There is a common aspect in webhosts that webmasters look for: the best bang for the buck. Webmasters don't want to spend too much money, but then again, they also want the functionality that the professionals use. Two vastly popular types of management systems are being in use today: cPanel and Virtuozzo.



What Can I Expect From cPanel?

cPanel was at one time just a rarity among webhosts. It came with licensing fees for webhosts, since it was proprietary software. The few webhosts that did make use of it almost always passed the licensing fees they paid onto the webmaster, while the other webhosts simply didn't offer it.

Today it's hard to imagine life without cPanel, and it shows with the vast amount of webhosts that support it (in fact, it's hard to find a webhost who doesn't!). But what exactly can you expect from cPanel, and why is it so popular?

cPanel was creating to make administrating websites as simple as possible for webmasters. The large selling point of the product is that it has a very user-intuitive interface. Even those new to the webmaster game can get running in website administration in minutes.

Add-ons extend the product with more functionality. The most popular, Fantastico, allows webmasters to install scripts with the click of a button. Previously this had to be done with a lot of editing of configuration files, editing databases, and more. The advent of Fantastico brought many new webmasters to the table, since the complex operations required for installing scripts was replaced with a mouse click.

What is Virtuozzo?

Virtuozzo is a special piece of software that allows a webhost to separate a server into what is called a virtual private server, or VPS. But why would a webhost want to separate a server into multiple independent servers, of which have reduced physical capacity and performance?

The simple answer is: not every webmaster can afford to buy or rent a complete server. If this is the case, they may get by with only a piece of a server. This is done via Virtuozzo, which splits the server into containers that may be used by multiple clients from all around the world.

If a webmaster isn't concerned about cost, and their website doesn't necessarily need the extra performance upgrade over shared servers, they get added benefit in freedom. A private server allows owners to do nearly anything they can think of with their server. But shared servers and other hosting plans deny a lot of access to many features, stating security reasons. With one's own virtual private server, or VPS, webmasters can have their cake and eat it too.

Final Thoughts on Virtuozzo and cPanel

Both applications previously discussed are widespread among the webhost community. In fact, a webmaster should check to see if a webhost has these features before ultimately deciding on where to take their business.

And because these technologies have been in development for many years, working with them and using them has become increasingly easy. In the beginning, cPanel was very buggy and not very reliable. Today, it is the world's leading website administration panel.

As both technologies are indeed becoming ever popular, it's important webmasters stay on top of this new technology. The best way to do this is to get a good webhost that features both- so get to looking!