Plesk, cPanel or vDeck – Which Control Panel is Best?

Plesk, cPanel or vDeck Which Control Panel is Best – What is cPanel – What is Plesk?

One of the essential factors for efficiently running your web site is the control panel. Whilst most web site owners are using the cPanel control interface, there are several other interfaces available (depending upon your hosting provider. You can find more on website hosting providers in my articles, Recommended WordPress Hosting – Quick Start Solutions, and Web Hosting Providers – How to Choose the Best One)

Plesk and Cpanel, Most Common

The two control panels used by most of the web hosting provider I’ve encountered are Plesk and cPanel. Both of the feature sets for these control panels are pretty much comparable, both are quite fast, secure, and reliable. The biggest difference between the two control panels as far as I can see is the user interface. The Plesk user interface is slightly harder to use and customise than cPanel’s and most users seem to prefer the cPanel user interface (me included).

• As a general user (client) you can ignore what follows, but, from a techi point of view Plesk provides better support for automation with an XML-RPC interface allowing PHP or Perl scripts to call functions from a remote computer and has a large variety of plug-ins. cPanel on the other hand seems to have more software, such as billing software, available to integrate with it. For unlimited domain licenses, Plesk is generally cheaper to purchase than cPanel while cPanel is cheaper to rent per annum than Plesk.

A relatively new user interface is vDeck, which is claimed by the developers to be, ‘not only a control panel, but also a next generation website management system’. vDeck is reported as being more powerful than cPanel, which is more useful for managing web sites of small businesses. However, many people found mastering the vDeck interface quite difficult, hence most still prefer cPanel.

• According to vDeck: vDeck 4 is a control panel that puts you in control, with a completely redesigned, easy-to-use interface, featuring tabbed, drop-down navigation and one-click support.

What is cPanel?

cPanel is a Unix based web hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface plus command line and API based access with automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site. cPanel utilizes a 3 tier structure that provides functionality for administrators, resellers, and end-user website owners to control the various aspects of website and server administration through a standard web browser.

• cPanel is designed to function either as a dedicated server or virtual private server.
• Once installed, cPanel cannot be removed (without extreme difficulty). The server must be formatted, and the operating system reinstalled. Similarly, it should only be installed on a freshly installed operating system with minimal prior configuration.

The cPanel software was initially released in 1996 and originally designed by J. Nicholas Koston. It is currently managed by cPanel Inc. in Houston, Texas. cPanel has been around for a very long time in internet terms. This web hosting control panel is extremely popular among shared hosting users as the software supports a wide range of Unix based OS including CentOS, Red Hat Linux, as well as FreeBSD.

More details about cPanel here: http://www.cpanel.net/

What is Plesk (Parallels Plesk Panel)?

The Plesk software was released in 2003 and is originally a product of SWsoft (after SWsoft acquired Plesk Inc. in 2008) but it’s now shipped under Parallels Inc; and rebranded as Parallels Plesk Panel. Unlike cPanel, Plesk supports both Windows and Unix based operating systems.

• Parallels Plesk Panel allows a server administrator to set up new websites, reseller accounts, e-mail accounts, and DNS entries through a web-based interface. The administrator can create client and site templates, which predetermine resource-allocation parameters for the domains and/or clients.

More details about Plesk here: http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/

What is cPanel, What is Plesk Conclusion

Well, I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this article, Plesk, cPanel or vDeck Which Control Panel is Best? Don’t forget to let me have your thoughts in the comment box below. See you soon.

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Well, I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this article, Plesk, cPanel or vDeck Which Control Panel is Best.