I think customers want cPanel because of Fantastico, its much easier clicking a few buttons there to install a script because of the hassles of uploading, CHMODing etc. I personally use DirectAdmin, I think its a good control panel. I think also people like cPanel because of its statistic trackers (sorry if thats the wrong word to use, lol, I'm real tired). Sorry if this post seemed a little pointless, this is just why I like cPanel, not sure about other people.
cPanel is probly the best one for most people since it is very easy to use and nav around, with alot of its features just a few clicks and done. I like it for its features and nav.
I personally prefer the SiteWorx control panel, it is a lot faster than cPanel in my experience; and has a lot of the same features (including ScriptWorx, which is very much like Fantastico).
It has a nicer interface, and I hear the host side (NodeWorx), is easier to use than WHM.
CPanel is not faster nor more secure. But as with many things. What one person uses they find more secure than what not most people use. Like eBay. There is alot of different auction sites but people trust eBay because others have been using it for years. CPanel has gained a rep and it will stay until another one chooses to advertise and create a customer base. Most have a few but those people like it because they like it. For there own personal reasons. Just like some like CPanel for the easyiness of navigating. Aswell as the fact if anything goes wrong there is pretty much a database on CPanel forums to fix pretty much anything.
Those are the reasons people prefer CPanel over other Control Panels. Mind you people are starting to change. More and more like DA and Plesk now.
I personally don't like cPanel, i have only ever used itonce and found it to be slow, and difficult to navigate, when all i wanted to do was create sometihng simple like a new database, and with hosts I have only used their own custom ones, 1and1's control panel which was impossible to use, and now dremahosts, which is eaasy to use and offers one click installs
PLESK has a nicer appearence imo but it's very slow and sluggish imo also. Although i've only ever had it with one host so it may have just been their server. Personally i liked PLESKs interface more but it's traffic statistics tool is severly lacking in what it tracks.
It's definitely because most hosts, mostly free ones, offer cPanel as the way to administer the website and cPanel basically has a few useful features such as virus scan, bandwidth monitor and etc.
It's not really a matter of wanting it but rather a matter of "that was what I was given at the time". Many of the free web hosts I hosted on were using CPanel, and since those free hosts were limited to just this particular piece of software, I had no other choice. And now, I'm used to it and slightly reluctant to trying another Control Panel, but that should change when I buy my hosting.
have any of you tried hsphere? Its a very nice panel as well. Cpanel and Plesk do appear to be the more used panels out there at the current time though.
Cpanel is the most popular because it's very easy to use: nice graphics and user-friendly interface. Besides, it comes with Fantastico, a script installer for people who don't know how to set them up. I personally hate Fantastico, for everything that's installed with it must be upgraded/uninstalled through it as well, otherwise it's trouble. I once upgraded a script manually and wasn't able to uninstall it from the system afterwards - it wasn't recognised by Fantastico. Even after cleaning it up myself, it wouldn't let me install anything in that directory for it claimed to have a script already. I had to use cron to run exec (my host doesn't allow exec) and clean it for good. Well, except for Fantastico issues, Cpanel is good. :hehe: