
For those looking at investing in a cPanel dedicated server, understanding cPanel and what dedicated hosting is and its uses, is essential to see if it is right for you before investing in it. cPanel Web Hosting and its control panel provide a user-friendly interface for managing various hosting and website tasks. This blog will explain what cPanel is, its advantages, and the basic procedures you can use it for. We’ll also go into the advanced customizations for managing dedicated servers.
Table of Contents
What is cPanel Dedicated Server Hosting?
Dedicated hosting is a service where an entire physical server is used for a single website. Unlike shared or Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, where one server’s resources are used by multiple sites, a cPanel dedicated server gives full use of all of the CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth.
Being the only one using the server, with full root or admin access, users also have the freedom to customize the hardware and software configurations to meet their specific needs.
It offers the highest performance and with no other websites sharing the space, dedicated servers provide maximum security. This is especially important for resource-heavy, high-traffic websites handling substantial amounts of sensitive data. However, this makes the cPanel dedicated server option the most expensive type of hosting.

Who Uses cPanel Dedicated Server Hosting?
Dedicated hosting is generally not used by individuals or small online businesses. Instead, they are mainly used by enterprise-level and government websites needing the highest level of security.
Another example is ecommerce platforms handling large volumes of transactions that require low latency, high performance, and bandwidth.
It’s important to note that cPanel dedicated servers require much more technical knowledge to manage correctly with advanced knowledge of server administration, security protocols, and troubleshooting. They often need 24/7 monitoring to ensure consistent performance and require quick responses to any issues.
Due to this most businesses using a cPanel dedicated server employ in-house IT teams to manage and maintain them. Tasks such as software updates, security patches, scaling server resources, and hardware upgrades are usually their responsibility.
While dedicated hosting servers offer the most performance and control, they come with increased responsibility, costs, and complexity.
What is cPanel?
cPanel is a web-based control panel that simplifies the technical side of web hosting, without in-depth technical knowledge. This means you can perform more complex tasks without knowing how to code or work with your hosting server’s backend. It uses an intuitive graphical interface designed to be easy to navigate.
- Dashboard: The dashboard gives a quick overview of site performance. This includes disk space, bandwidth usage, and recent activity.
- Sections: cPanel is arranged into different sections with icons showing each one’s functions, that you can click on to open.
- Navigation Menu: The menu on the left of your screen gives access to all the available features and settings.
- Tabs: Most of the pages in cPanel are divided into tabs, allowing for easy switching between options and settings.
- Search: The search bar at the top of the screen lets you quickly find specific features or settings.
The sections mentioned above include:
- File Manager: Used for uploading, downloading, and editing files on your web server.
- Email: This lets you create and manage email accounts, set up forwarding, and configure filters etc.
- Databases: Allows you to create, modify, and manage databases using MySQL.
- Domains: Used for managing your domain, any subdomains you may have, and DNS (Domain Name System) settings.
- Applications: This lets you install apps and software like WordPress, usually using Softaculous.
- Security: Provides tools for securing your website, including SSL certificates, password protection, and firewalls.
- Performance: Shows performance metrics and information about your website’s traffic, bandwidth usage, and others.
Advantages of cPanel Web Hosting
Signing up for a cPanel Web Hosting plan with Hosted.com includes the server space, CPU, RAM, and bandwidth resources to get your website live on the internet and serve its content to your visitors. When combined with web hosting from Hosted.com, cPanel offers multiple advantages.
- User-Friendly Interface: cPanel’s intuitive graphical interface makes it easy for both beginners and experienced users to manage their hosting environment efficiently.
- Comprehensive Features: cPanel offers a wide range of built-in features covering most aspects of web hosting management, reducing the need for additional software or manual configurations.
- Automation: Many routine tasks can be automated through cPanel, saving time, and reducing the potential for human error.
- Scalability: cPanel can manage multiple domains and websites from a single interface, making it ideal for growing businesses or reseller hosting.
- Regular Updates: The cPanel team frequently releases updates and security patches, ensuring that your hosting environment remains secure and up to date.
- Easy Integrations: cPanel integrates seamlessly with many popular web applications, making installation and management of these tools much simpler.
- Resource Monitoring: cPanel provides detailed statistics and monitoring tools, allowing users to track resource usage and optimize their website hosting environment.
- Customizations: You can customize the cPanel interface and feature set to match your specific needs.
- Backups: cPanel includes built-in backup tools, making it easy to create and manage backups of websites and databases.
Basic Procedures in cPanel
Now that we’ve covered what cPanel website hosting can do to make your server and site management much easier, here are the basic procedures you’ll most commonly use:
Accessing and Navigating cPanel
Access cPanel through your Hosted.com Customer Portal. Alternatively, you can log in by navigating to yourdomain.com/cpanel and entering your username and password. Once signed in, you’ll see the main dashboard with the sections and their respective icons.

You can also use the search bar if you want to find specific features or settings quickly. Finally, you can customize your cPanel account by adjusting your preferences in the top-right corner.
Managing Domains and DNS
In the Domains section, you can manage your website addresses including your primary domain, which is the one you registered initially, for example, yoursite.com. You can also manage any subdomains. These are additional addresses branching off your main domain such as blog.yoursite.com.
It lets you configure DNS settings that point your domain name to your web server location. As well as add new websites or subdomains to your website hosting account.
Creating and Managing Email Accounts
The Email section lets you create and manage email accounts associated with your domain e.g., info@yoursite.com. This includes setting up email forwarding to send incoming emails to another address, along with configuring autoresponders to send automatic replies to incoming messages.
It also lets you organize your emails with filters based on things like sender, IP address, and keywords to automatically sort, move, or delete incoming emails, keeping your inbox organized.
The security settings help prevent spoofing and improve deliverability, reducing the chances of your emails being marked as spam. Similarly, cPanel can integrate with additional spam filtering tools and has basic spam filters to block unwanted emails from reaching your inbox.
File Manager
In the File Manager section, you can upload, download, edit, and organize files on your web server using an interface, like a file explorer on your computer, without needing an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) account. However, you can create and manage FTP accounts for secure remote transfers at the same time if necessary.
This also includes being able to do the same with the directories containing your website’s code, images, and other content.
Next, it lets you manage permissions and file ownership to control who can access and modify them and set up password protection for specific directories to keep them secure. The backup wizard lets you create and download backups of your files and databases.
Database Management
Your databases are essential for the smooth operation of your website and for protecting your valuable information. You can create and manage them in the Databases section with MySQL, and store content such as user accounts, product information, and more.
In addition to MySQL, you get access to phpMyAdmin, a powerful web-based database management tool integrated into cPanel. It is used to create, modify, and query your databases as well as import new ones and export them for backups.
Security and Maintenance
cPanel helps you keep your site and users safe from attack and data theft. Install and manage SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates to encrypt data transmitted between your website and visitors.
This ensures secure connections, maintains user trust, and gives a possible SEO (Search Engine Optimization) boost. Set up firewalls and use the IP Blocker feature to prevent malicious traffic and IP addresses from gaining access and keeping your server secure.
You can keep your software, including cPanel itself, up to date with the latest security patches and updates to protect against vulnerabilities and improve performance.
Lastly, cPanel’s built-in backup tools let you schedule regular backups of your website’s files and databases to help prevent data loss or corruption.
As you become more familiar with these basic procedures, you’ll be able to use cPanel’s more advanced features to improve your site’s performance, enhance security, and further simplify your hosting experience.
Advanced cPanel Dedicated Server Procedures
Tools like cPanel can help simplify some parts of managing a dedicated server, but they most often need professional IT support for operations and security. The example cPanel dedicated server procedures below are for advanced users who have dedicated hosting and are comfortable with server administration.
Migrating to Another Server
There might be a need for a website to move to a server with more resources, migrate to a new provider, or restore a website from another server in case of failure or data loss. Here are the steps to migrate a cPanel dedicated server account:
- Back up the account by logging in to the source server’s cPanel account.
- Navigate to Backup > Backup Wizard.
- Select Full Backup.
- Choose a destination for the backup file, such as the Home Directory or a Remote FTP Server.
- Transfer the backup file to the new server using FTP, SFTP, or another file transfer method.
- Restore the Account on the new server by logging in to cPanel.
- Go to Backup > Backup Wizard.
- Select Restore.
- Upload the backup file.

Rebooting the Server
Changes to cPanel dedicated server configurations, performance software, or security updates often require a server reboot to take effect. Additionally, if the server is experiencing slowdowns or is not functioning correctly, a reboot can sometimes help reset the system and fix the issue.
- Log in to the Web Host Manager (WHM) interface.
- Navigate to System Reboot under the System Commands section.
- Choose a reboot type, either Forceful or Graceful Server Reboot depending on your needs.
Installing cPanel on a Windows Server
While cPanel is primarily designed for Linux servers, it’s possible to install it on Windows servers. However, this process is complex and requires advanced technical knowledge.
- Ensure your server meets the cPanel installation requirements.
- Download the cPanel installation script.
- Execute the script via the command line to install cPanel.
While cPanel simplifies many dedicated server tasks, it’s important to understand the implications of performing them, especially in a dedicated environment where these customizations can have a massive impact on a website and its functionality.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A cPanel dedicated server provides exclusive use of an entire physical server, offering maximum performance, security, and control but is not suitable for smaller websites due to the cost and technical knowledge required.
- cPanel is a web-based control panel that lets you create content and maintain your website without the complexities of server management.
- cPanel’s features provide a comprehensive solution for managing all aspects of your web hosting account.
- The Domains section in cPanel lets you add, edit, and manage domains, as well as configure DNS settings.
- The Emails section in cPanel lets you create email accounts, set up forwarding, and manage email and spam filters.
- cPanel’s File Manager is used to upload, download, and edit files on your server, and configure FTP access with user permissions and backups for security.
- Using MySQL and phpMyAdmin in cPanel lets users create and manage databases, as well as schedule backups.
- Manage and configure essential security features, such as SSL certificates, firewalls, and software updates, to protect your site and users from threats.
- Advanced cPanel dedicated server procedures should be done by qualified system admins with the necessary technical knowledge.
FAQs
What is cPanel?
cPanel is a web-based control panel developed by cPanel LLC that simplifies managing web hosting accounts.
What can I do with cPanel web hosting?
cPanel web hosting lets you manage your domains, email accounts, files, databases, and security settings for your website.
How do I access cPanel?
You can access cPanel through the Hosted.com dashboard and we will give you the login credentials to access your cPanel account via your browser.
What is dedicated hosting?
Dedicated hosting provides you with an entire server and its resources exclusively for your website, giving you maximum control, performance, and security. It requires an advanced level of server management knowledge to run correctly.
How much does dedicated hosting cost?
The cost of dedicated hosting depends on the server’s configuration, location, and the provider. Keep in mind that it is much more expensive than other types of hosting
Is cPanel difficult to use?
cPanel is designed to be user-friendly, with a simple, intuitive interface and automation for many hosting management tasks.
Other Blogs of Interest
– How to Use cPanel and WordPress Hosting
– What Is A Dedicated Server? Everything You Need To Know
– How to Choose the Best cPanel Hosting for Your Website
– Plesk vs cPanel – Which Control Panel is better
– cPanel and Web Hosting with Hosted.com
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Rhett isn’t just a writer at Hosted.com – he’s our resident WordPress content guru. With over 6 years of experience as a content writer, with a background in copywriting, journalism, research, and SEO, and a passion for websites.
Rhett authors informative blogs, articles, and Knowledgebase guides that simplify the complexities of WordPress, website builders, domains, and cPanel hosting. Rhett’s clear explanations and practical tips provide valuable resources for anyone wanting to own and build a website. Just don’t ask him about coding before he’s had coffee.