For Creative Girls

A Guide to Understanding cPanel as a Creative

As a Creative, you want to make that your website is at its peak performance at all times, that’s why this article on cPanel is important.
cPanel offers easy access to website visitor numbers and bandwidth usage, ensures reliable web hosting, backs up your entire account or specific files, customizes email account storage, and blocks phishers and spammers.

Installing software, monitoring use, and managing resources on cPanel 

Softaculous and other cPanel tools let users install WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and other systems easily. More than 76 million websites use a CMS today.

You can access website visitor numbers, error logs, and bandwidth usage to see how your website is performing. The panel manages CPU, memory, and other server resources to ensure optimal performance.

Photo credit: KOBU.

cPanel and web hosting 

cPanel is one of the most reliable panels for web hosting, making the process of managing email accounts, domains, and databases seamless. The best cPanel hosting plans will render domain and subdomain management more than straightforward. You can do this from the “Domains” section in the dashboard. To add a new domain to your account, click on “Addon” or “Domains” and enter the new name in the field labeled “New Domain Name.” 

File organization and backups​

cPanel lets users manage, upload, and delete files as needed. The File Manager offers a nifty way to access your files directly from the browser. You can upload files and directories, create and manage folders, edit files using basic text editors, and set file permissions. These options contribute to cPanel’s popularity. As of September 2024, 1.66 million live sites are using the panel, and another 2.76 million have used it in the past.  

The Backup Wizard will guide you in backing up your entire account or specific databases and files. You can download backups or restore them from the panel. 

Creating email accounts on cPanel ​

Go to the Email section and choose Accounts. You can add an account after entering the mailbox quota, username, and password. This lets you customize each account’s storage depending on the projected use. 

It’s also possible to set up email forwarders, where a user can forward emails from one account to another. This option is particularly helpful if you want to maintain a core contact point and manage multiple addresses simultaneously. If you conduct email marketing, 0.5% to 2% is the best range for email forward rates. 

Once you set up your email accounts, the panel gives you easy access to SquirrelMail, Roundcube, Horde, or other webmail interfaces. You choose a webmail application and manage, send, and receive emails without having to resort to an external email client.

Security and convenience 

Users can reduce unwanted mail by implementing spam filters on cPanel. DKIM, DMARC, and SPF prevent phishers, spammers, and other malicious entities from sending emails. You can configure these authentication protocols on cPanel. A recent survey found that 73.3% of web panel users believed spam filters effectively kept spam out of inboxes.

Code injection remains the primary cPanel security issue. SQL injection accounted for 23% of critical web app vulnerabilities in 2023.  

cPanel uses SSL certificates to manage security aspects. Secure Socket Layer certificates encrypt the data transferred between servers and users’ browsers, protecting sensitive information.

Recap