What Does cPanel Web Hosting Represent?

For your info, it's good to know that most of the cPanel-based hosting offerings on the present web hosting market are generated by a very inconsiderable business segment (when it comes to annual cash flow) called hosting reseller. Reseller hosting is a sort of a small-scale marketing segment, which generates a huge amount of different web hosting brand names, yet furnishing strictly the same solutions: chiefly cPanel web hosting services. This is bad news for everyone. Why? Because of the fact that at least 98 percent of the web hosting offers on the whole hosting market provide one and the same service: cPanel. There's no variety at all. Even the cPanel-based hosting price tags are alike. Very similar. Giving those who require a top web hosting service virtually no other hosting platform/hosting Control Panel option. So, there is merely one single fact: out of more than two hundred thousand hosting trademarks in the world, the non-cPanel based ones are less than two percent! Less than two percent, note that one...

200,000 "hosting providers", all cPanel-based, yet differently branded

The hosting "variety" and the website hosting "offers" Google shows to all of us come down to merely one thing: cPanel. Under 100's of 1000's of different website hosting trademarked names. Imagine you are merely a regular person who's not very familiar with (as the majority of us) with the web site making procedures and the website hosting platforms, which actually power the separate domains and web pages. Are you prepared to make your hosting pick? Is there any web hosting alternative you can opt for? Of course there is, today there are more than 200k web hosting corporations out there. Officially. Then where is the problem? Here's where: more than 98% of these more than two hundred thousand unique web hosting brand names all over the world will give you absolutely the same cPanel CP and platform, branded differently, with absolutely the same price tags! WOW! That's how big the variety on the present website hosting market is... Period.

The hosting LOTTERY we are all participating in

Simple mathematics shows that to choose a non-cPanel based web hosting distributor is an immense stroke of fortune. There is a less than 1 in 50 chance that a phenomenon like that will take place! Less than 1 in 50...

The pros and cons of the cPanel-based hosting solution

Let's not be fierce with cPanel. After all, in the years 2001-2004 cPanel was trendy and presumably fulfilled all web hosting business requirements. In brief, cPanel can do the trick if you have only one domain to host. But, if you have more domain names...

Weakness No.1: An imbecilic domain folder arrangement

If you have 2 or more domains, however, be extremely watchful not to remove entirely the add-on ones (that's how cPanel will dub each next hosted domain, which is not the default one: an add-on domain). The files of the add-on domains are quite easy to erase on the server, since they all are situated into the root folder of the default domain, which is the quite well known public_html folder. Each add-on domain is a folder located inside the folder of the default domain name. Like a sub-folder. Next time attempt not to delete the files of the add-on domain names, please. Verify for yourself how fantastic cPanel's domain name folder structure is:

public_html (here my-default-domain.com is placed)
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)
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 bewildered? We definitely are!

Negative Sign No.2: The same email folder setup

The email folder configuration on the web server is exactly the same as that of the domain names... Repeating the same mistake twice?!? The sysadmin guys firmly increase their belief in God when managing the mail folders on the email server, hoping not to bungle things up too irretrievably.

Shortcoming No.3: An utter absence of domain manipulation tools

Do we need to bring up the absolute deficiency of a contemporary domain name management platform - a place where you can: register/relocate/renew/park or manage domain names, modify domains' Whois info, protect the Whois info, alter/set up nameservers (DNS) and Domain Name System records? cPanel does not involve such a "contemporary" tool at all. That's a vast disadvantage. An inexcusable one, we would like to point out...

Shortcoming No.4: Numerous user login locations (min two, max three)

How about the demand for another login to access the invoicing transaction, domain name and technical support administration system? That's apart from the cPanel account login credentials you've been already given by the cPanel hosting company. Occasionally, on the basis of the invoicing tool (particularly conceived for cPanel only) the cPanel hosting distributor is availing of, the eager customers can end up with 2 extra login locations (1: the billing transaction/domain management interface; 2: the ticket support platform), winding up with an aggregate of three user login locations (counting cPanel).

Weak Point Number Five: 120+ web hosting Control Panel menus to become acquainted with... quickly

cPanel presents to your attention more than one hundred and twenty menus inside the website hosting Control Panel. It's a fabulous idea to get to know each and every one of them. And you'd better get familiar with them fast... That's quite arrogant on cPanel's side.

With all due appreciation, we have a rhetorical question for all cPanel hosting distributors:

As far as we are informed, it's not the year 2001, is it? Mark that one too...