FAQ Control Panel

What control panel do I get with my hosting?

StackCP, provided through our hosting platform partner 20i, and reached from inside your client area.

iFastHosting Support Team Updated 26 August 2026 4 min read Beginner

Your hosting comes with StackCP, the control panel built by 20i, the infrastructure platform we run our hosting on. You do not sign up for StackCP separately or manage a distinct account with it — it comes bundled with your hosting, and you reach it by signing in to your client area and clicking through to the specific hosting service you want to manage.

What a control panel actually is

Buying hosting gets you space and resources on a server. A control panel is the interface for actually operating that space, without needing to work directly on the server yourself through more technical routes. In practical terms, this is where you:

Upload, edit and organise your website's files
Create and manage databases
Set up email addresses on your domain
Manage DNS records, if your domain uses this hosting's nameservers
Check and manage your SSL certificate
Adjust your PHP version and related settings
Access backup tools
Install applications such as WordPress

None of this requires knowing how to administer a server directly — that is precisely the job a control panel is doing for you.

Why we mention 20i specifically

20i is the platform provider whose infrastructure and control panel software power our hosting. This is a normal arrangement in the hosting industry — many hosting companies build their service on top of a specialist infrastructure platform rather than writing their own panel software from scratch — and it means the control panel you use is StackCP, maintained and developed by 20i, made available to you through your hosting with us.

We are not publishing exact screenshots or menu names here

Because StackCP's interface can be updated by 20i independently of anything we do, this knowledgebase deliberately describes what each part of the panel does functionally — "the section dealing with databases," "the area covering PHP settings" — rather than pinning guides to an exact button label or menu path that might shift over time. If a specific label mentioned anywhere in these guides does not match what you see, search the panel for the job described rather than the exact wording.

How this differs from cPanel or Plesk

If you have used shared hosting elsewhere before, there is a reasonable chance it used cPanel or Plesk, which are common alternatives built by different companies. StackCP is not either of those, and none of the terminology specific to them applies here. Expect a different layout, different section names, and a different overall look, even though the underlying jobs — files, databases, email, DNS, SSL — are largely the same across any hosting control panel, because they reflect what a website genuinely needs, not a particular vendor's design choices.

How you get into it

There is no separate StackCP account to register for or sign in to directly in the normal course of things. Sign in to your client area with your hosting account's email address and password, open the specific hosting service you want to manage, and use the link on that page to open the control panel — it signs you in automatically. See how to get into your hosting control panel for the detail on exactly where that link sits.

Once you are in, our tour of the control panel is a reasonable next stop for making sense of what you are looking at.

Frequently asked questions

What is a hosting control panel, exactly?

It is the tool you use to manage the technical side of your hosting account: uploading files, creating databases and email addresses, managing DNS, checking your SSL certificate, and adjusting settings like your PHP version. Your hosting account itself is the server space and resources you are paying for; the control panel is how you actually operate it.

Is this the same as cPanel?

No. Your control panel is StackCP, provided through 20i, our infrastructure platform partner. It is a different product from cPanel, built by a different company, and it will not look or be laid out like cPanel — if you have used cPanel elsewhere before, expect a different interface doing broadly the same job.