DreamHost Panel
Control Panel is the used to access and manage your hosting account. There are many control panels available in the market for hosting companies. CPanel and Plesk are well known control panels for hosting. Most of the hosting companies use these readymade control panel available. DreamHost is a different. These people like to stay unique and do unique. DreamHost has developed their control panel. DreamHost Control Panel is developed using perl. As DreamHost people say, "We speak perl".
Don't like to read....? View the DreamHost Panel Video.
Update :
At the time I wrote this article, there wasn't any demo available for the dreamhost panel. After that DreamHost introduced the control panel demo account. But then some thing went wrong and DreamHost has disabled the demo account. So no demo is available now. Anyway, I will put enough information for you to get proper idea of DreamHost panel.
What makes DreamHost Panel Different From CPanel?
How can you say that one control panel is better than other? Ease to use panel is better? Oh..right! So I will say that DreamHost Control Panel is very easy to use because I know how to use it and I have now become used to.
If you give me any CPanel account today, I will find it difficult to use at a moment. Same with the CPanel. If any person regularly using CPanel uses DreamHost panel, at the first time she might find it hard to use.
Overall both panels provide all the needed features which are required for managing hosting accounts. DreamHost panel don't include File Manager and Site Stats through panel which are included in CPanel. That doesn't mean DreamHost don't offer those features. DreamHost has webftp equivalent to File Manager of CPanel and /stats page for the statics of any web site. So that's why people find it difficult to switch from one panel to another panel.
DreamHost panel includes as many features as many really required. For example, Billing information.
You can't find billing info, invoices and your hosting plan details in CPanel. In DreamHost panel, you can find all your invoices. Even you can change the hosting plan through DreamHost Control Panel. You can't have to mail or call their support team to change the hosting plan. Another thing I like about DreamHost Panel is that their domain registration system is also integrated with panel.
So whenever you register a domain through DreamHost, you don't have to worry about DNS changes. They take care of all DNS entries. You get a full access of your domain through DreamHost panel. You can also change whois information or change DNS servers of your domain through panel. You don't have to mail every time you want to change whois information. Another benefit DreamHost control panel has is that they can implement customer requested feature. They have a separate section where customers can request a new feature in the control panel. In DreamHost panel, you can even create a new Web ID and assign limited privileges. Then you can give that Web ID to any person. She will be able to access only resources which are assigned to that Web ID. Now that is called a REAL CONTROL Panel.
CPanel is a widely acceptable control panel among hosting companies. So I can't say that CPanel is not good. But I am just saying that DreamHost Control Panel is also really cool! It has all features what are required.
What You Can Do With DreamHost Panel?
This is obvious that you can manage your hosting account using DreamHost Panel. I will include details of what are basic operations you can do with DreamHost Panel.
DreamHost panel has a nice interface. Navigation menu is divided in logically manageable sub sections. Let's check each one by one.
1) DreamHost
- Welcome - This page has all short cuts of mostly used buttons like View Invoices, Pay Bills, Register Domains, Manager Domains, Create User Accounts, Manage Email, Manage Databases, One-Click Installers & Contact Support.
- cPanel Importer - If you are moving from any of the cPanel web hoste then this feature will help you import all settings from cPanel to DreamHost Panel.
- Rewards - Manage DreamHost Reward program.
- Web Panel API - Use this feature to access the web panel API system.
- Backup Your Account - Use to take a backup of your full account including all domains, mysql database and mails.
- Site Of The Month - DreamHost Site Of The Month
- Green Hosting - Green Icon management. You can put this icon on your site and let the world see that your site is GREEN.
- The DreamHost Shop - You can buy DreamHost branded products from here.
- Suggestions - Make a suggestion.
- Donations - Get donations from your visitors.
- Partner Offers - Get offers from DreamHost partners.
- Give to Charity - Give donations to charity.
- Buy Gift Card - Buy gift certificate for someone special.
2) Domains 
- Manage Domains - Manage domains, DNS entries.
- Registrations - Register new domains.
- Reg. Transfer - Transfer your registered domain to new registrar.
- Secure Hosting - Set up secure web site (HTTPS) using secure certificate.
- Remap Sub-Dir - Change the mapping of directory.
- Anonymous FTP - Allow anonymous FTP access.
- Mongrel and Proxy - Setup Mongrel application server for Ruby web application.
3) Mail
- Manage Email - Create new email address, bulk edit email addresses, set quota for mails.
- Webmail - Manage webmail settings, logo selection, webmail selection ( Squirrelmail/RoundCube)
- Custom MX/Gmail - Change MX records.
- Announce Lists - Manage announce subscription lists.
- Anti-Spam - Enable or disable junk mail setting.
- Discussion Lists - Manage discussion subscription lists.
- Message Filters - Create different email filters
- Autoresponders - Setup an auto reply for your email addresses when you are on vacation.
4) Goodies
- Manage Databases - Manage MySQL databases.
- One-Click Installs - Install many open source softwares on single click.
- Subversion - Mange subversion projects.
- Cron Jobs - Setup regular cron jobs to automate the task.
- Amazon CloudFront - Use Amazon CloudFront content delivery network.
- Flash Media - Convert AVI, MOV, MPG & MPEG to FLV format.
- Media Streaming - Mange Quick Time streaming service.
- Jabber IM - Create Instant Messaging service on your domain.
- Htaccess/WebDAV - Mange Htaccess file and configure WebDAV directory
- Block Spiders - Mange robots.txt files for spiders.
- Google Adwords - Get your Google adwords coupon code of worth $75.
- Chartbeat Analytics - Setup Chartbeat analytics.
5) E-Commerce
- CafeCommerce - Setup Cafe Commerce in your web site.
6) Users 
- Manage Users - Create new user/ modify user accounts.
- Account Privileges - Give privileges to another user for some/all domains.
- Backups User - Manage 50 GB of your backup space using the backups user.
- Unix Groups - Create Unix groups for advance users only.
7) Status
- Site Statics - Edit website stats related settings.
- BandWidth Usage - Check your bandwidth usage for each of your site.
- Disk Usage - Check disk usage for domain, mails and database.
- MySQL Usage - Track MySQL disk and connections report.
8) VPS
- Manage Resources - Manage the cpu and memory of your VPS.
- Enable VPS Service - Activate CPU/memory isolation from your account.
- Configure Server - Configure your VPS server.
- Reboot Server - Reboot your VPS server.
- Manage Admin Users - Create admin users of your VPS.
- SSH Keys - Manage Public SSH Keys.
9) Dedicated Servers
- Dashboard - Manage your dedicated server.
- Admin Users - Create admin user for your dedicated server.
- SSH Keys - Manage public SSH keys.
10) Storage
- DreamObjects - Manage DreamHost's ceph based cloud storage.
11) Billing & Account
- Manage Account - You can manage your account on this page, change hosting plan and manage users, domains, emails.
- Make Payment - You can make due payment on this page.
- View Invoices - Check your old invoices.
- Account List - Manage your DreamHost accounts
- Security - Manage Web ID password
12) Support
- Contact Support - Open a support ticket.
- Support History - Check support mail archives.
Once you use DreamHost Panel, you will know how easy it is to use DreamHost Panel! This is just a brief overview of the panel. If you have any question about DreamHost Panel feature or usage, contact me.