StackCP

Account Summary

The right-hand sidebar in StackCP displays a summary of your hosting account at a glance:

• Primary Domain — the main domain associated with this hosting package
• Package Type — your plan name (e.g. Green Ultra, Blue Ultra)
• Platform — the server environment (e.g. Autoscaling Linux, Autoscaling WordPress)
• Location — your server's data centre location (London, UK)
• Temp Address — a temporary URL you can use to preview your site before pointing your domain's DNS
• Home Path — the absolute server path to your hosting account's root directory
• IP Address / IPv6 Address — your server's IP addresses, useful for DNS configuration
• Incoming / Outgoing Mail Server — the mail server addresses for configuring email clients

Usage Information

Scroll down the sidebar to view real-time usage stats for your account:

• Web Space — disk storage used vs your plan allowance
• Bandwidth — data transfer used this billing period
• MySQL Databases — number of databases created
• Email Accounts — number of email addresses in use
• Subdomains — number of subdomains configured
• FTP Accounts — number of FTP users on your account

FTP Details

Your FTP credentials are displayed in the sidebar. You can use these to connect to your hosting account via any FTP client such as FileZilla. Click the eye icon to reveal your FTP password, or the pencil icon to change it.

WordPress Tools (WordPress Hosting only)

If you're on a WordPress Hosting plan, StackCP displays a dedicated WordPress Tools section at the very top of the panel. This section provides quick access to everything WordPress-specific, separate from the general hosting tools.

WordPress Admin

Opens your WordPress dashboard directly. No login required — StackCP authenticates you automatically into the WordPress admin area of your site.

Reinstall WordPress

Performs a clean reinstallation of WordPress on your account. Use this if your WordPress installation has become corrupted or compromised. This will overwrite your WordPress core files — your database and uploads are preserved, but always take a backup first.

Plugins

View, activate, deactivate, and delete plugins installed on your WordPress site, directly from StackCP without needing to log into the WordPress dashboard.

Themes

Manage installed themes — view active and available themes, and switch between them directly from the control panel.

Users

View and manage WordPress user accounts registered on your site, including administrators, editors, and subscribers.

Settings

Access key WordPress configuration settings such as site URL, admin email, and search engine visibility.

Staging

Create a staging copy of your live WordPress site for testing changes, plugin updates, or theme customisations before applying them to production. Staging environments run on a separate subdomain and do not affect your live site.

Checksum Report

Runs an integrity check against your WordPress core files and compares them to the official WordPress release. Any modified or missing files are flagged, helping you identify potential security compromises or corruption.

CDN

The CDN section provides tools for optimising the speed and security of your website through HostGrower's integrated content delivery network.

Edge Caching

Enables caching of your website's static assets (images, CSS, JavaScript) at edge servers closer to your visitors. This significantly reduces page load times for users across different geographic locations.

Web Optimisation

Provides automatic optimisations such as minification of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, as well as image compression. Enabling these can improve your website's performance scores without any changes to your code.

Block Visitors

Allows you to block traffic from specific IP addresses, IP ranges, or countries. Useful for stopping malicious bots, spam form submissions, or unwanted traffic sources.

Statistics

Displays CDN usage statistics including the number of requests served from cache, bandwidth saved, and cache hit rate — giving you visibility into how effectively the CDN is serving your visitors.

Traffic Distribution

Shows a breakdown of your incoming traffic by geographic region, helping you understand where your visitors are coming from and how the CDN is distributing requests.

Security Headers

Configure HTTP security headers for your website, including Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and more. Properly configured security headers protect your visitors from common web vulnerabilities.

Web Files

The Web Files section contains all the tools you need to manage the files and code that make up your website.

File Manager

A browser-based file manager that lets you browse, upload, download, edit, rename, move, copy, and delete files on your hosting account — all without needing an FTP client. You can edit files directly in the browser, upload entire folders, and set file permissions (chmod).

FTP Accounts

Create and manage FTP user accounts for your hosting. You can create separate FTP accounts with restricted access to specific directories — useful for giving a developer access to one area of your site without exposing the full account.

Backup / Restore

Access HostGrower's built-in backup system. You can download a full backup of your hosting account (files + databases), restore from a previous backup point, or restore individual files. Backups are retained for a rolling period depending on your plan.

Timeline Backups (Web Hosting only)

Timeline Backups is an enhanced backup add-on available on Web Hosting plans. Unlike standard backups, it creates multiple restore points throughout the day, allowing you to roll back to a specific moment in time. This is available as an add-on and can be ordered from the Client Area.

Website Builder (Web Hosting only)

A drag-and-drop website builder included with Web Hosting plans. Suitable for creating simple websites without any coding knowledge. Not available on WordPress Hosting plans, where WordPress itself serves as the site-building platform.

File Permissions Checker

Scans your hosting account for files and directories with insecure permissions and allows you to correct them in bulk. Incorrect file permissions are a common security vulnerability — this tool makes it straightforward to ensure everything is set correctly.

Git™ Version Control

Provides Git repository management directly within StackCP. You can initialise repositories, manage branches, pull from remote repositories, and deploy code updates — useful for developers managing website code through version control.

Email

HostGrower hosting accounts include full email hosting with your domain. The Email section in StackCP gives you complete control over your mailboxes and email routing.

Email Accounts

Create and manage email addresses on your domain (e.g. hello@yourdomain.co.uk). For each mailbox you can set a password, configure a storage quota, and view current usage.

Email Forwarders

Set up forwarding rules to automatically redirect incoming emails from one address to another — for example, forwarding info@yourdomain.co.uk to a Gmail account.

Catch-All Forwarders

A catch-all address receives any email sent to your domain that doesn't match an existing mailbox. For example, if someone emails typo@yourdomain.co.uk and that address doesn't exist, the catch-all will receive it instead of bouncing it.

Autoresponders

Configure automatic reply messages for specific email addresses. Useful for out-of-office notices, acknowledgement emails, or notifying senders that a mailbox is no longer monitored.

Send-only Addresses

Create email addresses that can send mail but do not have an associated inbox. Commonly used for transactional emails sent by web applications (e.g. noreply@yourdomain.co.uk).

Receive-only Addresses

Create email addresses that can receive mail but cannot send. Useful for dedicated inboxes such as submissions@yourdomain.co.uk that you monitor but never reply from directly.

Junk Mail Filters

Configure spam filtering rules for your email accounts. You can set the sensitivity level, create whitelists and blacklists, and choose what happens to messages identified as spam (delete, quarantine, or tag).

Webmail

Access your emails directly in a browser without needing an email client. HostGrower's webmail interface can be accessed at mail.yourdomain.co.uk or directly through this link in StackCP.

Email Summary

Displays a summary of all email activity on your account, including a list of all configured mailboxes, forwarders, and their current storage usage.

Email Migration

A tool to assist with migrating emails from an external mail provider to your HostGrower mailboxes. Enter the details of your old mail server and the tool will import your existing emails, keeping your history intact.

Domainkeys (DKIM)

Configure DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signing for your outgoing emails. DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your emails, helping receiving mail servers verify that messages genuinely came from your domain and haven't been tampered with. Enabling DKIM significantly improves email deliverability.

DMARC Wizard

A guided wizard for setting up a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) policy for your domain. DMARC works alongside SPF and DKIM to protect your domain from being used in phishing and email spoofing attacks.

Web Tools

The Web Tools section provides the technical backend tools for managing databases, PHP configuration, and your server environment.

phpMyAdmin

A browser-based interface for managing your MySQL databases. You can browse tables, run SQL queries, import and export data, create and drop databases, and manage database users — all without needing a database client.

MySQL Databases

Create and manage MySQL databases and database users for your hosting account. Each database can have multiple users with different permission levels. Most web applications (including WordPress) require a MySQL database during installation.

Remote MySQL Access

Allows external connections to your MySQL databases from specific IP addresses. Useful if you're connecting to your database from a local development machine or an external application. By default, remote access is disabled for security.

Change PHP Version

Switch between available PHP versions for your hosting account. HostGrower supports multiple PHP versions — if a specific application requires a particular version, you can switch here without any downtime.

PHP Configuration

Customise PHP settings for your account, such as max_execution_time, upload_max_filesize, memory_limit, and post_max_size. Changes apply to all scripts running on your account.

Scheduled Tasks (Cron Jobs)

Set up cron jobs to run scripts or commands automatically at defined intervals. Common uses include sending scheduled emails, clearing caches, generating sitemaps, or running maintenance scripts. You can specify custom schedules using standard cron syntax.

Redirects

Create URL redirects for your domain — both 301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary) redirects. Useful for redirecting old URLs after a site restructure, forcing www to non-www (or vice versa), or redirecting HTTP to HTTPS.

Sitemap Generator

Automatically generates an XML sitemap of your website. This can then be submitted to search engines like Google and Bing to help them discover and index your pages more efficiently.

Custom Errors

Customise the error pages shown to visitors when they encounter a 404 (page not found), 500 (server error), or other HTTP error. A branded error page provides a better experience than the default server error message.

Auto Diagnostics

Runs an automated health check on your hosting account, scanning for common issues such as incorrect file permissions, missing configuration files, or PHP errors. The results provide a quick overview of your account's health.

Maintenance Mode

Enable a maintenance page for your website while you carry out updates or changes. Visitors will see a "down for maintenance" message, and you can continue working on the site in the background. Disable it when you're ready to go live again.

Domain Names

The Domain Names section in StackCP manages the domain configuration for the hosting account specifically — including DNS, subdomains, and WHOIS details. Note that domain registration and renewal are handled in the My HostGrower Client Area, not in StackCP.

Domains

View and manage the addon domains attached to this hosting account. An addon domain points an additional domain name to a folder within your hosting, allowing you to host multiple websites on a single account.

Subdomains (Web Hosting only)

Create and manage subdomains (e.g. blog.yourdomain.co.uk, shop.yourdomain.co.uk). Each subdomain can point to a specific folder on your hosting account and can run as a separate website.

Manage DNS

Edit your domain's DNS records directly from StackCP. Supported record types include A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, and SRV. This is where you would configure records for third-party services such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or external mail providers.

Domain Contacts (Web Hosting only)

View and update the WHOIS contact information associated with your domain — registrant, administrative, and technical contact details.

WHOIS (Web Hosting only)

Perform a live WHOIS lookup for any domain to check registration details, nameserver configuration, and expiry dates.

Nameservers (Web Hosting only)

View the nameservers your domain should be pointed to. HostGrower's nameservers are ns1.stackdns.com, ns2.stackdns.com, ns3.stackdns.com, and ns4.stackdns.com. These need to be set at your domain registrar for DNS management in StackCP to take effect.

Domain Privacy (Web Hosting only)

Enable WHOIS privacy protection for your domain. When active, your personal contact details are replaced with a privacy proxy in the public WHOIS record, helping to reduce spam and protect your personal information.

DNSSEC Protection (Web Hosting only)

DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) adds a layer of cryptographic verification to DNS lookups, protecting your visitors from DNS spoofing and cache poisoning attacks. Enable this if your domain registrar supports DNSSEC signing.

Transfer Away (Web Hosting only)

Initiates the process to transfer your domain to another registrar. This will generate an EPP/Auth code which you'll need to provide to your new registrar. Ensure your domain is unlocked before initiating a transfer.

Security

The Security section provides tools for hardening your hosting account and protecting your website from common threats.

SSH Access

Enable and manage SSH (Secure Shell) access to your hosting account for command-line operations. SSH is available on plans that support it. You can generate and manage SSH keys here for secure, passwordless authentication.

Hotlink Protection

Prevents other websites from directly linking to your images, videos, or files and consuming your bandwidth. When enabled, only requests from your own domain (and domains you whitelist) will be served these files.

SSL/TLS

Manage SSL certificates for your domains. You can install a free Let's Encrypt certificate, upload a custom certificate, force HTTPS redirects, and view certificate expiry dates. All HostGrower accounts include free SSL — there is no additional charge for enabling it.

Password Protection

Add HTTP authentication to specific directories on your hosting account, requiring a username and password before the directory contents can be accessed. Useful for protecting staging sites, admin areas, or development builds from public access.

Directory Indexing

Control whether visitors can browse the contents of directories that don't have an index file. It is strongly recommended to keep directory indexing disabled to prevent exposing your file structure to the public.

Malware Scan

Run an automated scan of your hosting account to detect malicious files, injected code, or known malware signatures. If anything is found, the results will list the affected files so you can review and remove them.

Logs & Stats

The Logs & Stats section provides detailed reporting on your website's traffic, performance, and server activity.

AWStats

A comprehensive web traffic analytics tool that shows visitor counts, page views, unique visitors, referrers, search keywords, and much more — all based on your actual server access logs. No JavaScript tracking required.

Webalizer

An alternative traffic analyser that processes your server logs and generates monthly usage reports in graphical format, showing hits, files served, pages viewed, and bandwidth consumed.

Access/Error Logs

View your server's raw access logs (every request made to your site) and error logs (PHP errors, 404s, server errors). These are invaluable for debugging issues, tracking down errors, or investigating suspicious activity.

Bandwidth Usage

Displays a breakdown of bandwidth consumed by your account, split by month and by individual domain. Useful for tracking usage trends and identifying any unusually high traffic events.

Mail Logs

Review logs of all email sent and received through your hosting account. Useful for troubleshooting email delivery issues — you can check whether a specific email was delivered, bounced, or deferred.

One-Click Installs (Web Hosting only)

Web Hosting plans include a library of over 70 popular web applications that can be installed on your hosting with a single click — no manual setup or database configuration required. WordPress Hosting plans do not include this section, as WordPress comes pre-installed.

Available one-click installs include, but are not limited to:

• CMS platforms: WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, TYPO3, WinterCMS, SilverStripe
• E-commerce: WooCommerce (via WordPress), PrestaShop, OpenCart, osCommerce, AgoraCart, CubeCart, Zen Cart
• Forums & communities: phpBB, MyBB, GNU social, UNA, BuddyPress
• CRM & business tools: SuiteCRM, vTiger, Invoice Ninja, InvoicePlane
• Learning management: Moodle, LimeSurvey, FormLMS
• Analytics & SEO: Matomo, Open Web Analytics, Revive Adserver
• Developer tools: Laravel, phpMyFAQ, Textpattern, ProcessWire, Serendipity
• Support & helpdesk: osTicket, Trouble Ticket Express
• Photo & media: Piwigo, Coppermine, ZenphotoCMS

To install an application, select it from the list, choose the domain and directory, set your admin credentials, and click install. The application will be ready within seconds.