinely thrown at WordPress.
Then, however, come all the reasons why hosts choose to provide cPanel to their users. For example, if there’s one thing cPanel excels at, it’s giving users easy access to every single function and option they have on the server. cPanel is reliable and stable, and it works well with all kinds of software, most notably with all the major browsers which are important since users access it via a browser.
With cPanel, you’re never too far away from an answer to any question you might have. The software is well-supported, of course, but its popularity also means there are plenty of learning and troubleshooting resources available to you from regular users.
If you already have a host that provides cPanel access, they might have sent you a link to where you can log into your cPanel. Check any emails from your hosting provider for it. Don’t worry if you can’t find it, however – adding :2082 to your web domain if you don’t use SSL encryption, or :2083 if you do, should get you there. If it doesn’t, get in touch with your provider and ask them for a link.
In case you’re still just researching hosting providers and you don’t have access to cPanel, you can head over to the cPanel’s website and find the link to the virtual tutorial. It might not let you do a lot with cPanel, but it will show you what the dashboard looks like, and which options it contains.
Right off the bat, you’ll probably notice that cPanel gives you a whole lot of tools you can use to do some pretty awesome things with your server. If you want to install WordPress and launch a website, you’ll find the WordPress Toolkit that’ll let you do it in no time. cPanel offers a WordPress Toolkit Deluxe extension, and if your provider has it you can use it to clone your website, for example, or facilitate website migrations.
Much of the functions you’ll find through cPanel have nothing to do with WordPress, however. You can create and manage email accounts through cPanel, for example – everything from creating an address to setting up encryption and creating mailing lists can be accessed from cPanel. When you want to manage files, back them up, and check disk usage statistics, you’ll find the tools to help you do it in cPanel. The same goes for managing databases, security, third-party software you’ve installed on the server, and the metrics and stats of your website.
For one reason or another, cPanel might not be the best choice for you. Maybe you’re adamant about using only Windows servers, which means you can’t use cPanel. You might also prefer to walk off the beaten track and try solutions that aren’t used by the majority of users.
Either way, you’ll be happy to know that, if you don’t want to use cPanel, no one can make you. You might narrow your choice of hosts, however, if some might not be willing to offer another control panel for your server. There are more than a few cPanel alternatives, from the Windows-friendly Plesk to the open-source Froxlor, just make sure you research them well and that your host is okay with you using them.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
cPanel is one of the most useful pieces of software you’ll be using to manage the hosting for your WordPress website. Chances are you’ll be turning to it quite often, and after a couple of weeks of having a website, you’ll probably forget that you ever wondered what is cPanel. Until then, however, remember that it’s a dashboard that lets you do some very important things with your hosting, and that it’s fairly popular so there’s always somewhere to look for explanations if you’re unsure of something.
