Defined generally, a database is a collection of information designed to make later retrieval easier. If you have ever used Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, you are probably familiar with databases. If not, then your eyes are probably beginning to glaze over. Databases aren’t the most exciting tools you will use with your web hosting account, but they are arguably some of the most important.

cPanel supports two different types of databases at this time, MySQL and PostgreSQL. They both perform the same tasks, but they go about it in different ways. If your hosting plan comes with any databases, you will have access to MySQL. Whether or not you have access to both types of databases depends on your web host.

The reason that having access to at least one database is important is that many web applications (scripts) require the use of a database to store information. Unless...