Archive for January, 2012

HostGator and cPanel

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

If you’re shopping around for a hosting plan, chances are you’re used to seeing cPanel advertised as the control panel software of choice. There are a couple of reasons for this, and a couple of reasons why it’s worth your while to consider choosing HostGator and cPanel for your hosting needs.

To start with, cPanel is open source and Linux based. This means that it doesn’t cost anything to use, and the open source community regularly creates new addons and themes for it that help make it even better. Anything that a site owner could possibly need cPanel to do has probably been taken into account already, and built into the software. If you’re leaning toward a Linux based hosting plan, then chances are cPanel is probably going to end up being your control panel software.

Linux based hosting plans don’t come with the extra licensing fees that Windows based ones do, which is part of the reason why they’re favored by hosting providers and site owners alike. Since Linux based hosting, and by extension cPanel, is so popular, most of the web’s best applications have been created and tried out using cPanel. If you’re looking to create a site powered by WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or any other open source content development platform, you’re probably going to want to go with cPanel as your control panel- it’ll ensure that whatever application or addon you decide to use is going to work the way it should, and you’ll get far fewer headaches during the installation process.

Next, cPanel makes it easy to install applications with one click. If you’re new to something like Drupal, and want to be able to use it without having to put yourself through a whole manual installation process, then cPanel can help you out. By filling out a simple form with some information about where and how you’d like the application set up on your account, you can have your applications up and running in about four and a half minutes. This works for everything from blogging software like WordPress, to content development platforms like Joomla, to galleries like Gallery, to shopping cart utilities like Agora.

Lastly, cPanel is pretty flexible when it comes to customization and user friendliness. There are a couple different themes that can be applied to cPanel, so you can get it to look just the way you want to. Other control panels don’t offer these kind of options, which can end up giving them a steeper learning curve when it comes to making yourself comfortable with using them.

HostGator offers cPanel with many of their hosting plans by default, including their shared plans and reseller hosting. This helps make their hosting plans easy to use, cost effective, and versatile for a wide range of clients. No matter whether you’re a web developer looking to create the next big content management platform, a hosting reseller, or a small site owner with a blog, cPanel and HostGator can accommodate you.

HostGator's One Click Installation

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Many of the biggest and best sites on the web are powered by a handful of content development and management platforms. These programs, including WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, make it easy for users to create some very powerful sites for a variety of purposes. Everything from blogs to e-commerce sites use some kind of application for their back end, so, if you’re working on setting up a new site, you may want to consider giving one of these content development platforms a try.

There’s only one problem with this, though- most hosting providers don’t come with any kind of content development software installed. In the past, this meant that you’d have to download and unpack all of the files you needed for the application you wanted to use, then go through a complicated uploading and installation procedure in order to get your software up and running. All of this would have to be done before you even started working on the site itself, which can end up making your site setup process long, confusing, and difficult.

Fortunately, developers responded to this problem by creating one-click installation utilities. Things like Fantastico allow users to choose their program of choice from a list of applications, fill out a simple little form, and have the entire application set up and running in less than five minutes. There’s no manual installation procedure to mess up, and no files to download and re-upload.

Fantastico and control panels like cPanel make it easy to install just about any content management software you want, but, even though cPanel is the number one control panel software used in web hosting, not every web host uses it. Some of them prefer to use Plesk instead, and some even have their own specially developed, branded control panels. Fortunately for HostGator clients, HostGator is one of the sites that does provide Fantastico’s one click installation. What’s more, since a lot of HostGator’s hosting plans use cPanel, HostGator clients have the advantage of knowing that the applications they install are going to work the way they ought to.

With HostGator’s one click installation process, all users need to do is log in to their cPanel, click on Fantastico’s icon, and choose the application they want from a list that’s broken down by category. After choosing their application, they’ll be directed to a page with a short description of it, and a button to begin the installation process. This button will take them to a short form, and a button to complete the installation process. After filling it out and clicking the button, the process is complete, and the application is installed. That’s all it takes.

Not everyone knows how to go through a manual installation process for the web development applications they need, and even people that do often don’t want to be bothered going through a long, complicated install. With HostGator, cPanel, and Fantastico, there’s no longer any need- users can get whatever applications they want with a short form, and one click.

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