… starting from the point where the story stopped.
Site Tools’ left column acts as a navigation bar which holds all tools, grouped by themes
. There were 12 topic-specific sections in cPanel . . . There are now only nine themes in Site Tools: Dashboard, Site, Security, Speed, WordPress, Domain, Email, Statistics, and Devs.
Devs
Believe it or not, SiteGround has a dedicated page for WordPress developers in which they highlight their powerful toolkit
:
Hosting For WordPress Developers
SOLUTIONS FOR AN EFFICIENT AND FLEXIBLE WORKFLOW
I was just looking for a tutorial about the Devs theme, but all I could find was the Advanced Site Tools Knowledge Base and the aforementioned page. My point is that I am not a developer, far from it, and I want to stress that this theme is out of my league.
Git
Create a Git repository of your application, which you can later access, download and edit on multiple local branches. You will be able to easily deploy updates, as well as compare differences between your local source code and your production or staging copies.
Although Git is a free and open source
, SiteGround Git tool is only available if you have a GoGeek plan; I don’t. Still, if you are curious about this software, you can check their website.
Cron Jobs
With the Cron Jobs tool you to automate commands or scripts on your site. You can set up scheduled tasks to run at a specific time or time interval. You need to be comfortable using and understanding Linux commands in order to create and run cron jobs seamlessly.
While Cron jobs1 can be very useful to automate repetitive tasks, I have not experimented with this advanced feature yet. Besides, my knowledge of Linux commands is still rudimentary. Accordingly, I cannot and will not comment on this tool.
PHP Manager
Having a current and stable PHP version is crucial for the security and loading speed of your website. In this tool you can check the PHP version each of your applications is using and easily change it to the latest vastly adopted one (marked as Recommended). Additionally, you can configure PHP variables like execution times, error reporting and more.
Another tool, I will not mess with because I am using SiteGround Managed PHP service (enabled by default). Clearly, I do not see why I would want to switch it OFF or to change my PHP version; my project does not require it.
YOUR PHP VERSION IS UPDATED AUTOMATICALLY
Managed PHP means that SiteGround will automatically update your PHP once we are sure there is a newer stable and safe version, which will give you the latest security and performance enhancements.SiteGround
SSH Keys Manager
SSH provides secure access over an encrypted connection to your site. Through SSH connection, you can easily manage your files and folders, modify their permissions, change files directly on the server and more. To do that, you need SSH keys. Here you can manage your existing SSH keys and generate or import new ones.
Another advanced feature that I have not used yet! For that reason, let me skip this tool too.
App installer
Easily start your site by installing one of the most popular web applications. Choose the app you wish to install, fill out your details, click install and your application will be available in a few moments.
In the Install New Application section, you can choose the application from a drop-down menu. There are many applications grouped under the following categories: CMS, Shopping Carts, Forums, Wiki & Education, Help Desk, CRM and Other. I did not install WordPress with Softaculous, so I cannot really judge how this tool compares with its cPanel counterpart. However, as it is powered by Softaculous Remote
anyway, I don’t expect much difference.
The elephant in the room!
The big difference, though, is that Softaculous was more than just an auto-installer; you could use it to create a full backup of your website (see Backup, Backup, Backup!). This is actually the topic of the previous mini-series: the suppression of my go-to, and what is more, free backup solution (see SiteGround New Client Area and Site Tools – part 1, part 3 and part 9). Ironically, I discovered this functionality in a SiteGround tutorial2.
The Softaculous auto installer provides you with another great feature – the ability to backup and restore your sites with just a few clicks.SiteGround
In the Manage Installations section below, you should see a list of the applications you have installed. As for the Actions, at least for WordPress, you can either Log in to Admin Panel or Delete Application. That’s it.
After you install an app on your account, you can log in it from the link in the Manage application section below. You can also easily delete it from there.SiteGround
Intermediate verdict
I cannot compare any of the tools from this theme with their cPanel counterparts because I didn’t use any (before). As I said, I may not even use them in the future because they are a little too advanced for my basic needs. Actually, if it were not for the App Installer, which now replaces Softaculous, I would have nothing to say about this them.
I like…
I don’t like… that by suppressing Softaculous, SiteGround deprived me of my go-to backup solution (see SiteGround New Client Area and Site Tools – part 13 for a summary).
To be concluded…
1 Cron is a Unix/Linux utility that schedules a command or script on your server to run automatically at a specified time and date. A cron job is the scheduled task itself. ^
2 Sorry for not providing you with a link, but the page is not existing anymore and you will end up on a 404 error page. If you don’t believe me (or if you want to check it using the Wayback Machine), you can try this URL: /tutorials/cpanel/cpanel/softaculous-backuprestore/ (starting with https://www.siteground.com obviously). ^