A control panel is usually provided by your web hosting company. 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 are a number of different control panels available in the market. These include Cpanel which is among the most popular, Hostopia, Sphera, Ensim, VDeck, NextGenCP etc. They all differ in their look and feel as well as functions. Web hosts usually have their own control panel preferences, which depend upon the platforms they use. The control panels are selected according to their features and ability to perform on a particular platform.
Basic features that you can expect to find in a control panel are as follows:
- Mail Manager
- Parked Domains
- Addon Domains
- FTP Manager
- File Manager
- Disk Usage
- Backup
- Password Protect Directories
- Subdomain
- MySQL Database Manager
- PostgreSQL Database Manager
- MS SQL Manager(Windows only)
- Redirects
- Frontpage Extensions
- Web/FTP Stats
- Raw Access Logs
- Raw Log Manager
- Error Log
- Subdomain Stats
- CGI Center
- Cron Jobs
- Network Tools
- MIME Types
- Hot Link Protection
- Index Manager
- IP Deny manager
- SSL 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.
cPanel has more features and options than most of the control panels available in the market at present. This is one of the reasons for its popularity, along with the fact that it is quite inexpensive.
Plesk:
One advantage that Plesk has over cPanel is that unlike the latter, it is available for Linux, as well as Windows Web hosting servers. Plesk’s interface is also quite similar to Windows XP. It’s a good looking control panel and has most of the basic features that are available in cPanel. It also has other applications like the web builder tool. With all its features, comes the price tag, that is, it is more expensive, specially when compared to 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
DirectAdmin features a number of options that other control panels do not have. However it comes out lacking, when compared to features available with cPanel or Plesk. Furthermore DirectAdmin does not support Windows based platforms, and only supports a few flavors of Linux. On the plus side, it is cheaper than cPanel.
Ensim
Ensim is also available for Windows as well as Linux. It has an adequate interface but lacks in features.
Interworx
Interworx also caters only to Linux based Web hosting servers. It has got a clean and well-organized interface with some impressive features like the site usage snapshot.
Hosting Accelarator
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
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
The CWIPanel aims for Windows server management. It is an average product.
InsPanel
This control panel has also been made only for windows based web hosting server. This is an average product with standard 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.
Among the recently developed control panels, Pandela.com has come out with its NectGenCP control panel. It has been in development, since a few years and one must say that it is really impressive.
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!
An overview of the features of NextGenCP:
Domain Control:
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.
Mail Accounts:
NextGenCP can be used to add and manage mail accounts very efficiently. Pandela.com provides an advanced SPAM filtering system, that ensures that the users will not be bombarded with junk mails, or viruses. It also includes mail filters, helps in organizing the mail accounts, as well as filter unwanted mails.
Site Tools:
NextGenCP has plenty of tools, which make managing a web site very easy. Some of these tools are Script Installer, Hotlink Protection and IP Access Manager.
Sites Statistics:
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.
Support System
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.
All of the above features have contributed to making NextGenCP, one of the best control panels for web site hosting available in the market. And Pandela.com is not resting on this achievement, but moving on to make NextGenCP even better, with every passing day.