HyperVM vs. Virtuozzo Power Panel

HyperVM and the Virtuozzo Power Panel are both two major players in the VPS control panel market, with HyperVM being designed for use with the OpenVZ and Xen VPS daemons whilst the Virtuozzo Power Panel is designed for use with Virtuozzo based VPS servers. As Virtual Private Server Hosting has become more popular, so has the use of the VPS daemons that are available for web hosting providers; there are no official control panels available for OpenVZ and Xen, meaning that HyperVM was the result of demand from web hosting providers and clients wanting a control panel for these two VPS daemons. Virtuozzo is probably the most popular VPS daemon around, since although web hosting providers have to pay for licenses for it, it is certainly more stable than both OpenVZ and Xen. OpenVZ and Xen are normally used by budget VPS hosting providers in order to keep their costs down, which in turn means that their product offerings are going to be cheaper than VPS servers offered by other web hosting providers. Virtuozzo is used by web hosting providers who want to offer a quality VPS hosting service; although it means that their prices may be slightly higher, their VPS servers are more likely to be reliable, and it also means that they are able to offer a high level of customer service.

The Virtuozzo Power Panel in general is designed much better than HyperVM which is something that is reflected in the performance and the reliability of the application, whereas it has been proved that HyperVM isn’t the most reliable of control panels as of now. HyperVM is used by many budget VPS hosting providers for the main reason that it provides them with a cheap but easy to use VPS hosting control panel, although both the design and architecture of the system let it down when it comes down to general use. Since web hosting provider pay a higher price of Virtuozzo, the system is well designed and is much more reliable than any of its rivals. When it comes down to it, Virtuozzo and the Power Panel are able to offer the following that HyperVM can’t:

reliability – because of the way it is designed, the Power Panel is assigned per a VPS meaning that each Power Panel can only be used for a specific VPS making it more reliable, whereas HyperVM relies on the idea of a central server which controls a cluster – this makes such hosting unreliable since it means that if the ‘slave’ on a hosting node fails then the entire node becomes uncontrollable, and if the central server fails then no VPS can be controlled
Windows management – HyperVM is unable to control WIndows VPS servers at the moment which can be a pain for VPS hosting providers that wish to offer Windows VPS servers alongside their existing offering of Linux VPS servers – however, it could be said that the market for Windows VPS servers is must smaller than the one which is available for Linux VPS servers
better design and layout – one thing which Virtuozzo is able to beat HyperVM on any day is the overall design and layout of the web control panel – HyperVM isn’t designed very well and the overall layout of things may be enough to confuse even the most advance of users, whereas the Virtuozzo Power Panel has a nice clean design and layout which has been designed with the end user in mind when it comes down to VPS management.

However, there are still certain factors that HyperVM is able to beat the Virtuozzo Power Panel on any day, and although you as a consumer may not be influenced by them, they will certainly influence the decision of a VPS hosting provider. These factors include:

web based VPS provisioning – since HyperVM is a web based and centralised control panel, VPS hosting providers are able to provision VPS servers on any of their Linux VPS hosting nodes from this one central control panel which can help cut down on server provisioning times, which in turn will boost customer satisfaction
OpenVZ and Xen integration – unlike Virtuozzo which is its own VPS daemon completely, HyperVM is able to integrate into OpenVZ and Xen based VPS servers meaning that web hosting providers are able to offer VPS servers that are based on either VPS hosting platform – some customers may prefer to use one from the other for reasons such as how they work as programs as well as the fact that one may actually be more reliable than the other
WHMCS integration – unlike Virtuozzo, HyperVM can be integrated into billing systems such as WHMCS via the use of its API meaning that when customers place orders for VPS servers through a web hosting provider’s billing system, they can set it so that the VPS server will be automatically created once the customer has completed the checkout system and has paid for their new VPS hosting server.

Such factors show that both systems are almost as good as each other, but a web hosting provider’s decision on which is better is more likely to be based on costs as well as their target audience. VPS hosting providers looking to use HyperVM are more likely aiming their products and services at the lower end of the market which will probably be evident in their pricing, whereas VPS hosting providers using Virtuozzo will be aiming their offerings at the higher end of the market.

The main issue for web hosting providers and consumers alike will be price, since HyperVM based VPS hosting packages are going to cost less than those which are based on Virtuozzo servers. Although Virtuozzo offers a reliable solution to VPS hosting services with an easy to use control panel, HyperVM is one way in which web hosting providers can easily win over customers by offering cheap VPS hosting services. In the case that you are unable to make your mind up on which you want to use, you should do some research so that you know what you want from a web hosting package. Such research may bring up disadvantages in both programs, and you may find that these disadvantages could include:

reliability – although Virtuozzo is very reliable, HyperVM isn’t actively updated meaning that is could easily be compromised by hackers if a security hole is found in the software – it also means that if a bug is found in the software it is unlikely to be fixed for a long time, although steps are being taken to ensure that this program is able to grow as more web hosting providers are taking up the use of it for their needs
limits – both OpenVZ and Xen have their own system architecture which may affect how your VPS functions or how certain programs that you have installed on your VPS server are able to function – Virtuozzo on the other hand uses more or less the same architecture as OpenVZ, meaning that if you are moving from one platform to the other, then your website will most likely work after the move over.

Although such disadvantages are unlikely to influence your choice, it is important to note that the performance of a VPS daemon is likely to affect both your VPS server as well as any control panel that is being used to manage it externally. Open source VPS daemons such as OpenVZ and Xen are notourious when it comes to having bugs and security holes, although as long as your VPS hosting provider is quick to isntall patches to cover these holes you should be safe. Since Virtuozzo is actively updated the chances of their being any exploitable security holes in the application are low, although VPS servers and hosting nodes should still be actively monitored to watch out for such holes and bugs.

In conclusion, both HyperVM and the Virtuozzo Power Panel are able to offer you advantages and disadvantages when it comes to their uses, although it is more obvious that one if more reliable than the other. Since both make use of different VPS daemons, the performance of the VPS servers that they host can’t really be compared, although the performance of the control panels themselves can be. As a web hosting provider who is wanting to offer instantly created VPS hosting services then HyperVM will be your best bet, but as a web hosting provider with higher prices but better support you will want to be using Virtuozzo.