What is Cpanel? How to Use it for WordPress Hosting?
Juhil Mendpara
Content Manager
Many of our recommended web hosts employ cPanel to help you simplify website & web server management.
Though we are not the biggest fan of cPanel — we prefer a custom panel like Hostinger’s hPanel, SiteGround’s control panel, or Kinsta’s MyKinsta — there’s no denying it’s one of the most popular control panel in the market. In fact, many people are so used to it that they’d rather go with a web hosting that offers cPanel than figure out a new management system.
Anyway, if you are building a new website, you would probably come across this so-called “cPanel” when searching for web hosting, especially if you are looking into non-managed options. And the fact that you are reading this means you’d like to learn more about it. So, here goes:
What is cPanel?
Owned by cPanel, LLC, cPanel is a Linux-based GUI web hosting control panel software that helps in managing your hosting server and website.
It’s a privately-held software & the license costs start from $15/month. However, almost all web hosting providers include it (or an alternative) for free.
How to log in to cPanel?
There are two ways to log in to cPanel:
- 1Through your hosting provider’s dashboard: Whatever cPanel-employing hosting provider you sign up with, they’ll have an option to access cPanel on their dashboard. It’s most probably under “Manage hosting.”
- 2Through URL: Add “:2083” at the end of your site’s URL to directly access cPanel. E.g., yoursite.com:2083.
Things you can do with cPanel
cPanel helps with almost every aspect of website management, including:
Files
You can access & manage your website files & folders using File Manager from cPanel.
Emails
If your hosting provider includes free webmail email account(s), those can be managed from cPanel. This includes creating, checking, forwarding, auto-responding, etc., of the emails.
Databases
You can also access phpMyAdmin and MySQL databases from the cPanel. There are many use-cases where this feature can be helpful. Let’s take blog comments, for example. You can delete spammy comments directly from the database.
Domains
Add, remove, and manage your domains, subdomains, and add-on domains directly from cPanel.
Other
There are a few other things like checking server metrics, security options, etc., that are accessible from cPanel. Moreover, your web hosting provider can add custom options to the cPanel as well.
All in all, cPanel makes managing your site easy.
How to use it to install WordPress?
To install WordPress through cPanel, your web hosting provider must include a one-click installer. The most commonly used is the Softaculous apps installer.
Just choose the WordPress script, the domain you want to install it on, and a default theme to install WordPress. That’s it.
Best cPanel Hosting
If having a cPanel is an absolute must for you, these are three web hosting we’d recommend:
- 1Bluehost: Officially promoted by WordPress & chosen by over 2 million website owners, Bluehost is the best value-for-money hosting option that includes cPanel.
- 2A2 Hosting: Known for its reseller plan & quality hardware, A2 is an excellent web host for top-notch performance and a cPanel control panel.
- 3HostGator: A sister company to Bluehost, HostGator includes cPanel with its Linux shared hosting plans. However, we recommend it for its affordable cloud hosting.
Conclusion
The interface of cPanel is a bit options-heavy and looks a bit dated, but it does the job it’s supposed to do- help you manage your server and website.
We hope this article, with a little bit of peek inside cPanel, helps you make a better decision. Our recommendation would be to give the control panel the least priority — look for other factors like performance, support, features, etc., first. And in all those departments, these are the best.
From
₹79*
monthly
• Best uptime (99.99%)
• Fast, 0.4ms load time as average
• Good & quick customer support