cPanel might be the most widely-used web hosting control panel, but that could have just been a result of good partnerships and marketing. Thankfully, its interface is easy to use and it provides powerful functionality.

cPanel is usually access at http://www.yoursite.com/cpanel. The default cPanel interface is clean and loads fast. For those who like to be different, cPanel comes with many "skins" that change the look and layout of the interface. However, this review focuses on the default x3 interface for cPanel 11.

Main menu

The cPanel main menu is nicely organized with general server information on the left and linked icons on the right representing the different functionality available. The icons are grouped into categories, and there is a short list of the most frequently access areas in the top left. Most management options are only a click away and are all displayed on one landing page.

Although the Frequently Accessed Areas window is handy, you cannot built your own list of "bookmarks". If you do not like the order of the groups, you can drag and drop them on-the-fly. Although the icons are logically grouped, if you want different groupings or icons or if you want to change the icons themselves, you must change the theme.

The left sidebar of information is very useful, as you can see information such as the server IP, the amount of disk space you have used, and the PHP, MySQL, and Apache versions installed, all in one glance. There is also typically a link to view the "service status", which loads a page displaying, among other things: the server load; overall disk space usage on the server; and the status of your database, mail transfer agent, FTP service, and more.