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cPanel

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cPanel vs phpMyAdmin: What are the differences?

Introduction

cPanel and phpMyAdmin are both popular web-based control panel applications used for managing and administering websites and databases. While they serve different purposes, they both provide functionalities that are essential for managing web hosting and database operations. Below are some key differences between cPanel and phpMyAdmin.

  1. User Interface: cPanel provides a comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to manage various aspects of their web hosting accounts, such as email accounts, files, domains, databases, and more. On the other hand, phpMyAdmin is primarily used for managing MySQL databases and provides a simple and intuitive interface specifically designed for database administration and querying.

  2. Scope of Functionality: cPanel offers a wide range of features and tools beyond database management, including email management, file management, DNS settings, security configurations, server statistics, and more. It is a complete web hosting control panel that allows users to handle all aspects of their website management. In contrast, phpMyAdmin focuses solely on providing tools for MySQL database management, query execution, and database administration tasks.

  3. Database Management: phpMyAdmin offers advanced features for MySQL database management, such as creating, modifying, and deleting databases, tables, and fields, importing and exporting data, executing queries, managing user privileges, and more. cPanel, although it provides some basic database management capabilities, is more focused on providing an overall hosting management experience, making it easier for users to manage multiple websites and services simultaneously.

  4. Operating System: cPanel is a commercial control panel software that runs on Linux-based servers. It is specifically designed for Linux hosting environments and is one of the most widely used web hosting control panels in the industry. On the other hand, phpMyAdmin is a free and open-source application that can be installed on various operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS, making it more versatile in terms of server compatibility.

  5. Accessibility: cPanel is typically provided by web hosting providers as part of their hosting packages, and users access it through a web browser. Users need to have an active hosting account with cPanel included to access and utilize its functionalities. In contrast, phpMyAdmin can be installed separately on a server with MySQL databases, allowing users to use it directly without relying on a hosting provider or control panel.

  6. User Permissions: cPanel provides a robust user management system, allowing administrators to grant different levels of access and permissions to users. This enables multiple users to collaborate on managing the same hosting account or website while maintaining control over what actions each user can perform. On the other hand, phpMyAdmin is primarily designed for administration tasks and offers limited user management capabilities, typically allowing only a single administrator or a small group of trusted users to access and manage databases.

In Summary, cPanel is a comprehensive web hosting control panel offering various functionalities beyond database management, while phpMyAdmin is a specialized tool for managing MySQL databases with a focus on database administration and querying.

Decisions about cPanel and phpMyAdmin
Adam Taylor

We were looking a tool that would allow us to do MySQL and PostgreSQL development/administration from a single tool. We decided on Navicat Premium because it can connect to MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQLite databases - and simultaneously. It's also compatible with Amazon RDS and Microsoft Azure, which we also use.

Moreover, we previously experienced the occasional freezing and crashing in MySQL Workbench. It also suffered from a poor design, with certain features being a bit difficult to find. Meanwhile, phpMyAdmin lacked schema visualization tools and seemed better suited to lightweight day to day transactions than some of the big jobs that we needed to do.

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Pros of cPanel
Pros of phpMyAdmin
  • 3
    Backups
  • 3
    Documentation
  • 2
    Databases Management
  • 2
    DNS Zone Editor
  • 2
    Security
  • 1
    Extensions
  • 5
    Query linter
  • 5
    Easy data access
  • 5
    User administration

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Cons of cPanel
Cons of phpMyAdmin
  • 2
    Not free
  • 1
    Insecure

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What is cPanel?

It is an industry leading hosting platform with world-class support. It is globally empowering hosting providers through fully-automated point-and-click hosting platform by hosting-centric professionals

What is phpMyAdmin?

As a portable web application written primarily in PHP, it has become one of the most popular MySQL administration tools, especially for web hosting services.

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What companies use cPanel?
What companies use phpMyAdmin?
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What are some alternatives to cPanel and phpMyAdmin?
WordPress
The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 60 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” — we’d love you to join the family.
Plesk
Build and manage multiple sites from a single dashboard. You can also run updates, monitor performance and onboard new prospects all from the same place. It is a WebOps platform to run, automate and grow applications, websites and hosting businesses.
DirectAdmin
It is a graphical web-based web hosting control panel designed to make administration of websites easier. It is an extremely efficient control panel that uses the bare minimum of system resources. This makes it ideal for systems ranging from low-end VPS units to heavily-loaded dedicated servers
Runcloud
SaaS based PHP cloud server control panel. Support Digital Ocean, Linode, AWS, Vultr, Azure and other custom VPS. GIT deployment webhook and easiest control panel to manage Laravel, Cake, Symphony or WordPress.
Webmin
It is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any modern web browser, you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and much more. It removes the need to manually edit Unix configuration files.
See all alternatives