Friday, June 3, 2011

Finding the Best Hosting Control Panel

By Gregory Trune


Your web host provider will offer you a control panel and this will enable you to better manage your site. The control panel is where a user can look after their entire site and holds information on statistics, traffic, hosting functions, access to FTP, email account access, domain issues and the ability to manage files, amongst 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.

These are all features that can be found in a control panel:

Parked Domains

Mail Manager

Network Tools

Error Log

File Manager

Index Manager

FTP Manager

Backup

File Manager

MySQL Database Manager

FTP Manager

Subdomain

Disk Usage

Frontpage Extensions

Password Protect Directories

Raw Access Logs

SSL Manager

Error Log

MS SQL Manager(Windows only)

Redirects

Frontpage Extensions

Network Tools

Web/FTP Stats

Network Tools

Index Manager

Subdomain Stats

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:

Linux based systems is where cPanel is mainly found. It can offer assistance for over 10 types of Linux the and at the moment does not cater to Windows or OSX. cPanel is helpful in controlling everything your site needs including MySQL database to email issues and much more beside.

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:

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:

Many users appreciate HSphere. Similar to Plesk, it is compatible with Windows and Linux. Many functions are provided including the ability to have complete automation and many key functionalities but it offers less than Plesk or cPanel.

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

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

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.

There are a lot of control panels to choose from but cPanel usually ends up on top due to its price, features and ease of use.

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:

All users have full control of any domain and sub-domain and the registration process is very simple. 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.

Managing a Database:

This product makes it extremely simple to create and manage your very own database with just a few clicks of the mouse. phpMyAdmin provides the database management and the data is secured 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.

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:

This information will provide total knowledge of visitors and show how much bandwidth is being used and the usage of email accounts per day.

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.




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