Fantastico is an automated installer for web based scripts. It works inside of cPanel, and can be found by scrolling down to the Software / Services box.

What Fantastico does, is make it easier for webmasters to install web based scripts. It usually installs scripts in a few clicks. All you have to do is enter in your database name you want to install it on, which it creates for you, and then you go on to enter in any details the script needs.

This is super useful if you create a lot of blogs. There are usually 2-3 blog scripts pre-installed in Fantastico. All you do is enter in your blog name, description, admin details, and you’re set. It also keeps track of the versions of each blog so if you ever need to update, Fantastico will tell you which blog needs to be updated and will update them in a few clicks. This would usually take close to an hour if you are inexperienced and can cause quite the headache if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Fantastico also comes in handy if you want to start a couple forums. Forum scripts sometimes come with an installer, but Fantastico makes it even easier. Since Fantastico is connected to cPanel, it creates the MySQL users automatically with the forum, and puts all the required SQL information in that user. Then you just enter in the forum title, description, and login details. It’s really quite simple.

Fantastico also offers quick installation of most Content Management Systems. Popular ones include: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, PHP-Nuke, and Xoops. These again are installed in a few simple steps that ask you to enter in simple details.

Here is a list of the different categories you can install scripts from: Blogs, Classifieds, Content Management, Customer Relationship, Discussion Boards, E-Commerce, F.A.Q., Hosting Billing, Image Galleries, Mailing Lists, Polls and Surveys, Project Management, Site Builders, Wiki, and other scripts. Obviously some hosting companies will offer more scripts that other ones. This is to give them an advantage over other hosts. Remember to use this to your advantage when looking for your next host.