We are very excited to announce the launch of the new HostGator Paper Lantern cPanel theme.
The goal of this redesigned cPanel theme is to provide a better user experience to our valued customers.
This new theme will be rolling out to our customers over the next few days. So if you don’t see it immediately, please know that it is coming soon.
Some of the key features that come with this release are:
Search Bar to Find What You Need Quickly
A full page window that allows you to type in any word and it will pull up the relevant cPanel sections or functions.
Search Support Articles Without Leaving cPanel
A window that allows you to type in a word or phrase and a list of matching articles in our support documentation will be listed for quick reference. Here’s an example:
Push Notifications So You Don’t Miss Anything Important
Get notified instantly of upcoming changes or exciting news or relevant information about your account.
Access Key Areas Through The Left Sidebar Navigation Menu
We’ve also introduced a navigation on the left side so that you can easily access key areas quickly, such as:
Website
This is the traditional cPanel Index page with 10 different sub-categories for faster access to the section you are looking for. Another great feature is that if you choose to move the sections up and down to better suit your needs, the left navigation bar updates right along with it. Just move them around to the order that you want, refresh the page, and the navigation bar will be in sync with their new order you have created.
Popular Links
This is a new section that we’ve added and we hope that customers find it as useful as we intended it to be. Popular Links is where we put our most popular links across both cPanel and the Marketplace for quick access. If for some reason, you decide that Popular Links section is in the way, you can easily get rid of it by clicking the X in the right hand corner.
Server Stats
Stats at your fingertips! The stats section allows customers and support agents alike to get a quick look at the status of their account, including when the latest backup was run or how much data you’re using on the server. We will continue to refine this page and add more information so please let us know what other data would be valuable in this section.
Domains
Currently this links to the HostGator Domains page. There aren’t any changes to this page with this release, but be on the lookout for some changes coming soon to improve the overall experience of registering new domain names.
MarketPlace
The MarketPlace is our new and improved QuickInstall page. It gives you easy access to things like the HostGator Website Builder, WordPress Themes, or one-click installs of many of the most popular applications. It also provides links to add-ons like CodeGuard and Sitelock that help you protect your website and its critical data.
Help
When you need help with an issue, the last thing you want to do is try to dig through pages to find it.
With the Help page, you have direct links to the support portal or one-click access to our chat system. There are links to many of HostGator’s custom self-help tools for troubleshooting performance or application problems.
We know that this is a completely different experience for many cPanel users. However, we believe that it is designed in a way that everyone will be able to use it easily and effectively.
If for some reason you don’t love the new theme and want to switch back to the X3 version, no worries – you can do that easily. In the upper right corner, simply select Change Style option under the user profile menu and select the X3 HG theme. This can also be found under the preferences section.
Fair warning for those that wish to switch back, though – cPanel is transitioning to this new theme style and the X3 theme will no longer be supported in the near future.
Ready to switch to Paper Lantern? Simply click on the Snappy icon in your preferences section and the new theme will be applied, or you can watch our Facebook Live video below where we walk you through the process. (After pressing play, it takes about 10 seconds or so for the video to start.)
Finally, I have wasted so much time trying to find the cpanel. Glad to see this improvement.
When will cloud hosting have this new theme?
Hi Shane,
We’re rolling it out gradually, so you should see it within the next week or two. Please feel free to follow up on this blog post or to contact our support team if you have more questions. Thank you!
I just signed up for an account with HostGator and was quite disappointed to see the old X3 interface for cPanel, to the point where I was about to cancel by 3yr initial subscription. Since I have 45 days until I need to make a decision on cancelling, I will stick around, but hopefully this interface upgrade happens sooner than later. Will check back in a week.
Hi Pierre,
We’re planning to have it all rolled out by the 17th. Stay tuned! Thank you.
YEAH!
Should resellers see this for their clients?
Yes, but it will look slightly different. The HostGator branding won’t be on reseller / VPS / Dedicated cpanels
That’s all well and good, but I see no sign of anything that has ANYTHING to do with my actual website. There’s a Files section, for instance — but they’re not the files of my website. Where would I find my WordPress site in all this?
Hi Bobby,
You can access your WordPress site by going to your domain name and appending /wp-admin to the end of the URL (for example, enter yourdomain.com/wp-admin in your browser). Hope this helps.
vefrry Good!!!
Has it been rolled out? I don’t see how to install it anywhere
Hi Philip,
Yes it is now available for all cloud/shared hosting. Please contact our support team for help finding it in your cPanel.
In the background, Hostgator design platform it is very robust and its operation is very stable. This new enhancement adds value and will help, Thanks Hostgator
Hi Amella,
Any update as to when will this theme be available?
Hi Fabian,
It should be available now. If you are having trouble finding it in your cPanel, please contact our support team.
Itchy finger. I can’t wait! Well done, Hostgator.
The C Panel was a nightmare for me in the past, glad to see this. Thank you !
I have four domain and two website with hostgator.
Now i am very happy with this new CPanel.. It helps me to manage and do my work fastly…
Hostgator this efforts appreciated .
Is there an option to keep the c-pannel?
The reason I left GoDaddy was just for this reason.
Not a fan.
Hi Corey,
Thank you for the feedback!
Yes, you can easily switch back to the X3 version. In the upper right corner, simply select Change Style option under the user profile menu and select the X3 HG theme. This can also be found under the preferences section.
Im really dissapointed in cpanel for forcing me to use this theme. It looks pretty good on a smaller monitor but the responiveness on a 24″ 1920×1200 monitor just hurts my eyes. The quick stats are gone. And overall its too bright. I stare at a computer screen all day and its hard to look at a screen that has everything washed out. Really wish I could have just kept my old theme.
Hi DVK,
Thanks for your feedback. If you’d like, you can easily switch back to the X3 version. In the upper right corner, simply select Change Style option under the user profile menu and select the X3 HG theme. This can also be found under the preferences section.
As a Hostgator customer for several years, I don’t want to switch to a new version of the control panel. I like the old cPanel just fine. And frankly, I don’t have the time to learn a new system. The Google Hangouts tutorial gave me the impression that the switch from the old cPanel to the new Paper Lantern is eventually mandatory. But in your comments, Amelia says that we can keep the X3 version (that’s the old cPanel, right?). Please clarify: will I be required to switch to Paper Lantern at some point in the future, or can I keep the traditional cPanel?
Hi DS,
Thank you for your feedback. Yes, for now you can keep the X3 version, but we are planning to move customers over to Paper Lantern by the end of this year.
Paper Lantern is a horrible theme. It takes the compact, well-organized layout of X3 and messes it up with huge colorful fonts, wasted empty space, and intrusive design. The result is hard to read.
Leave X3! It is clear, functional, straightforward, unintrusive, and fully capable.
Paper Lantern is NOT an improvement in the user experience. It feels like something made for children to use.
This “new” theme is a real pain. The video won’t play and if you put any more junk on the screen that can’t be “closed” there won’t be ANY room left. The bar on the left obscures the first word(s) of sentences. Makes them useless.
Hi Joan,
Thank you for reading and sharing your feedback. Please consider sharing your thoughts on cPanel with [email protected] – that email address is a direct line of communication to our management team.
Another long term HG user here who does not want to be forced into the Paper Lantern theme. It is severely reduced and limited in displayed information and accessible options. There is a lot of wasted space and unnecessarily hidden functionality requiring levels of clicking to access. Please retain the X3 theme long term if this is the kind of low/no information ‘cell phone’ style direction the interface is going to adopt.
Your PL interface also fails to display anything on the right 2/3 of the screen on IE11, so it’s also functionality limited by browser in addition to core UI functionality limitations/problems.
Hi Shawn,
Thank you for reading our blog and for sharing your feedback on Paper Lantern. You can reach our management team at [email protected].
As for me an old panel was quite good. I know from my experience that such changes are often announced as a great advantage for customers, everything very easy etc, but they really limit customer access to more advanced functions and make them more dependable, like kids that can’t do anything themselves and have to rely on Hostgator with everything.
Hi Iwona,
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Please email [email protected] to share your feedback directly with our management team. Thanks for visiting our blog!
Any way to change text color in Paper Lantern? The light blue text on white background is extremely hard to read. I’m having a very tough time reading Boxtrapper entries, for instance.
Hi Don,
Unfortunately, no, there is not a way to change text color in Paper Lantern. I have shared your feedback with our product team.
Thank you for reading our blog!
The new CPanel looks fine to me. Hope it works as well as it looks.
Hi John,
Happy to hear that! Please continue to let us know what you think via this blog or our support team.
Hello
It’s been around 4 days that i have problems with hostgator. Once problems with 505 error and now 500 internal problems, but i can’t fix out it because the panel is changed. In chat, there is nothing on the support for this1. Can someone help me?
Hi Fatjola,
Thanks for contacting us! I check with our support team and they said your ticket was resolved this morning via live chat. If you need further assistance, please contact our support team anytime.
Hi,
This is a terrible idea to restrict x3.
Best Regards
Hi there,
Thank you for your feedback, although I’m sorry to hear that! For a direct line to our management team, you can email [email protected] with your concerns about x3.
Are there any plans to upgrade IonCube to the latest version for PHP7?
I was told that by HostGator support that latest ioncube loaders were not compatible with the current cpanel.
I’d really like to be able to use the latest version of the IonCube loaders as it’s a part of the web app I am using.
Hi Travis!
Thanks for reading. We don’t have plans to upgrade right now, but you can email [email protected] to share your concerns and provide more feedback for our management team to consider.
Hello,
I think the theme is nice.
I have had some loading problems with paper lantern not loading when login into cpanel. I order for me to get it to load I need to either reload the page or click on one of the links on the leftside for it to work. It doesn’t happen all the times but it does happen.
Hi Julio!
Thanks for your feedback. We’ve reported this to our developers and will be watching for any additional reports of this trouble. In the meantime, can you try using a different browser?
Will the new cpanel paper lantern theme format change the look and feel of my hosted website?
Hi Tom,
Thanks for reading! Good news – the Paper Lantern theme will only affect the look of your cPanel, not your website. I upgraded my cPanel theme a few weeks ago, and it has had absolutely no effect on my personal blog.
Am I delusional or is this already on line? I have been using something that looks exactly like this for some time now.
Hi there,
No, you’re not delusional! We started pushing this out a few weeks ago so your cPanel was likely one of the early ones that got upgraded :)
Understand that your development team is still working towards issues regarding Basekit Site Builder. Until a resolution is found, update to the Paper Lantern theme should not be mandatory for those who utilize the Basekit Site Builder.
Hi April,
Thank you for your comment. We are currently working to restore access to BaseKit through the Paper Lantern theme. In the meantime, you can access BaseKit by switching back to an older theme following the instructions here. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact our support team.
I have a stable web site where I now just add new blog entries from time to time, and might tweak text elsewhere. I do not (knowingly!) need new facilities or to get a fancier interface. But I do realise that things eventually move on.
What I would like is a YouTube video, or article, that just outlines what I need to understand, and to do, to continue maintaining my existing web site as it is.
In the absence of this I would look around, as if I struggle to understand how paper lantern affects me and/or how to use it, I would see if alternative holsters have a real easy web builder.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comment! I understand your concerns, but I have good news – the new cPanel theme will not affect your website, so you don’t have to do anything outside of your normal routine to keep your site working as it is. My cPanel was upgraded a few weeks ago, and my website has continued working just fine.
If you are looking for a website builder to help you build out additional pages on your site, HostGator includes a free website builder with all hosting plans. You can learn more about that here. Let me know if you have any other questions or you can always reach our support team 24/7.
Will Basekit still be available for building our website or will we have to rebuild from scratch?
Hi Judi,
Thanks for reading! We are currently working to restore access to BaseKit through the Paper Lantern theme. In the meantime, BaseKit can be accessed by switching back to an older theme: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/cpanel/style-change-in-cpanel
If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact our support team – they’re available 24/7.
Is this a free or chargeable upgrade?
Hi Harshal,
Thanks for reading! The Paper Lantern upgrade is free.
i love your service still not make a success but your service is great…
and these is a great move to change the look of our Cpanel…
Now i guess we can Experience a high new level of tech… :)
“When you help with an issue….” Huh? You should have proofread your intro to the New cPanel Theme. But from what I see on Social Media, and even on the News Media websites in the last few years, proofreading is dead!
Good catch, ChaCha! We have updated the post accordingly. Thank you!
Your orange top of screen x3 to Paper Lantern banner gives Error 404 !!!
Hi Selwyn,
Thanks for contacting us. We’re sorry to hear you’ve had trouble with the new theme and will be reaching out to you via e-mail for more information.
Hi Dr. Bill, Thank you for reading our blog and sharing your feedback on the new cPanel theme. To reach our management team directly, please email [email protected].
How to install wordpress on baby cloud hosting?
Hi Amara,
Congratulations on setting up your new site! You can access WordPress one-click install through your cPanel by following the instructions here.
I saw the bar at the top of cPanel that said X3 was going away and click to use this new thing, latern… Well, I did that, but was never able to get to my email. Should my email be transferred over to this new thing, or will I have to go tell latern that I have email addresses and then hopefully it will retrieve all of my current email. I only use cpanel for email access when I’m not at home. And I don’t do any web browsing with a mobile device/cell phone. It is all via computers and laptops.
Hi Bennie,
When you’re logged in to cPanel Paper Lantern theme, do you see Email Accounts? It’s in the top section titled Popular Links. You can also search for Email Accounts in the search bar at the top. Let us know if you have more questions – you can contact our support team anytime, 24/7/365.
I posted yesterday but it has disappeared. I am the volunteer admin for monadnockareaartists .org and see that the current cPanel will be gone and that I need to click to replace it with Paper Lantern. I really just work with WordPress and Zenphoto on our site and hope that making this change won’t change anything on our site. Please let me know.
Hi Gill,
Thanks for commenting! The Paper Lantern theme will only affect the look of your cPanel, not your website or WordPress backend.
Hi there,
Reseller account account question:
On X3 there were some video tutorials that assisted new users.
Will this be available/revamped for Paper Lantern?
Thank you
Hi Quinn,
Yes, you can still find video tutorials through cPanel. Click on the Help section to access our Support Portal and view our video library. We also have many of the same videos on our HostGator YouTube channel. Thank you!
I have a site hosted on paper lantern cpanel. is wordpress based, and am trying to edit the site. how do i go about it? please help
Hi Endee,
I forwarded your note on to our support team. They should be reaching out shortly to help you with editing your WordPress website. Thank you!
Will Weebly still be supported?
Hi Bob,
The HostGator website builder is now included for free with all hosting plans, but you can find Weebly support documentation here. If you have any questions, feel free to contact [email protected]. Thank you!
Best,
Amelia