cPanel is the acronym of a browser based management tool to manage our websites on any Web Hosting using cPanel with a clean interface.
As from the title cPanel : Introduction to the Control Panel for Web Hosting, it is obvious that this article is just a basic introductory article, we will gradually move to easy tutorials on cPanel.
What is the actual function of cPanel ?
cPanel is designed for commercial web hosting services.
---
cPanel is a based on Unix and provides a graphical interface and automation tools for web hosting control panel that obviously simplify the operations, cPanel however has command line and API based access.
On which Operating Systems cPanel works?
cPanel is designed to function either as a dedicated server or virtual private server and it supports CentOS, Red Hat Linux, and FreeBSD.
A version of cPanel for Microsoft Windows exists, titled Enkompass. It currently supports only 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008.(ref : Wikipedia)
Versions for Open Solaris and Mac OS X is under development.
cPanel now a stable control panel stable for web hosting services.
Applications and Languages supported by cPanel
Apache, PHP, MySQL, Postgres, Perl, and BIND.
The Control Panel of cPanel
- SSH Access – cPanel has built a Java applet that allows a direct connection to the server via SSH. Is turned off in most places because it is a security risk to the server.
- Cron job – cPanel provides an interface for managing lists of tasks.
- OpenPGP Support
- CGI Scripts-installs itself several scripts for any web-site
- To block access to specific IP addresses
- Although there are other control panel for web hosting, cPanel is known for its ability to perform full or partial backups. Some web host providers do not give rights to restore backups.
Web Host Manager (WHM)
WebHost Manager is a web-based tool used for Dedicated Servers, Virtual Dedicated Servers and resellers to manage hosting accounts on a web server. It is possible to change the skins and perform a branding from a Dedicated server, Virtual Dedicated Server or Reseller account. If you are using a shared server, you will probably not get this WHM (we are not sure as services might vary from one web hosting company with the other).

Above is a screenshot of our WHM. From the account functions, we can create and manage new partitions and new accounts for new domains those will include the cPanel.
