Plesk 9.0 vs. cPanel 11

plesk vs.

Plesk 9.0 and cPanel 11 are the latest and most up-to date control panels being used by web hosting providers to allow them to offer their web hosting services to their clients. Control panels are used by web hosting providers so that clients are able to manage all the different aspects of their web hosting accounts, since at the end of the day it makes the job easier for the support team if clients are able to do a majority of the ‘house keeping’ themselves. Control panels can serve many different purposes since both cPanel and Plesk pack enough features to cover the management of DNS, email, database and web services on both the half of the client and the server administrator. Control panel access is normally provided as standard by most web hosting providers for their web hosting accounts, but when it comes down to dedicated services such as VPS or dedicated server hosting you may end up being charged for the right to have a control panel installed on your server. Control panels are in most cases very easy to use and even those who have no knowledge of web hosting in general will be able to use them which is the main reason that larger control panels such as Plesk and cPanel are used by web hosting providers.

At this moment in time cPanel is only compatible with Linux servers, meaning that it is used by many web hosting providers as their chosen Linux control panel. Although Plesk will work on both Windows and Linux servers it is mainly used by web hosting providers on Windows servers because it is the most stable solution available, whereas cPanel is the most stable control panel available for Linux based web hosting servers. However, in some cases you may find that larger web hosting providers are using their own in-house control panels.

Advantages

Both control panels have their advantages when being used by either server administrators or customers of web hosting providers. Although Plesk may not be widely used by web hosting providers on the Linux platform it can certainly provide those who are use to using it with many advantages in this area. Although cPanel may not be available for Windows at this moment in time, it is still being actively developed for Windows and a version should be released in the first quarter of 2009. Since both control panels are used by many web hosting providers, this one factor is able to more or less ensure that both products will continue to be actively developed meaning that the companies building them won’t be going anywhere and that any necessary bug releases will be made in an acceptable amount of time. As a consumer or systems administrator, the main advantages which you may get from Plesk could include:

cross platform compability – as a systems administrator you may find it more beneficial having one control panel on all of your servers since it means that you only need to master the one control panel instead of having to learn the ‘ins and outs’ of more than one control panel – as a consumer you may also find it more beneficial since it means that you should be able to get the same sorts of features from both Windows and Linux web hosting packages
Windows support – unlike cPanel, Plesk will work on Windows web hosting services which allows web hosting providers to offer Windows based web hosting packages to their clients which in turn diversifies their product and service offerings – Windows web developers will benefit from this since their classic ASP and ASP.NET websites will only function on Windows based computers and servers with the necessary services installed
Windows service support – since Plesk can be used on Windows based servers it has the ability to be integrated with many Windows based programs and comes with advanced feature support for certain Windows-only features – programs such as Microsoft SQL Server can be managed through Plesk 9.0 by both server administrators and consumers with their own databases making it the perfect Windows control panel solution.

Although Plesk seems perfect for Windows web hosting packages, it is important that you don’t forget that it also has its uses for Linux web hosting services. However, cPanel is the preferred control panel for Linux web hosting services, and in most cases is for reasons such as:

faster loading times – cPanel is built differently to Plesk which means that its internal pages load quicker than those of Plesk and certain tasks are carried out quicker than they would be with the Plesk control panel – cPanel doesn’t have to rely on external databases in most cases which is one of the reasons why it glides along seamlessly and has proven to be a lot more reliable than Plesk on Linux servers
more features for Linux – cPanel contains more features for Linux web hosting services than the Plesk control panel does – for example cPanel can be used in conjunction with many add-ons such as the CFS firewall and the Fantastico script installer to give customers a wide range of services that they can make use of from their web hosting account’s control panel, such features can’t be used on Plesk Linux web hosting servers
resellers – until the most recent version, 9.0, Plesk hasn’t had any proper support for reseller web hosting accounts which is something that cPanel has triumphed in – cPanel also comes with the Web Host Manager (WHM) panel which allows resellers to control all the different aspects of their reseller accounts including the configuring of their own packages and that setting up of client web hosting accounts.

From the advantages we can tell that Plesk is ideal for Windows web hosting services because of the advanced features that it comes with, but when it comes down to Linux web hosting cPanel is the most desirable option because of its support for resellers and the multiple add-ons and plugins that are available for it. However, when cPanel releases its much anticipated Windows version, we may find that it also overtakes Plesk in the Windows hosting market.

Disadvantages

Although both control panels are good at what they are designed for, they both have disadvantages both in the way that you use them as well as the underlying architecture which helps them carry out the tasks that they are designed to do. cPanel’s inability to be used with Windows servers can be classed as a disadvantage since cPanel itself is such a highly rated control panel that many web hosting providers feel that this is one thing that they would like to see from cPanel. Plesk itself also has disadvantages since in some cases, especially when being used on Windows servers, it can be very slow to load which can cause problems for some people who may want to carry out a task quickly. However, the main disadvantages of Plesk include:

lack of integration – unlike cPanel, Plesk can’t be integrated with many other third party applications which could benefit the server itself in any way which puts some off from using it on Linux web hosting servers – the same can be said for when it is being used on Windows web hosting servers but the only applications that can be integrated into Plesk only tend to be the more commercial and in some cases expensive ones
slow loading times – due to the way that Plesk has been built, some users may find that it can get slow and sluggish at some times which may cause inconvenience for those who may want to change a certain setting on their control panel in a short amount of time, and this is something that can’t really be done with Plesk – this problem is still relevant to the latest 9.0 version and is evident even on servers of the highest specification
lack of support for resellers – although Parallels has now released version 9.0 of Plesk for both Windows and Linux servers, many web hosting providers are still using older versions which don’t have support for reseller web hosting accounts – however, many web hosting providers have found a way around this and are still able to offer Windows and Linux reseller web hosting accounts using the Plesk control panel.

Although Plesk has its disadvantages, cPanel also has its disadvantages which can affect both users and system administrators. As one of the major players in the control panel industry, cPanel does its best to ensure that it tries and resolves any disadvantages there may be with its software. However, the main disadvantages that you may face with cPanel could include:

Linux-only – cPanel is only able to run on Linux web hosting servers at this moment in time, and although this has helped it become the most popular Linux control panel around it does prove to be a disadvantage for systems administrators who need to know how to fix and maintain both cPanel and a Windows web hosting control panel – however, a Windows version of cPanel/WHM is due to release next year (2009)
maintenance - you may find that you have to spend a long time setting up your cPanel server in order to ensure that it is secure so that it can’t be compromised by malicious attackers in any way – as well as this you will also find that you will have to update cPanel on a regular basis to ensure that any necessary bug fixes are installed – it is important to note that such processes can be automated with the use of scripts.

As you can see, both control panels have their disadvantages when they come to being used by both system administrators and consumers. However, as long as the web hosting package you have chosen suits your needs and you have bought it from a reputable web hosting provider, you are unlikely to face any problems.

In conclusion, both Plesk 9.0 and cPanel 11 offer web hosting providers a reliable control panel service but come with their own advantages and disadvantages. Due to it being a Linux-only control panel at this moment in time, cPanel is ideal for Linux hosting servers and has been perfected over a long period of time to reach where it is today; Plesk on the other hand isn’t so ideal for Linux hosting servers due to page lags, but still offer web hosting providers the best option for Windows web hosting services.