hPanel vs cPanel: Everything You Need to Know

A control panel is one of the primary tools used to manage a website’s hosting package. It allows users to manage domain names, install applications, manage email accounts, and more.

While all of this can be done by directly logging into a server, the process requires some development knowledge. Without this type of skill, a single mistake can break an entire site. So, using a control panel becomes a convenient solution for all-level users.

A panel serves as an intuitive, user-friendly, and straightforward way to save your time, energy, and resources. Even though cPanel remains the most popular option, more alternatives have appeared in the industry, including Hostinger’s custom-built hPanel.

While cPanel has an active community and vast documentation resources, it could be more user-friendly. This is where hPanel steps in with an easy-to-navigate dashboard, self-explanatory menus, and an overall pleasant feel. An internally developed panel can also help reduce fixed costs and provide extra flexibility for new features.

In this article, we’ll compare cPanel and hPanel and go over the key features of the latter.

What Is cPanel?

cPanel is a Linux-based control panel that is currently an industry standard and is widely used among developers. With the help of its interface, users can manage web hosting accounts efficiently.

This panel is available only for Linux OS. It’s one of the most popular control panels. It has both a graphical interface and server management interface through WHM (Web Host Manager). As these environments work together, it is possible to manage your website in either of them. So, it is perfectly suitable for both beginners and developers that prefer console rather than pretty design.

cPanel has lots of different features. All of them are located on one page which is quite comfortable as you will not need to click on various menus to get where you need. In addition, all of the features have short descriptions where it’s indicated what they can do. Moreover, almost in each option, you can create anything in a few clicks. Here are the main features offered:

• Domain name settings, registration, and transfer;
• Email creation and management, spam filters management, autoresponders, and email forwarders set up;
• Visitor and error logs;
• Database creation and management;
• Security features, such as IP blocker, leech protection, and password-protected directories;
• Server performance monitoring;
• Backup creation and automation;
• File manager and FTP users creation;
• Lots of third-party apps and tools to extend functionality.

What Is hPanel?

hPanel is a custom-built hosting control panel created by Hostinger’s developers, UX engineers and researchers. When accessing it, users are empowered to make the most of its primary functions, such as domain, email, and file and database management. Ready to give it a try? hPanel is available with all our web hosting plans.

First and foremost, hPanel stands out from its counterparts due to its interface. It prioritizes ease of use, advanced features, and UI/UX. As a convenient tool, hPanel also allows you to utilize the file manager, manage hosting and email accounts, and FTP users. You can also easily monitor bandwidth, disk space, park domains, and install desired software like WordPress, Joomla, and more.

If you’re curious to see how it looks, a live demo is available. You can also check out our comprehensive hPanel guide.

What Are the Differences Between cPanel and hPanel?

From easy-to-follow auto installations to MySQL databases, hPanel appears similar to cPanel. The main difference between the two is the developer – hPanel is an in-house tool developed by Hostinger, with the intent to make everyone’s online experience as easy and smooth as possible.

Here are hPanel’s main differences compared to cPanel and other web-based admin tools:

• The customer-facing part of hPanel is cloud-based and highly available (HA), offering a considerable level of operational performance and helping maintain a clutter-free experience together with its visual dimension, action queues, and the UI/UX. All of these make the hPanel interface better organized and visually more appealing.

• To boost speed and strengthen reliability, each server only has API end-points that connect to the front-side of hPanel. Meanwhile, cPanel is fully hosted on each server individually. This means that the panel itself does not use much of the server’s resources in order to have a better scaling economy. Since the load is distributed, there’s no performance loss with hPanel.

• cPanel offers updates but as a whole it runs on outdated legacy software. This means that new additions are all implemented on an infrastructure that is not as up-to-date as hPanel. hPanel was written from scratch a few years ago, and it continues to be ever-changing as we continue to apply the latest technologies and tools available.

• cPanel mainly uses APACHE or LiteSpeed. With hPanel, you have the freedom to choose any web server. Since we use LiteSpeed, the setup becomes much simpler. It doesn’t require rerouting and using nginx/openresty.

For customers, it’s beneficial as hPanel’s architecture allows a much faster response time due to multiple layers of caching. It also allows users to host more accounts on a single server, reducing fixed costs.

Now that you have some knowledge about both panels, it’s time to review the primary features of hPanel in more detail. Let’s dig in!