cPanel: A Quick Tour for New Users

cPanel is the control panel that ships with every Maxinames shared hosting plan. It looks busy at first, but most owners only ever use a handful of icons. Here is what they do.

Files

• File Manager — browse, upload, and edit files without an FTP client.
• FTP Accounts — create logins for SFTP / FTP access (use SFTP whenever possible).
• Backup — generate a full or partial backup of your account.

Domains

• Addon Domains — host extra domains under one plan (subject to your plan's limit).
• Subdomains — create blog.example.com, store.example.com, etc.
• Redirects — set up 301/302 redirects without touching code.

Email

• Email Accounts — create mailboxes (you@yourdomain.com).
• Forwarders — forward one address to another.
• Email Routing — switch between local cPanel mail and an external provider (e.g. Google Workspace).

Databases

• MySQL® Databases — create databases and users.
• phpMyAdmin — browse and run SQL against your databases.

Security

• SSL/TLS Status — manage Let's Encrypt certs for your domains.
• IP Blocker — ban specific IPs from accessing your site.
• SSH Access — enable SSH if your plan supports it.

Software

• Softaculous Apps Installer — one-click WordPress and other CMS installs.
• Select PHP Version — switch the PHP version and toggle extensions.

Metrics

• Visitors / Awstats / Bandwidth — basic traffic stats.
• Errors — recent web server error log entries.

Spend ten minutes clicking through these sections once and you will have a mental map of where everything lives. For specific tasks, search our knowledge base or ask support.