// Knowledge base
What SmashPanel is
Who the panel is for, and the three areas you sign in to.
SmashPanel is a control panel for people who host websites. It has three areas on the same hostname:
- Admin, for the operator of the server
- Reseller, for a partner who sells hosting inside an allowance
- Client, for the owner of a hosting account
Each hosting account runs in its own set of containers: a web server with PHP, MariaDB, SFTP, a web file manager, Adminer and a cron runner. That set has its own network, and each container has CPU and memory limits. DNS is built in. Mail is an optional Mailcow stack. Certificates are issued and renewed automatically.
It is aimed at small hosting companies, resellers, agencies and developers. Smash Hit Hosting runs SmashPanel on its own servers. This website, smashpanel.com, does not host the panel login. You open the panel on your own server, for example at https://panel.example.com/admin.
SmashPanel is not a drop-in copy of another panel. A move from cPanel uses the import tools, and some things (mail, cron, passwords, the old certificate) are done again afterwards. See Migrate from cPanel.