cPanel was originally developed for the web hosting company Speed Hosting. Though Speed Hosting is no longer in business, cPanel was recognized as a useful program and has been updated, expanded, and made available to the public. cPanel has gained a reputation for being stable and reliable, and its GUI (graphical user interface) and point-and-click management tools make it a popular hosting control panel.

cPanel features

cPanel offers features for administrators and end users, or web site owners, as well as resellers. cPanel is considered the end user product, while WebHost Manager is the portion of the cPanel program for web hosts and administrators. cPanel allows web site owners to perform many tasks that they might otherwise need their web host to set up for them. 

For end users or web site owners, cPanel helps to:

• Manage and upload web pages and content
• Create email accounts
• Add forums, blogs, and ecommerce tools
• Back up content and data
• Protect site from misuse or abuse
• Provide statistics on visitors
• Check for broken links and other problems
• Protect site from viruses
• Password protect site

These features can be very useful to web site owners who are just starting up their web site, or those who want to expand the features their web site offers.

For web hosts and administrators, cPanel's WebHost Manager offers simplified ways to perform a variety of tasks:

• Create customer accounts and hosting plans
• Get alerts if a server goes down, which can mean higher up time
• Install applications and include changing technologies
• Be protected from spam
• Use custom logos
• Grant permissions to users

cPanel offers customer support for licensed versions of cPanel, which is another advantage to using cPanel. A disadvantage of cPanel for web hosts is that the program is fairly large.

cPanel also supports many common and less common software programs, including:

• CentOS open source operating system
• Red Hat Linux software programs
• FreeBSD open source operating system
• Apache web server
• MySQL database
• Postgres database
• PHP programming language
• PERL programming language
• Python programming language
• BIND domain name system

The Fantastico package from cPanel adds scripts for many popular web site programs, such as:

• WordPress blog software
• SMF forum software
• phpBB forum software
• Moodle online education software
• Drupal open source content management system
• Joomla open source content management system
• TikiWiki open source content management system

cPanel also helps users to manage:

• Email accounts
• FTP
• Mailing lists
• crontab
• PGP keys
• Getting cPanel

The cPanel program licenses are available for purchase by web hosts and administrators directly through the cPanel web site or through official distributors. Web site owners who want a cPanel plan should look for a web host that offers cPanel hosting.