What Is The Difference Between cPanel and WHM

WHM or Web Host Manager provides the user with an administrative control over a dedicated server or VPS. It also enables the web hosting company to manage the customer’s account.

A reseller control panel is also included with WHM. Along with the reseller hosting package, each reseller hosting customer also receives this control panel. In their reseller packages, it is used to manage all of the hosting accounts that are resold. Since resellers have root access, they may not be able to access all functionalities in WHM, but their permissions are still limited compared to those of VPS and dedicated servers.

The tasks that you can execute in WHM are listed below:

• Create individual user accounts
• Create customized hosting plans
• Add domains to the server
• Manage features of the hosting plans
• Reset the password or contact email addresses for cPanel accounts
• Manage the resource limits for the cPanel accounts
• Modify the DNS zone records for every domain or subdomain
• Set up private name servers on the server
• Login to the resold accounts without the login credentials
• Conduct basic system and control panel maintenance

cPanel is created for managing separate and individual hosting accounts on the server. The tasks that can be executed by end users or clients through cPanel are mentioned below:

• Install any CMS through Softculous
• Upload and manage the files of their websites
• Add or remove the addon domains and subdomains
• Create email accounts, manage the email account settings and manage SPAM protection
• Edit the DNS records for their domains
• Analyze the website statistics
• Manage backups and databases etc.

It is important to note that when you try to access cPanel through WHM for a reseller or root user, you have the ability to manage almost all the options of the end user’s cPanel. However, other menus like GoogleApps can only be managed when you are logged in as the individual cPanel user.

Here is an insight on WHM/cPanel users on the basis of their permissions:

Server Administrator Panel

The top-most and the highest level user is the ‘root’ user. This user is the server administrator who has complete access to the server. The server administrator has complete control over all the WHM functions and can edit the global server settings and can also customize the settings for the users who have limited privileges. A root user has the access to all the levels of the WHM interface that includes reseller WHM and the end cPanel user. There is only one root user for every server.

Reseller Panel (WHM)

The reseller user is the next in command to the server administrator. A reseller user has access to a restricted set of features as compared to the root user. The server administrator only allows access to the features that affect the customer accounts of the reseller but not the complete server.

Reseller access is assigned along with Reseller Panel (WHM) where the reseller can manage all the resold accounts. A reseller also has the access to all the accounts created (resolds). The server administrator assigns the privileges of the reseller and there can be several resellers per server.

Main Reseller cPanel

The hosting account under the primary domain is managed using the cPanel control panel. The primary domain name that may be accessible through the primary cPanel account must be chosen when creating a reseller hosting account. The WHM account credentials and the cPanel login credentials are the same. The main cPanel account password must be reset in order to reset the WHM password; after you do, they will synchronize.

cPanel Account (Resold)

The Reseller Panel (WHM) is where all of the resold accounts—client accounts made by the reseller—are located. The Reseller Panel (WHM) facilitates the creation, management, and upkeep of resold accounts with ease.