Getting files onto your hosting account — a new image, a document, a code update — can be done a few different ways depending on how comfortable you are with the tools involved and how large the files are.
Option 1: Through your CMS (most clients)
If your site runs on WordPress or a similar content management system, most day-to-day content — images, PDFs, documents linked from a page — is uploaded directly through the CMS's own media library, not through the hosting file system at all. This is the right approach for anything content-related.
Option 2: cPanel File Manager
For smaller technical changes — a single file, a small batch of images, editing a configuration file directly — cPanel's File Manager lets you upload, edit, and organise files through your browser. This works well for occasional changes but isn't well suited to uploading large numbers of files or very large files, since browser-based uploads can time out.
Option 3: FTP/SFTP
For larger uploads, ongoing development work, or syncing an entire site's files at once, an FTP client (FileZilla is a widely used open-source option) connected via SFTP is the standard approach. This requires an FTP account with credentials, which can be created in cPanel or requested via a support ticket. SFTP (not plain FTP) is strongly recommended — it encrypts the connection, whereas plain FTP transmits your login details in plain text.
Which one should you use?
If you're unsure, start with your CMS's media library for anything content-related — it's the simplest option and requires no extra setup. If you're a developer working on the site's code directly, SFTP is the better long-term tool. cPanel's File Manager is the middle ground for occasional one-off changes.
File size and storage limits
Upload limits depend on your hosting plan's storage allocation and, for browser-based uploads specifically, on server-side upload size limits (often lower than your total storage). If you're consistently hitting an upload limit, that's worth flagging via a support ticket — either the limit can be adjusted, or it may be a sign your plan's storage allocation needs a look.