There is every possibility that you are offered facility of cPanel by your host for management of your site if you are using shared hosting plan. cPanel is the most sought after admin panel and is extensively used by a large number of web hosting service providers.
However, the level of awareness in terms of wide array of features offered by cPanel is significantly low. Based on your chosen hosting plan and the web host, you can enjoy multitude of facilities such as management of domains, emails, databases and files attached to your hosting account. It is remarkable that a single cPanel interface can enable user to execute multiple tasks without any hassles.
In the following article you will be able to get glimpses of important features of cPanel that are yours to explore in your hosting account. These features are extremely useful for beginners as well as seasoned website owners.
Among these features you will come across the ones that may not be part of cPanel by default but can be availed via cPanel Apps. Availability of such apps depends on individual hosting providers. These are mentioned as the last two features in the list that consists of six important cPanel attributes.
Getting the feel of cPanel
The moment you have purchased a hosting plan that offers cPanel, it is strongly recommended to explore its features and also get to know the myriad of cPanel apps that have been installed by your host. The add-on features are usually not promoted or explained at length.
Moreover, users seldom visit cPanel in relation with their site. These apps are themselves capable of enhancing functionalities of cPanel and constitute the add-on features. These are in addition to inherent attributes of cPanel that would be discussed at length in the following paragraphs.
Creating backups
This can be one of the most important features of cPanel since it can be achieved in more ways than one. The backups can be created in a single file or by leveraging the home directory, filters, email forwarders or MySQLdatabases to name a few.
It is also easy to download any one of the above mentioned objects to a remote FTP server or home directory’s web server accounts. These backups can easily be accessed if you have backed up the data on your web hosting server.
Accessing error logs
It is observed that getting access to server or error logs can be a highly daunting task in a shared hosting environment. Fortunately, users can easily utilize cPanel for accessing Apache error logs. It is extremely easy to identify the exact cause that could have lead to a website break-down. Additionally, system administrators can also derive useful information to pass it down to developers.
Using cPanel to create Cron Jobs
In a shred hosting ecosystem it is found that developers have to operate without any command line access. This underlines importance of Cron jobs that are used for scheduling server oriented tasks.
Facilitates SSL installation
Installing an SSL certificate on your business site is a breeze with help of cPanel. It is strongly advised to gain deep insights about SSL certificates that have become need of the hour in view of increasing hacking incidences such as WannaCry.
Depending upon your choice of host, you can be offered SSL certificates free along with the hosting plans. Many hosts offer cPanel advantage for convenience of installing SSL certificates. Moreover most of the established hosts are also offering automated renewal of SSL certificates to facilitate all accounts.
Presence of SSL certificate enhances confidence of visitors who see quintessential green padlock while browsing your business site. This also improves scope of conversions and can significantly improve your bottom-line.
SSL certificate also improves the security quotient of your business site and customers are encouraged to transact business while using your site. No wonder, Google has been spreading the word to enhance number of sites that are leveraging SSL certificates. The day is not far when all site will have the feature of HTTPS as part of their domain. Ability to set up SSL is an important aspect of cPanel hosting.
Auto-installers
The name auto-installer is self explanatory. This is one of the most vital attributes of cPanel hosting since it facilitates hassle-free installation process covering a myriad of forum platforms and software applications such as Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and many more Content Management Systems.
The most sought after Softaculous Auto-installer belongs to this category. Installing a platform is just a matter of a click or two if you have access to Softaculous. The process of using auto-installer is much more painless and swift than the manual method of installation that involves file uploads through FTP, executing set-up processes, and resolving issues as the process is being followed. You can have your app or platform up and running without any hassles.