What is cPanel Web Hosting?
For your information, it's useful to know that most of the cPanel-based Web Hosting offers on the current web hosting marketplace are furnished by a quite unsubstantial business niche (as far as annual money flow is concerned) known as reseller hosting. Reseller website hosting is a sort of a small-size business segment, which generates a huge quantity of different web hosting brand names, yet furnishing one and the same thing: mainly cPanel web hosting services. This is bad news for everybody. Why? Due to the fact that at least 98% of the website hosting offerings on the whole hosting market provide one and the very same solution: cPanel. There's no variety at all. Even the cPanel-based Web Hosting prices are alike. Quite identical. Giving those who need a top web hosting service virtually no other web hosting platform/web hosting CP alternative. So, there is only one single fact: out of more than two hundred thousand web hosting brands in the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than 2%! Less than 2 percent, remark that one...
200k "Web Hosting distributors", all cPanel-based, yet differently named
The Web Hosting "diversity" and the web hosting "offerings" Google presents to us come down to just one and the same thing: cPanel. Under 100's of 1000's of different web hosting trademarked names. Imagine you are merely a normal chap who's not very well aware of (as the majority of us) with the web site making processes and the web hosting platforms, which actually power the individual domain names and online portals. Are you prepared to make your hosting selection? Is there any hosting option you can pick? Of course there is, nowadays there are more than two hundred thousand website hosting service providers out there. Formally. Then where is the difficulty? Here's where: more than 98% of these more than two hundred thousand different web hosting brand names across the world will give you the same cPanel website hosting CP and platform, labeled differently, with the very same price tags! WOW! That's how huge the diversity on the current website hosting market is... Full stop.
The Web Hosting LOTTERY we are all participating in
Simple math reveals that to pick a non-cPanel based web hosting vendor is an enormous stroke of luck. There is a less than 1 in fifty chance that a phenomenon like that will happen! Less than 1 in 50...
The positive and negative points of the cPanel-based Web Hosting solution
Let's not be unfair with cPanel. At least, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was trendy and probably answered all website hosting industry prerequisites. To cut a long story short, cPanel can do the trick if you have just one single domain name to host. But, if you have more domain names...
Problem Number 1: A foolish domain name folder setup
If you have 2 or more domain names, though, be extra careful not to delete 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 name). The files of the add-on domains are quite easy to remove on the server, since they all are set up 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 located inside the folder of the default domain name. Like a sub-folder. Next time attempt not to remove the files of the add-on domain names, please. Decide for yourself how amazing cPanel's domain folder arrangement 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 name)
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 name)
Are you becoming puzzled? We certainly are!
Disadvantage Number 2: The same e-mail folder arrangement
The electronic mail folder configuration on the hosting server is precisely the same as that of the domain names... Repeating the same error twice?!? The sysadmin boys strongly strengthen their belief in God when handling the electronic mail folders on the electronic mail server, praying not to mess things up too badly.
Problem Number Three: An absolute deficiency of domain name administration user interfaces
Do we have to bring up the complete lack of a modern domain administration interface - a place where you can: register/relocate/renew/park or manage domains, change domain names' Whois information, protect the Whois details, alter/set up name servers (DNS) and DNS records? cPanel does not incorporate such a "contemporary" section at all. That's a considerable problem. An unjustifiable one, we want to point out...
Drawback Number Four: Multiple user login places (minimum two, maximum three)
What about the need for another login to avail of the invoice transaction, domain name and technical support administration user interface? That's beside the cPanel account login credentials you've been already provided by the cPanel Web Hosting provider. Sometimes, depending on the billing system (particularly invented for cPanel solely) the cPanel Web Hosting firm is making use of, the eager clients can wind up with 2 extra logins (1: the invoice transaction/domain management platform; 2: the trouble ticket support user interface), ending up with a total of 3 login locations (including cPanel).
Drawback No.5: More than one hundred and twenty website hosting CP areas to become familiar with... fast
cPanel presents for your consideration more than one hundred and twenty areas inside the website hosting Control Panel. It's a fantastic idea to get acquainted with each of them. And you'd better memorize them fast... That's extremely arrogant on cPanel's side.
With all due veneration, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel-based Web Hosting suppliers:
As far as we are aware of, it's not the year 2001, is it? Mind that one too...
| Enhanced | Premium | Ultimate | Standard |
| Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage | Unlimited storage |
| Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth |
| 5 websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | Unlimited websites hosted | 1 website hosted |
| 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial | 30-Day Free Trial |
| $5.00 / month | $10.00 / month | $14.25 / month | $3.92 / month |