8 Settings to Check the First Time You Log In to cPanel

When your hosting account is created, cPanel greets you with dozens of icons. You don't need to learn them all on day one. This guide lists the settings that matter before your site goes live, in order of importance.

1. Change your password and turn on two-factor authentication

If your login details arrived by email, start by changing the cPanel password to a long, unique password only you know. Then open Security › Two-Factor Authentication and connect an authenticator app. Our password and 2FA guide covers the details.

2. Check the contact email address

The address under Preferences › Contact Information is where alerts go when your disk quota fills up, an SSL certificate can't renew or a password changes. Use an address on a different domain from the one you host. Otherwise, when the site goes down, the alert lands on the same server and you can't read it.

3. Make sure your domain points to the server

Your site only loads when the domain uses the right nameservers or the right IP address. Enter the nameservers from your welcome email at your domain registrar. Our DNS records guide explains what each record does, and the DNS propagation article explains why a change may not show up immediately.

4. Confirm the SSL certificate was issued

Once the domain points to the server, AutoSSL installs a free certificate. Under Security › SSL/TLS Status you should see a valid certificate next to your domain. If you don't, see the AutoSSL troubleshooting guide.

5. Create your business email accounts

Create the addresses you need under Email › Email Accounts and give each a sensible quota. An unlimited quota lets a single full mailbox use up all your disk space. For phone and desktop settings, use our IMAP, POP3 and SMTP settings guide.

6. Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC

The Email › Email Deliverability screen shows whether your domain's SPF and DKIM records are correct. If your nameservers are elsewhere, add the suggested records in that DNS panel. The full topic is in our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide.

7. Look at your resource usage

The statistics panel shows disk, inode, CPU, RAM and I/O usage. Knowing what these numbers mean makes it much easier to find the cause when the site slows down later. See CPU, RAM and I/O limits and inode limits.

8. Take your first backup yourself

Our plans take automatic backups twice a week. Even so, downloading a copy to your own computer right after you build the site is a good habit. The cPanel backup guide walks you through it.

If your site runs scheduled tasks, our cron job guide will also help.

A short note for later

With these eight settings done, your account is secure, alerts reach the right address and your site loads over HTTPS. If you get stuck on any step, open a support ticket.