Why does cPanel seem to be dominating the web hosting market? I am considering using Plesk for a Cloud server I am about to setup. Is there any reason why I would NOT want to do this?
Thats totally fine. Cpanel got a lot of momentum because it was one of the first control panels with a point and click interface. Imho its a big bloat right now and theres no reason why you shouldn't use Plesk which is a strong product.
As a dedicated server provider that provides cPanel, I can tell you that we prefer it because of the cost/licensing.... Plesk is expensive by comparison.
Apart from cost, I can tell you from personal experience that cPanel is a LOT more user-friendly than Plesk. cPanel is really easy to use and even if you've had no prior experience with it, you'll have no trouble finding your way when it comes to performing operations needed to get your site up and running. It's a snitch! And with all the articles, how-tos and user guides available on the internet, there's no better option.
Plesk will give you SO many headaches that you will eventually switch to cPanel. We have been using both for many years and finally dumped plesk for cPanel completely. cPanel is WAY more up-to-date and reliable.
cmon, cpanel just rocks plesk installs at /var while cpanel installs at /home its quite easy to add more hard drives on cpanel, wordpress works better on cpanel, you cant thin of installing plugins and themes on wordpress on a plesk server, it wont work. everything is so easy with cpanel, and i'd gladly pay the $25 license fee for cpanel and vote for it as the best
Not sure where this comes from but it has worked fine for me in the past. I found cPanel clunky and hard to use. Plesk is much better.
hmm., alot of mixed reviews obviously. time for my Two Cents! Cpanel i think is better as it seems more upto date. and is backed by a nice support team. also if your new, Cpanel is just something you can just look at.. and you somehow know what it all means, simple and clean. plesk not too sure. but also Cpanel has alot more support for Billing software compared to Plesk and anything else for that. WHMCS WHM-autopilot phphostbot cp creator list goes on... So really Cpanel has that part at its grips hope it helps!
I am with Rackspace having the Cloud server with Linux CentOS 5.5. Cloud servers are not dedicated server however they are virtual instances. I am planning to use Plesk for this virtual instance server ( VPS ). I need to know which version of Plesk is suitable for me. I don't need a dedicated parallel plesk license for server. Since I am on VPS, Hence I need the parallel Plesk VPS ( virtualized ) license. I heard that pricing is bit different in both case. Please can some one advice the right path to for VPS - I mean I looking for right Parallel Plesk version for VPS - Linux CentOS. I feel that it is Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. I need to know the pros & cons of having Parallels Virtuozzo Containers rather than Parallel Plesk Panel. Basically I am looking for simple control panel to manage full mail server, apache, mysql, php etc. Sorry If I am hijacking this thread
I've worked on large number of control panels, including cPanel and Plesk. The choice of panel really depends on your goals, your in-house expertise, and how you plan to manage the server after you deploy it. From a system administration standpoint, I prefer Plesk. Plesk basically functions as an application atop of your OS. MySQL, Apache, PHP etc are all delivered by your OS vendor. I typically use Red Hat. Red Hat puts a significant amount of effort in QA testing before pushing out updates. As a result, your core services set atop very well tested software sources. Plesk however does not make it easy to change PHP, run different PHP versions on different sites, or fine-tune system variables. Fine tuning of Plesk is best left to an experience system administrator. cPanel is very appealing to shared hosting and companies that demand part of its customization features. From a system admin standpoint, I don't like how it replaces the Red Hat versions of Apache, PHP and other binaries with its own. Although cPanel has been making huge strides in QA, I still trust Red Hat to deliver a more reliable product. From a user standpoint, it really depends on what you are used to. Switching between the two systems is challenging. So I would try both and see what makes the most sense. After all, you don't want to waste hours trying to figure out how to use the control panel. If you like to tinker with things, then cPanel provides more "tweaking" options; however, depending on your purpose for the server, these may not really have any value. In my experience, the servers that we have running Plesk have fewer support problems than cPanel, but this may be in part because these Plesk users are running relatively straightforward hosting operations and not doing mass hosting. Both products are far better than the now defunct Ensim, DirectAdmin, VirtuaMin and others out there.