Best 3 Hosting Control Panels
Since it does feel like that “best of the best” time with the Web Hosting Show’s two year birthday coming soon - I figured this might be a good time to look at what is out there with the control panels we all use on a daily basis in the Web hosting world.
Which are the best of the best? Well it took me a while, but I think I have narrowed down the list to three. The top three control panels in all of the Web hosting world.
The folks at the cPanel Web site say, “cPanel is designed for the end users of your system and allows them to control everything from adding an removing E-mail accounts to administering MySQL databases.” The fact of the matter is though that they do that and so much more. Most often used on Redhat Linux based systems, cPanel provides support for over ten different flavors of Linux. There is no Windows or OSX versions yet however.
The interface is clean, with more options and features than you could shake a stick at. It is easy to see why they are the number one control panel used today. They do have several competitors though, chomping at the bit to take their space on the top of the mountain.
Plesk is available for both Linux and Windows Web hosting servers. This alone gives them a little advantage over cPanel. Their interface looks much like Windows XP. You have all the soft colors and big icons that you would ever need. I have to give them credit though, because it does look great.
They have all the basic features that cPanel has as well. Good stuff indeed.
Now we have seen a lot of different Linux only control panels, but what about a Windows only one? That is one thing that Helm provides to the end consumer. There are many customer features to go on and on about, but how does it feel once you get on the inside?
It has the standard pretty interface, nothing new there. These control panels are built to be used over and over, so they have to be easy on the eyes. One thing that did get my attention is the ability to see your billing information inside the control panel. That is very nice indeed.
Agree? Disagree? Give me your thoughts - leave a comment and let me know your opinions and other choices for your own dream team of Web hosting control panels.
+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 96!
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Just so you know, we are currently working on a version of cPanel and WHM for Windows Server 2003. It’s being built from the ground up on Microsoft Technologies but will look identical to the end-user as cPanel and WHM in the Linux and FreeBSD environments. There’s currently no ETA on when we will be releasing it nor an ETA on if/when testing will be opened to the public. However, when this information is available it will be posted to our website: http://www.cPanel.net.
Thanks for the heads up David, nice to see that it is in production! Can’t wait to see what the final version looks and feels like. Pretty much “learned the ropes” on cPanel so you guys have a special spot with me.