WPEngine is a managed hosting platform for WordPress websites. The term “managed” makes you wonder: Does WPEngine have cPanel?
This guide is for people who are looking to go with managed WP hosting but have some doubts due to the control panel.
We will see if WPEngine provides the cPanel, and if not, whether their own panel is good for WordPress users. Keep reading, and you will have all your doubts answered.
Does WPEngine have cPanel?
No, WPEngine doesn’t use cPanel. Instead, they have their own custom user portal.
You can access the basic menus such as:
- Managing your WordPress website installation
- Billing information of WPEngine
- MySQL admin control
- User accounts
- Error logs
- Redirects
- Restore points
Overall, the panel is simple and clean, with all the navigation links on the left. You can easily and intuitively learn to use the WPEngine panel.
cPanel vs. WPEngine panel – Limitations
No panel is perfect, and both of these panels have their own advantages and drawbacks. That’s why it is important that you first have a clear definition of your hosting requirements.
To help you make your choice between cPanel and WPEngine, here are some of the key features and limitations.
Let’s start with cPanel first.
cPanel Limitations
cPanel has various limitations when you scale up your server. For a complete beginner, cPanel might sound like a perfect panel. However, when you start upgrading your server and start getting more traffic, you will face many roadblocks.
Here are a few downsides that you should look out for:
- They don’t offer daily backups or there are no one-click rollbacks.
- Recent price changes have scared off a few long-time customers from cPanel to another alternative.
- cPanel is dependent on the server of the managing software. This makes it vulnerable as hackers can access the system through a third-party source. We can say cPanel has a major encryption issue, which is a huge red flag regarding security.
- cPanel falls behind when it comes to modern hosting tech. Their lack of features and support for the latest trends means most companies find other better (and typically managed) alternatives.
Now that we have answered your question: Does WPEngine have cPanel, let’s talk about the limitations of the WPEngine control panel.
WPEngine control panel limitations
Just like cPanel, WPEngine’s control panel also has a few limitations. If you compare it head-to-head with cPanel, there may even be more limitations.
You must understand that WPEngine offers managed WordPress hosting services, whereas cPanel allows you to control the server. So, in WPEngine, some options are intentionally unavailable as most things are managed for you.
Keeping this in mind, certain things still should’ve been available but are not. So, we have covered a few limitations below.
- No directory permissions or file changes are allowed.
- There is no file browsing allowed like in cPanel. This function is particularly helpful when you want to rm (remove) a dir (directory) and don’t want to wait for an hour (other control panels take time to remove directories).
- Only 2 days of access logs are available. Also, there is no option to archive. So, if you want to debug, you are out of luck.
Why does WPEngine not have a cPanel
They have built their platform to replace cPanel as the panel couldn’t configure the server how they wanted.
For a managed host, cPanel takes too much time to operate and function. So, to ensure maximum speed, as promised by WPEngine, they built a custom panel. It allows them to configure the servers in a way that keeps it running fast and secure from all the attackers.
Conclusion
To conclude, WPEngine doesn’t have cPanel and instead uses its own custom panel, which allows them to deliver a faster managed service.
It’s great for users who don’t want to waste time managing the technicalities.
WPEngine manages everything for you and provides you only with important menus you will need for WordPress. Even better, you will get a secure panel to manage your billing.
So, even though WPEngine doesn’t use cPanel, you can surely go with their managed services.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Does WPEngine have a file manager?
No, WPEngine doesn’t have a file manager.
What web server does WPEngine use?
When deciding on a web server for WPEngine, you can choose from AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure.
What is WPEngine used for?
WPEngine is a WordPress platform that provides managed WordPress hosting and other solutions for businesses running WordPress.
