Hey I hope this is in the right forum. It seemed the best place to put it. Anyway, do you need a control panel like cPanel etc? I sort of know my way round linux, and I could probably learn quickly all of the commands. I just wondering, since many of these plans offer plesk, cpanel for $5 or more a month, which, for the amount you may use it not worth it. As well as this are the free versions a good substitute? Like webmin and all of its various flavors. What do you guys think?
Not everyone uses cPanel among others, they are mainly for resellers who provide a GUI interface for their clients to manage their sites, email and DNS as well as others, if you don't plan on reselling or offering some type of panel for your clients then you don't need cPanel.
I run since nearly 2 years my dedicated server without cpanel or webmin or any other panel simply using Linux knowledge and SSH serverkey access to run your remote box works perfectly. advantage is if you have ( like me ) remote the exact same Linux dist as you have at home. in addition its cleaner, more efficient and definitely more secure to run a server directly without panel! I had webmin for a few hours - then never again. direct control is far more transparent and easier to fix in case of problems and easier to maintain for all kinds of backups and restore functionalities ( mysql, site, etc ). if you feel comfortable using your linux - then just go ahead and enjoy.
Thanks for your comments. It seems that ssh etc is a lot easier. There are hundreds of tutorials about to help you. Webmin and the other free ones just seem so complicated and not worth it for what they do. Any other comments.
SSH and FTP access is prefferable, but i can manage with a CP too. Some hosting companies doesn't offer ssh, but in general they suck on a lot of things, so i don't use them
I refer plesk as it is easier than other control panels but these control panels consume a lot of resources when they are running so it is better to manage your server on own but you need to know basics of Linux/Windows server you are using... Generally a newbie will always go for control panel but experienced guys prefer to go without any admin panel