Hello everyone, First of all I'm not very familiar with servers, hostings etc. My Opencart based page is running on shared hosting now. I would like to try DigitalOcean, the prices is very promising. But i never set up a VPS and never managed a server before. I've read many documents, watched set up video and setting up VPS (on DigitalOcean) and installing panel seems easy to me. But i would like to find out which panel would be best for me? Willing to use CentOS 6.5 x64 (I don't know why, most people advice CentOS) I won't resell hosting, I won't use the host for more than one site. I just want to add SSL, reach basic stuff like mails, phpmyadmin etc. Most people say: Webmin Virtualmin VestaCP ISPConfig Webuzo Zpanel (It seems easy to use but people say it has many security issues) Kloxo SolusVM (Cheap) Or should I go with cPanel? Or start to learn SSH?
You can't go wrong with cPanel. It will make things very easy for you. However, keep in mind that it recommends 1GB of RAM, so one droplet, or whatever the hell they call it at Digital Ocean really wouldn't be ideal (though it will run on 512mb...just not terribly well). DirectAdmin is decent too, and about 1/3 the price of cPanel. Of the ones you list, I personally like Webuzo. It's very easy to get things set up and running. They recommend a minimum of 512mb of RAM, so that would work. Zpanel most definitely has security issues. SolusVM is not an option. That's the software that VPS companies run to deploy and manage VPS containers. It isn't something you run on your own VPS.
Thanks for your reply but there are many people who use cPanel with 5$/mo DO plan. I think I can pay for cPanel but the memory thing confuses me now.
512mb of RAM is the minimum requirement. 1GB is recommended. You can see that over on cPanel's website. So while you "can" run cPanel using one of the $5/mo. DO plans, not everything is going to run well. We ran a test VPS a year or two ago with 512mb of RAM. Things would fail...randomly. EasyApache couldn't be run from within WHM, for example, and needed to be run from the command line. If your site is busy or resource intensive, you are very quickly going to run out of RAM and your VPS is going to start killing processes and shutting your site down. cPanel uses around 270mb of RAM just doing nothing, without serving a single website, so there really isn't that much RAM left for your website(s). If you want to go with DO, their $10 plan is what would be recommended.
Cpanel will be the best option if you want to pay for control panel. For free control panels I would recommend KLOXO or VirtualMin.
If you want something free, that just works...and very easy to install and use, give VestaCP a try. If you want free ultimate control, at the sacrifice of simplicity and ease of use, go for webmin/virtualmin. Everything else is somewhere in between.
You say you are at some level new to and not entirely knowledgeable about web hosting. In that case, I would suggest that you use cPanel. Although, it is generally a paid control panel for VPS plans the value of it goes beyond what you would expect. cPanel is very intuitive and the graphical interface is very easy to learn. I think that over time you will find that the value in cPanel goes far beyond the monthly fee.
If it is only for practice / learning, (and not running any important websites) SSHVM.com is one place that offers very cheap VPS packages, and they have been around for a while. One feature they have is that you can install / re-install a wide choice of OS yourself with just a few clicks, and you can even install an OS that comes with kloxo pre-installed, prices are about $3 per month. But here is the thing, if you need support, or you are running a website on the VPS, then its always good to go with a company that offers managed VPS solutions -> yes, they will fix stuff for you, but at the same time, they will guide you, and give you alot of information and answer just about any question you have. One difference between kloxo and Cpanel, is that I have had kloxo running nicely on a vps that had about 128mb ram, cpanel realistically needs 700+mb for running though as WSWD mentioned, 1gb is recommended.
We've got OVZ (OpenVZ) Web Panel with our multiple VPS accounts hosted at EURO-SPACE.net , it has easy interface, with main functions to manage VPS servers, kind of same as SolusVM.
cPanel could be used as GUI for VPS management itself, but if you have multiple servers and wish to control them, then you might need OpenVZ Web Panel, SolusVM or similar. Chat with www.euro-space.net support team they're professionals and would advice you best option.
Ahh, the good ol' control panel discussion with cPanel allways coming on top of it. Have you tried the Hepsia Control Panel ? It is absolutely brilliant! Domain management, e-mail accounts management, file management, ftp rights management and so much more on your VPS. And guess what? Daily backup of your VPS to your own Dropbox account, activated from the Hepsia CP. Here is a Hepsia vs. cPanel page which can use a refresh though as there are new features which are not listed.