What is cPanel Hosting?
For your information, it's good to know that the majority of the cPanel Hosting offerings on the present web hosting market are provided by a quite inconsiderable business segment (as far as annual money flow is concerned) called reseller hosting. Reseller website hosting is a type of a small-scale marketing niche, which supplies a vast amount of different web hosting trademarks, yet furnishing one and the same thing: mainly cPanel web hosting solutions. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Because of the fact that at least 98 percent of the hosting offers on the entire hosting market supply the very same solution: cPanel. There's no difference at all. Even the cPanel Hosting price tags are alike. Quite similar. Giving those in need of a top web hosting service almost no other web hosting platform/hosting Control Panel option. So, there is only one single fact: out of more than two hundred thousand website hosting trademarks worldwide, the non-cPanel based ones are less than two percent! Less than 2%, mind that one...
200k "Hosting suppliers", all cPanel-based, yet diversely dubbed
The Hosting "variety" and the website hosting "offerings" Google reveals to us boil down to merely one thing: cPanel. Under hundreds of 1000's of different website hosting brand names. Assume you are simply a normal fellow who's not very well familiar with (as the majority of us) with the website creation processes and the web hosting platforms, which in fact power the different domain names and sites. Are you ready to make your web hosting selection? Is there any website hosting alternative you can settle on? Sure there is, now there are more than 200k website hosting vendors out there. Officially. Then where is the problem? Here's where: more than ninety eight percent of these 200k+ different website hosting brand names around the world will offer you exactly the same cPanel web hosting CP and platform, named differently, with strictly the same price tags! WOW! That's how immense the assortment on the present website hosting marketplace is... Full stop.
The Hosting LOTTO we are all part of
Simple arithmetic demonstrates that to stumble upon a non-cPanel based web hosting provider is an immense stroke of fortune. There is a less than 1 in 50 chance that something like that will occur! Less than 1 in 50...
The upsides and downsides of the cPanel Hosting solution
Let's not be relentless with cPanel. At least, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was trendy and probably satisfied all web hosting market demands. In brief, cPanel can do the trick if you have only a single domain name to host. But, if you have more domain names...
Problem Number One: A dumb domain folder system
If you have 2 or more domain names, however, be extra cautious 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 simple to remove on the server, since they all are set up into the root folder of the default domain name, which is the quite popular public_html folder. Each add-on domain 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 great cPanel's domain folder structure 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 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)
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 nonplussed? We unquestionably are!
Shortcoming Number 2: The very same email folder structure
The mail folder arrangement on the web hosting server is literally the same as that of the domain names... Making the very same error twice?!? The sysadmin guys strongly increase their faith in God when tackling the electronic mail folders on the electronic mail server, praying not to bungle things up too fatally.
Weakness Number Three: An utter lack of domain name administration GUIs
Do we need to cite the entire shortage of a modern domain name administration tool - a location where you can: register/move/renew/park or manage domains, alter domains' Whois details, secure the Whois info, change/set up nameservers (DNS) and DNS resource records? cPanel does not incorporate such a "modern" tool at all. That's a great weakness. An unpardonable one, we want to point out...
Shortcoming Number 4: Many login places (min two, max 3)
How about the need for an extra login to make use of the invoicing transaction, domain name and tech support administration menu? That's beside the cPanel account login credentials you've been already given by the cPanel-based Hosting firm. Occasionally, based on the billing system (especially designed for cPanel only) the cPanel Hosting supplier is using, the keen users can end up with 2 extra login places (1: the invoicing/domain administration section; 2: the trouble ticket support GUI), winding up with a total of three login places (counting cPanel).
Negative Aspect No.5: 120+ website hosting Control Panel departments to become familiar with... swiftly
cPanel offers for your consideration 120+ menus inside the CP. It's a remarkable idea to become familiar with each one of them. And you'd better get familiar with them swiftly... That's extremely impudent on cPanel's side.
With all due respect, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel Hosting vendors:
As far as we know, it's not the year 2001, is it? Remark that one too...
| Small | Medium | Large | Tiny |
| 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 |
| $4.25 / month | $8.58 / month | $12.08 / month | $3.00 / month |