How Important is Your Web Hosting Control Panel?
For most long-time webmasters their web host control panel is almost as important as the reliability of the server their site is housed on. I used to believe that all control panels were created pretty much equally, though CPanel was definitely my favorite. And then I started getting involved in assisting inexperienced webmasters with small websites move from their current web host to our web hosting servers. It was only at that point that I realized just how many incredible disfunctional control panels were being used on some "bargain basement" web hosts. (I am convinced that some of these control panels were built in the basement with the lights off!)Your website control panel should be the cockpit of your site. From here you should be able to control access to directories, add and remove e-mail accounts, add, edit & configure your databases, create and download backups - and restore them easily! Last, but definitely not least for anyone who is serious about their website, is access to comprehensive website statistics.
Without GOOD stats programs to tell you what pages are most frequently found in search engines, (and what keyword phrases were used by visitors to get to you), you will have no way of judging how well you are reaching your targeted audience. Does it matter to you how often and how deeply a spider is indexing your website? If not, it should - and your website control panel should give you easy access to that information.
Control panels are NOT created equally. Sometimes its like comparing a tricycle to a Corvette. If your control panel is a tricycle, don't plan on driving in the fast lane with the 'big dogs' any time soon. You won't even know how to find the fast lane.
Shop around and compare control panels before you select a web host. A host should have either an operational control panel for you to demo on their site OR a comprehensive description of the features that their control panel provides. If they don't, I'd be wondering why.
AlphaOne Tech Web Hosting provides ONLY CPanel Hosting. CPanel *is* the Corvette of web hosting control panels. Of the hundreds of websites we have managed and/or designed over the years, only a handful of them have been on servers that did not offer CPanel. We manage sites that are not on our servers, (primarily for larger corporate customers who have an in-house data center), and we have found time and time again that without the full featured functionality of CPanel, we spend more time in the every day tasks that go along with managing and monitoring a website. Its like trying to replace a kitchen faucet using a pair of pliers instead of a pipe wrench....the job will get done...eventually...maybe...