Welcome to the hosting control panel

Every SiteSmith hosting plan comes with a hosting control panel. It's where you run the website and the email at your own domain: mailboxes, domains and DNS, SSL certificates, files, databases, backups and apps like WordPress.

This course follows Alex Morgan, who runs a fictional coffee company called Harbor & Pine Coffee. Alex has two sites: harborandpine.test on the Pro plan and harborpineroasters.test on Starter. You'll see the real screens with their data.

What it's for

• Email: mailboxes like [email protected], forwarders, autoreplies, spam filtering and the records that keep your mail out of spam folders.
• Domains: extra websites, subdomains, redirects, DNS records and free SSL certificates.
• Files and data: the file manager, FTP accounts, MySQL databases and backups.
• Apps and advanced settings: WordPress and other apps, PHP settings and scheduled tasks.
• Security: a web firewall, malware scan results and two-step sign-in for the advanced panel.

What's included and what costs extra

The control panel comes with every hosting plan (Starter, Pro and Business). There's nothing extra to buy to use it. Hosting itself is a paid plan, and the plans differ in how many websites, mailboxes and databases you get, how much storage and bandwidth, and how long daily backups are kept. For current prices and limits, see the plan page.

Inside the panel, SSL certificates are free for every domain, and the apps in Install apps are free to install. When you've used 85% or more of a limit that can be raised with an add-on, the Overview tells you and offers Add more. Billing, invoices and plan changes stay in the client area.

What this course covers

1. Getting started: opening the panel, My sites, the Overview and search.
2. Email: mailboxes, forwarders, who can read each mailbox, autoreplies, spam and deliverability.
3. Domains, files and data: websites, subdomains, redirects, DNS, SSL, the file manager, FTP, databases, WordPress, PHP, scheduled tasks and backups.
4. Security, team and advanced tools: the firewall, malware scan, team access, the Advanced panel and More tools.

Each section ends with a short quiz, and the last lesson is a course check. There's a set of flashcards and two games to practice with too.