cPanel

cPanel is a Linux-based hosting control panel that allows users to easily manage websites and servers. Administrators can publish websites, manage domains, organize web files, create and manage email accounts and many more. cPanel is now a part of a software suite which is called cPanel & WHM. While cPanel offers managing capabilities for a single hosting account, cPanel & WHM allows users to control the entire server.

cPanel is developed by an American corporation, cPanel L.L.C. cPanel was designed for a web hosting company Speed Hosting in 1996. The author of cPanel, John Nick Koston, had a stake in Speed Hosting. Webking started using cPanel after its merger with Speed Hosting and when the new company moved its servers to Virtual Development Inc. (DVI) an agreement has signed between Koston and VDI. When Koston decided to leave for college, William Jensen and John Koston signed an agreement that split cPanel into a separate program called WebPan, which is run by VDI. But without a lead programmer, VDI stopped supporting it shortly after. Web Host Manager (WHM) is included in cPanel 3, which was released in 1999. Today, Houston-based cPanel employs over 220 colleagues and has customers in more than 70 countries.

CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CloudLinux OS operating systems support cPanel & WHM installation. It supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Perl, and BIND (DNS) applications. cPanel & WHM also supports POP3, IMAP, and SMTP email services. cPanel not only offers a graphical interface, but also has a command line and API-based access that enables third-party software vendors, web hosting organizations, and developers to automate standard system administration processes.

In August of 2018, cPanel signed an agreement to be acquired by a group led by Oakley Capital, which is also the owner of Plesk and SolusVM. The company acquired a majority stake in cPanel from its founder J. Nick Koston.