A hosting control panel is a set of software instruments that you can access via a browser to control your online content. Since you will have a graphic point-and-click interface, you could use these instruments to do various tasks much easier than if you have to type complex commands inside a command line. All control panels allow you to do some basic things such as managing your files, email addresses and databases or browsing through logs and stats, however some of them are simpler to use than others and include more attributes that could save you efforts and time. That's why, the control panel that you'll obtain with a new web hosting account can really make a difference, which means that you should check it and see if it'll suit your needs before you subscribe for the service.