cPanel

cPanel (control panel) is a graphical web-based management tool, designed to make administration of web sites as easy as possible. cPanel handles all aspects of website administration in an easy-to-use interface. The software, which is proprietary, runs on a number of popular RPM-based Linux distributions, such as SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and cAos, as well as FreeBSD. Preliminary support for Debian is claimed, although this version has been in "beta" state for several years, and is not supported. cPanel is commonly accessed on ports 2082 and 2083 (for an SSL version). Authentication is either via HTTP or web page login.

It is designed for use by commercial web hosting services, so the company does not offer a reduced-cost personal use  license; however, owners of non-profit organizations such as educational institutions and charities can request a license at no charge.

It is only available on UNIX-based operating systems, but a version for Microsoft Windows is in development. As with the Debian port, however, this version has remained BETA for several years. Versions for Solaris and Mac OS X were also claimed to be under development for some time.

Features

To the client, cPanel provides front-ends for a number of common operations, including the management of PGP keys,
crontab tasks, mail and FTP accounts, and mailing lists. Several add-ons exist, including Fantastico, a script which
allows the automated installation of open source web applications such as phpBB.

Resellers gain access to an additional control panel known as Web Host Manager, or WHM, which allows them to
create and manage sub-accounts. The server administrator also has access to additional features in WHM which allow
them to perform server maintenance tasks such as rebooting the server and upgrading software.

Unlike some other web hosting control panels, cPanel manages some software packages separately from the
underlying operating system, applying upgrades to Apache, PHP, MySQL, and related software packages
automatically. This ensures that these packages are kept up-to-date and compatible with cPanel, but has become a
cause for consternation to some, as it becomes difficult to easily install newer versions of these packages.

*Screen captures of the cPanel system are for sample use only. They are not updated when our control panel is.

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