A hosting control panel is a collection of software tools which you can access via a web browser to control your online content. As you'll get a graphic point-and-click interface, you could use these tools to execute various tasks far easier than if you need to type complex commands inside a command line. All control panels allow you to do some basic things such as controlling your files, emails and databases or accessing stats and logs, yet a few of them are a lot easier to use than others and contain more attributes which will save you time and efforts. In this light, the control panel that you'll acquire with your new web hosting account can really make a difference, which means that you should check it and see whether it will meet your requirements before you sign up for the service.