If your cPanel shows a sidebar with Dashboard, Websites & Apps, and a floating "Ask AI" button, you're on the Meridian theme. Everything for one specific website lives under Websites & Apps, organized into per-site tabs: Overview, SSL, Email, DNS, Files, Backups, Alias, and Settings. Instead of hunting through a long icon grid like classic cPanel, you pick your site once and everything about it is one click away.
Meridian is opt-in. If you're still on the classic Jupiter theme, look for a "Try the new Meridian theme" button. Once you're in Meridian, a "Classic cPanel Theme" button switches you back at any time.
Finding your site's tabs
Click Websites & Apps in the sidebar, then select the domain you want to manage. That opens the per-site view with the tab row across the top:
- Overview: Website Folder, PHP Version, SSL certificate and expiry, IP address, and Domain type for that site.
- SSL: certificate status for the domain. SSL is auto-issued and auto-renewed on our servers, so this tab is mostly for confirming it's active rather than requesting anything manually.
- Email: manage email accounts for that domain.
- DNS: the zone editor for the domain, with Add Record and edit controls per row.
- Files: manage files for that domain.
- Backups: manage backups for that domain.
- Alias: covers this site's alias domains. See addon domains, aliases, and subdomains for how aliases differ from addon domains and subdomains, since all three show up in different places in cPanel.
- Settings: the catch-all tab, covered below.
What's in the Settings tab
Settings groups the controls you'd reach for once you've already got a site running:
- PHP Version: switch this domain's PHP version. This only changes the version number itself, 7.4 through 8.3. If you need to change a PHP limit like
upload_max_filesizeormemory_limit, that's a separate tool, MultiPHP INI Editor, reachable through search since it's classic-only. - Force HTTPS: redirect all HTTP traffic on this domain to HTTPS.
- Redirects: set up URL redirects for the domain.
- FTP accounts: manage FTP logins scoped to this site.
- WordPress admin account: WordPress admin account access for this site, if the domain runs WordPress.
- Directory Privacy: password-protect a specific folder. See password-protecting a directory for the full walkthrough, since the underlying tool works the same in both themes.
- Website Folder: sits in a "Danger zone" section at the bottom, since changing a site's document root affects where everything on the domain is served from.
Tools that stay in classic cPanel
Meridian is a curated view, not a full replacement. Cron Jobs, the full Zone Editor beyond per-site DNS, MultiPHP INI Editor, Softaculous, the complete JetBackup interface, Git Version Control, and Awstats don't have Meridian tabs. Use the top search (cmd+K) to jump straight to any of them, or click "Classic cPanel Theme" if you'd rather work from the familiar icon grid for a session.
If you're troubleshooting disk space while you're in here, the Disk Usage tab under Files is the fastest way to see what's actually taking up room. See finding what's eating your disk space and inodes for how to read it.
When to open a ticket
Domain-level settings, like adding new addon domains or subdomains, changing document roots for existing domains, and anything under Directory Privacy, are safe to change yourself in either theme. If a Force HTTPS or redirect change causes a loop or takes your site down and undoing it in Settings doesn't fix it, open a ticket from the portal (Support). A real person will look at the actual redirect rules and server config rather than guessing from the UI.