FTP Vs. Cpanel Uploads
CPanel is a server management and control panel software. If your host uses cPanel, the control panel that you log in to will be powered by this software. With cPanel, you can complete a variety of functions, including paying your bill, managing your services. You can either use cPanel to upload files to your website or a file transfer protocol (FTP) client.
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Accessability
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In order to upload one or more files with cPanel, you simply need to open your Web browser and log in to your hosting account with cPanel. You can then click the "File Manager" icon from your control panel and you are ready to upload, download or edit files on your server. As long as you know your password, you can upload files from any computer. However, if you decide to use an FTP program, you must install a program such as FileZilla or WS FTP to your computer. If you are on a public computer and cannot install software, you may not be able to use FTP. After installation, enter your server's FTP address, your username and password to connect. You will see all files that you have access to and can edit or add new ones.
Protocols
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Whenever you load a page in your browser, you are using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). In fact, the "http://" before a website address instructs the browser to do exactly this. This protocol is meant to transfer small hypertext documents across the Internet, rather than larger files that you may wish to upload to your server. On the other hand, FTP exists solely to transfer larger files. The difference you will notice is that FTP frequently requires less time to upload multiple or large files. Furthermore, if your host's server caps the amount of data that you can upload via HTTP (cPanel), you may have to use an FTP client.
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Multiple Files
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One of the benefits of using FTP over cPanel to upload files is the ease of uploading multiple files. With FTP, you can open the folder that contains the files on your computer, in addition to the FTP program itself. Select multiple files and drag them into the "Remote Server" pane to initiate uploading. When you upload multiple files with your browser, you may have to select the "Browse" button and manually locate each file. Alternatively, you can add all files to a zipped archive, upload that via cPanel's file manager and extract the files to upload multiple files. However, neither method is as efficient as using FTP.
Users
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If you wish to grant access to your server to users other than yourself, you can create new FTP users within cPanel. You can also specify areas of your site (such as a specific directory) that they can access. Thus, others can log in with their individual FTP usernames and upload and download files only to the allowed location. However, you cannot create separate users within your cPanel account for a similar purpose via browser.
Tips
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Although you can connect to your FTP server with a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, you cannot easily upload, edit or delete files to the server with this method. It is better for simply viewing files. Because FTP programs can save your log in information, you can simply enter it once and reconnect at a later date. However, if you use a shared computer, you may want to disallow saving of passwords to prevent others from accessing your files or uploading files that do not belong.
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