Saturday, June 4, 2011

Finding the Best Hosting Control Panel

By Gregory Trune


Your web host will offer you a control panel. But you can probably guess by the name, but a control panel helps you to manage your website. It keeps all the functions a user may need in one handy place which makes it easier for them. These tools can conclude traffic information statistics, FTP accounts, e-mail account provision, the ability to add sub-domains, file management and much more.

The current market has a great number of products to choose from but cPanel is the most popular. Other products include Hostopia, Ensim, VDeck, Sphera, and NextGenCP although there are countless more. Each site has its own individual techniques and style. Each host will have their own preferences with regards to control panel and their decision may be based on which platform they use. The decision about which panel to use is invariably based on price, features and compatibility with certain platforms.

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

Parked Domains

Parked Domains

Addon Domains

FTP Manager

Hot Link Protection

Disk Usage

FTP Manager

Backup

File Manager

MySQL Database Manager

PostgreSQL Database Manager

Subdomain

Redirects

Backup

Index Manager

Subdomain

SSL Manager

Error Log

Raw Log Manager

Redirects

Cron Jobs

Network Tools

MIME Types

Raw Log Manager

Hot Link Protection

IP Deny manager

Among the differences that ditinguish various control panels, is the ease of use. Some control panels like Plesk are relatively more user friendly. While others like cPanel, are well regarded for their functionality. Before you can appreciate which is the best control panel that can serve your needs satisfactorily, you will need to have an idea of what is on offer in the market. Towards that end, an overview of various control panels follows:

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.

The range of features and functions provided by cPanel is higher than many services available today and this diversity and price are key reasons in why cPanel is so popular.

Plesk:

Plesk can cater for Linux and Windows which is an advantage over many control panels. Plesk has an interface that is similar to Windows XP which is good for many users and there is a good style to the package. In addition to this, Plesk offers web building support and a large number of functions. These functions do mean an increased price tag though and it is more expensive than many of its rivals, including cPanel.

H-Sphere:

Of all the control panels available, H-Sphere is extremely popular and can be used with Windows and Linux. There are many functions offered by H-Sphere although it pales in comparison to Plesk or cPanel.

DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin is unique as it offers many services other panels do not but it does lack some of the functions offered by the main panels. It has a limited range of support with only a few Linux versions and no Windows support but it is a cheap option.

Ensim

Ensim is also available for Windows as well as Linux. It has an adequate interface but lacks in features.

Interworx

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

Hosting Accelarator

Only available on Windows web hosting servers, Hosting Accelerator is not recommended for novices as it has a crowded interface that may be confusing.

Helm

Helm supports only Windows based web hosting servers. Apart from the usual features, it allows the user to see billing information inside the control panel.

CWIPanel

CQIPanel is available for Windows and has no real exciting features.

InsPanel

Again, InsPanel is Windwos based and has little to stand itself out from the crowd.

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.

NextGenCP has been developed with the help of the latest internet technologies. It has a fast and easy to use environment which has been specially built for web hosting clients. It has been designed so well, that even novices can get a hang of it in relatively less time. In fact Pandela.com claims that you can carry out any function with a maximum of three clicks of your mouse. However its simplicity is deceptive, as it hides a powerful range of features, which would be able to manage all web site requirements. At the same time Pandela.com has made an offer to its users, according to which, if they do not find a feature they need in the NextGenCP, then they just have to inform the developers at Pandela.com the needful will be done!

Features contained within NextGenCP:

Gain control over your domain:

Users have full control over their domain as well as sub-domain. They can also register and host their own domain names easily and quickly.

Database Management:

NextGenCP makes it very easy to create a database for the website. All it takes is a few clicks! The database management is done by phpMyAdmin and the data is backed up by Database Backup Manager.

Take control of the mail accounts:

It is very simple to add and control email accounts using this system. Pandela.com have provided many SPAM filters which should vastly reduce the amount of junk a user receives. There are also features to organize mail accounts, and look through and filter mail that is not desired.

Site Tools:

NextGenCP offers many tools to improve the site and managing a website has never been simpler. Script Installer, Hotlink protection and IP Access Manager are just some of the tools on offer.

Sites Statistics;

The statistics available will offer all the data about your visitors, a complete tally of bandwidth and traffic consumption and an overview of email accounts.

Support System

Having full access to a support system is a great feature offered by NextGenCP. Anytime a user notices a problem, they have to submit a ticket and they will be offered assistance from a member of staff as quickly as possible. It usually takes no more than fifteen minutes to be responded to.

There is no doubt that these functions are marking NextGenCP as one of the best control panels available in the current climate. Competitors should take note that Pandela.com is not stopping here and they intend to improve the service offered by its already impressive product.




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