Friday, June 3, 2011

Finding the Best Hosting Control Panel

By Gregory Trune


A control panel is provided by a web host. As suggested by the name, it is the controlling mechanism for the website and helps in managing the website. Control panel is the one place from where a user can do everything that is needed to be done, while hosting a website, this includes tracking statistical information like traffic information, creating FTP accounts, setting up email accounts, adding sub-domains, databases, managing files, among many other things.

There is a white variety of control panels available. cPanel is the most popular but others include NextGenCp, VDeck, Ensim, Sphera or Hostopia. Each panel is different and offer many tools and functions peculiar to their own product. The panel you receive may depend upon which platform you our web host uses. Factors for changing a control panel includes what features they have and how do they perform on a specific platform.

Basic features that you can expect to find in a control panel are as follows:

Mail Manager

Parked Domains

Addon Domains

MIME Types

Disk Usage

Disk Usage

Backup

Backup

Subdomain

MySQL Database Manager

FTP Manager

MS SQL Manager(Windows only)

MS SQL Manager(Windows only)

Redirects

Index Manager

Frontpage Extensions

SSL Manager

PostgreSQL Database Manager

Raw Log Manager

Redirects

CGI Center

Cron Jobs

Raw Access Logs

Raw Log Manager

Error Log

IP Deny manager

How easy a control panel is to use is a good way of noticing the difference between them. A panel such as Plesk is really simple to use whereas the functionality of cPanel is highly regarded. To make the best choice between these control panels, it helps to know the strengths and weaknesses of them. What follows is a brief overview of the control panels:

cPanel:

cPanel is very commonly used on Linux based systems, it provides support for more than 10 different flavors of Linux, and as of yet, it does not have a Windows or OSX based version. cPanel helps users in managing/controlling everything, from administering MySQL database to creating and deleting email accounts and much more.

cPanel has a whole range of functions and provides much more than the majority of control panels. The amount of functions offered is a key reason why it is so popular, that and it is cheap.

Plesk:

Plex is available for Linux and Windows web hosting servers where cPanel is not. Many users find it helpful that Plex has an interface similar to Windows XP. The control panel looks good and offers many features available in cPanel. It can enable any user to build their own site with easy to sue tool. It offers many features but it may be viewed as more expensive than other products, especially cPanel.

H-Sphere:

H-Sphere is also a popular control panel used by web hosts. Just like Plesk, it is also available for Windows, as well as Linux based web hosting servers. It offers a good range of features ranging from complete automation to key functionalities. However when compared with cPanel and Plesk it has less features.

DirectAdmin

If you want options that many control panels do not offer then DirectAdmin is for you. It has a wider range but it lacks some features that make Plesk or cPanel so popular. It is also purely for a small number of Linux varieties but it is considerably cheaper than cPanel.

Ensim

Available for Windows and Linux, Ensim doesn't have a lot of features but it has an interface that is adequate.

Interworx

Again only for Linux, Interworx has impressive features like the site usage snapshot and a well presented interface.

Hosting Accelerator

Hosting accelerator supports only Windows Web hosting servers. Its interface is not well organized and appears crowded with options which may overwhelm inexperienced users.

Helm

A key feature of Helm is the ability to view bills within the control panel but it is only available on Windows.

CWIPanel

There is not a lot to be said for CWIPanel except it offers Windows support and is quite average.

InsPanel

This is another Windows based server which offers a basic range of features.

Among the above mentioned control panels, cPanel usually ends up as the favored choice due to its range of features, ease of and affordability.

There have been recent developments in control panels and Pandela.com have developed the NextGenCP control panel. It has been a few years in the making but it looks very good.

You can tell that modern internet technology has shaped this product. It is simple to use and has been created specifically for web hosting clients. It has such a great ease of use that even novices can pick it up in next to no time. It is said it takes no more than mouse clicks to perform any function. It may seem simple but there is a lot going on and all of the functions aid web site management. The makers of the service have also issued all users with a challenge and if they can think of something they would like in the next version of the product, they will incorporate it.

An overview of the features of NextGenCP:

Gain control over your domain:

Everyone can now have full control over their domains and sub-domains and the ability to register and host these domains is extremely simple.

Learn how to manage your own database:

NextGenCP provides everything you need to manage your own website database in just a few clicks of the mouse. All of the management of the database is controlled by phpMyAdmin and Database Backup Manager provides the management of data.

Mail Accounts:

It is easy for users to control and access their email accounts. An advanced SPAM filtering system is provided by Pandela.com and this will keep your inbox free of junk and unwanted emails. If this isn't enough, there are also filters for the mail, assistance for accounts and other functions.

Use tools to improve your site:

There are numerous tools for this product, all of them aiding the management of a site. Some of the tools include IP Access Manager, Hotlink Protection and Script Installer.

Find the statistics behind your site:

Site statistics options in NextGenCP, provides complete information about the visitors, and the amount of bandwidth/traffic consumed by the site and mail accounts on a daily basis.

System for Support:

All users of NextGenCP have full access to the support system. Whenever a user faces any problem, he/she simply has to post a support ticket, and the issue will be taken up by one of the staff as early as possible. The average response time is not more than 15 minutes.

With so many impressive features, there is no doubt that NextGenCP looks one of the best web host control panels ever created. It is also good to hear that Pandela.com is promising to continually improve the service each and every day.




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