A hosting control panel is a set of software instruments that you can access through a web browser to take care of your online content. As you will have a graphic point-and-click interface, you can use these instruments to perform various tasks much easier than if you have to type complex commands in a command line. All control panels allow you to do some basic things such as controlling your files, e-mail addresses and databases or accessing logs and stats, yet some of them are simpler and easier to use than others and include more attributes which can save you efforts and time. In this light, the control panel that you'll acquire with your new web hosting account can really make a difference, therefore you should check it and see if it'll provide what you need before you subscribe for the service.