cPanel is the Control Panel used to manage the software that you are using to host your website, and shouldn't be considered to be the software itself. Though, cPanel is the most powerful and robust Control Panel on the market to date, there are many others availible that are capable of similar functions however aren't backed by such a large development team resulting in a lack of features or functionality.
Currently, we utilize cPanel as our customer Control Panel and the following software is what we use to host websites:
- CloudLinux w/ CageFS
- Apache w/ Varnish Cache
- PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Pyton, Etc.
- MariaDB10, PostgresSQL, SQLite
- Numerous Security Softwares & Malware Detection Suites
These are typical softwares that will be used to power traditional websites, and cPanel gives a layer of control to people whom don't have the experience in direct management of these softwares or want to simplify things.
Cpanel all day!
I use Site 5 to host my sites. Their support is unmatchable. And their Admin panel comes with Cpanel automatically. Others companies base their structure off of Cpanel but nothing compares
I would be careful in the coming months with Site5, as they were just acquired by EIG.