Are cPanels enough for your basic deployments?

Photo by Emile Perron on Unsplash

I have been doing web development for more than 10 years. Not a dedicated one but I wrote my first PHP code back in 2011. But, since 2019, I have been actively working with Laravel and React.

Back in the starting days, deploying was not easy (for me at least). I was young; pretty young. No middle-class parents would give their 14 years-old son some money so he would deploy a PHP project in some server.

Although my parents were being parents, I was not being a guy who could convince them. So, I went with free hosting services that provided a basic File Manager completely free (for at least a week).

Rest In Peace 000webhost. You were the best one back then.

Thanks to local hosting providers, now I can afford cPanel at cheap rates. I have been deploying my applications in shared cPanels without any problems.

But, if you give a cPanel to that guy who used to work in my office; the guy who teased you for using nano instead of vi, will make fun of you again. His first response would be “You can’t even use sudo.”

So, is it actually enough for your applications?

It is for me. But for you, it depends upon the application stack. A basic PHP framework-based application is good to go. There are even cPanel packages that provide Python, Node, and Ruby services.

You can simply click on “Setup xxx Application” and everybody can use your application deployed on that server.

A screenshot of cPanel with deployment options (Source: Chajio Cloud)

Sorry for lying earlier but I do face problems with cPanel. The most faced one is the one that guy said about sudo. You are a basic user with limited permissions in shared hosting. You are given a small cluster where you (don’t) have the freedom to do whatever you want.

Almost everything can be done using GUI. Simple clicks from your mouse can create less demand for DevOps engineers. Setting up databases, email accounts, domains, SSH, and cron jobs is just a click away. But when you need some deep stuff, you miss the actual freedom.

Being enough or not enough can be varied on your requirements:

• If you are hosting a simple application or web page, it is more than sufficient. A basic application can be deployed in cPanel cost-effectively.
• If you are new to web hosting and deployment, cPanel can be a practice platform. Deploy your practice projects in cPanel so that you can demonstrate them during your interviews.
• If you need sudo access, avoid the cPanel entirely. You can never have it.
• No docker or container stuff is allowed in cPanel. You need a clean setup VPS for it.

Besides these limitations, if you are deploying any basic or simple applications, cPanel is not just enough but it is a lifesaver. If complexity increases but you are within the constraints, you can still use it. But for advanced projects, you should look for other alternatives.

To conclude, the question I wrote in the title is not correct. It should rather be “Do your current needs align with cPanel’s capabilities?”