Control Panel Round Up (Part 1 of 3)

Did you know that there are different types of control panels though? I do not think anybody can argue with the fact that the most popular control panel software out there today is cPanel. There are other options out there though. Some might be better, some might be worse.

You shouldn't judge the quality of your Web host by the control panel they offer alone. It is an important piece to the Web hosting puzzle.

cPanel

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 / removing email 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. Their 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. cPanel used to have a demo control panel up for folks to test drive, however I could not find a trace of it on the cPanel Web site anymore.

Mitch's Score: 5/5

Plesk

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. Take Plesk for a test drive and see what you think!

Mitch's Score: 5/5

H-Sphere

Created by Positive Software, H-Sphere is yet another pretty control panel that you might have access to. It too provides support for Windows and Linux based machines. From complete automation to key functionalities, it has many features. Compared with Plesk and cPanel it leaves you with wanting a little more. Perhaps in the next few versions it will be able to catch up. The organization inside the H-Sphere is not that great either. Take H-Sphere for a test drive and see what you think!

Mitch's Score: 3/5

Part one is over, but there are still two more segments to go! Tomorrow I will take a look at DirectAdmin, Interworx, Helm, and Ensim. If you have any arguments, comments, questions or suggestions just let me know and I'll be more than happy to do a follow up article with what you have had to say.