This article will try to help cPanel users understand the differences between cPanel and InterWorx. The assumption is that you have or had access to a cPanel account and are familiar with how to use it.
Terminology
Here is a list of some key terms and how they compare between platforms.
| Term | cPanel | InterWorx | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name for the entire product as a whole. | cPanel | InterWorx | InterWorx is a little less confusing than cPanel in this regard. |
| Name for the administrative suite (for server admins and resellers). | WHM | NodeWorx | |
| Name for the end-user suite (for domain owners). | cPanel | SiteWorx | |
| Term for non-server administrators who resell or control multiple end-user accounts. | Resellers | Resellers | |
| Additional domain that is managed by the end user and that has completely different content than other domains in the end-user's account. | Addon domain | Secondary domain | |
| Additional domain that is managed by the end user and that mirrors the content of another existing domain in the end-user's account. | Alias (previously known as parked domain) | Pointer domain | |
| Standard email account. | Email account | Email box | If you want to forward received mail to other accounts AND store a copy in a local mailbox, use the Send a Copy to function that is part of the email box feature in SiteWorx. If you just want to forward mail without storing a copy, use the Email Group feature. |
| Email address that only redirects mail to some other email address. | Email forwarder | Email alias | In InterWorx, email aliases only redirect to a single email address. If you want to forward to many addresses, use the email group feature. |
| Email address that directs mail to multiple different email addresses. | Email forwarder | Email group | cPanel handles forwarding mail to multiple accounts via the Forwarder interface, whereas InterWorx has a separate email group function. Email sent to an email group is not stored locally on the server unless the destination mail accounts happen to be on the same server. |
| End-user notifications when a specific event happens in or to the user's account. | Contact preferences | Subscriptions | |
| Control panel user accounts that the end-user can create themselves. | n/a | User account | cPanel does not currently allow you create multiple user accounts that all have access to the same cPanel account. InterWorx allows the end-user to create as many sub-user accounts as needed. |
| PHP script autoinstaller | Site Software | n/a (Softaculous Free) | cPanel has an optional installer for WordPress and WHMCS, but these are not always up-to-date. InterWorx doesn't offer any script installation features by default, but both control panels support popular installers like Softaculous or Fantastico. InterWorx includes a plugin to install the free version of Softaculous. |
Similarities
Although they look different, cPanel and InterWorx share a lot of the same end-user features.
- Although the specific settings needed to access your mail account in your email client of choice may be different, once set up, everything should work like normal.
- Both InterWorx and cPanel support the Roundcube and Horde webmail clients.
- If your administrator or reseller permits, you can adjust the version of PHP that your domains will use.
- The file manager feature allows you to upload, download or edit files in your hosting account.
- FTP accounts work the same way.
Differences
Here are some key ways the two control panels are different from one another for end-users.
- In InterWorx you can create multiple logins for your SiteWorx account and each one of those logins can have all of the same features as you do or you can restrict access to only certain features.
- You can set up an automatic backup schedule for your account in SiteWorx. cPanel can create backups but doesn't let you schedule ongoing backups in the future.
- The DNSSEC protocol is not supported at this time on InterWorx servers, so if you were using that on your cPanel server, you should disable it at your domain registrar immediately.
- Although most cPanel servers append your username to each database and database user you create, that could be disabled. So it is possible that when your account is migrated from cPanel that the database name or username may change. If that happens, you'll be notified when you log into your SiteWorx account so you can adjust any configuration files with the new connection information.