What is cPanel?

cPanel is an online control panel that helps users manage Linux hosting services. With the help of cPanel, users can control administrative tasks of hosting such as creating a website, creating and managing emails, resetting passwords, setting mail forwards, managing add-on domains and subdomains, uploading and managing files, etc.

Some of the key benefits of cPanel are:

• It allows users to add on domains and manage email according to hosting plans
• It gives control over FTP accounts to upload, delete or move files on the server
• It provides users with web related stats like visitors/month through AWS stats
• It has numerous add-ons and APIs with Softaculous integration that allows users to download WordPress, Joomla or Drupal updates
• It ensures that data is secure along with backup and recovery options; all this without compromising on scale
• It is much economical in comparison to Windows

What is WHM?

WHM (Web Host Manager) is an administrative access tool for the backend of the cPanel account. With WHM, users can create cPanel accounts to avail hosting accounts. Users can easily manage many light to heavy sites with the help of WHM. Moreover, users can sell hosting services and manage multiple cPanels with the option to modify, upgrade or even downgrade an account and monitor usage of bandwidth as well.

Some of the key benefits of WHM are:

• It allows users to access DNS zones of all the domains
• It allows users to create, delete and suspend cPanel accounts
• It allows users to change domain and usernames of clients
• It allows users to install and manage SSL certificates easily for all users
• It allows assignment and whitelisting of IP addresses
• It gives access to all the accounts inside and can change the ownership of the account in case an account is sold or deleted

cPanel vs WHM: The Difference

The main difference between cPanel and WHM is that cPanel is used by the end users under a reseller or hosting provider, while WHM is used by resellers or hosting providers themselves to manage all the hosting accounts of their reseller plans.

cPanel allows the end-users to easily manage files, giving access to configurations and files only available for their domain. This is primarily used for domain/website management.

WHM is used for server-level management that users can generally do in SSH as root. This helps keep the server secure and adds an additional filter, so end-users using a standard cPanel do not restart your server or make other significant changes to the server, negatively impacting it.

cPanel and WHM are two powerful tools that help users manage their web hosting services. Depending on your role and needs, you may use one or both of them. However, it is important to understand their differences and capabilities before choosing them.

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.