Every web host provider lets its users manage and access their web services through a Control Panel. A great Control Panel lets the users accomplish the action in the minimum number of steps and with seamlessness. Users get to know, manage, and monitor their hosted service by the use of a control panel with a GUI. They are able to manage their server services via CLI, take care of the DNS setup, mailboxes, databases, CPU, memory and bandwidth use, etc.

If you are looking to set up a blog or start a website, you must know that two of the top players in the Control Panel market are cPanel and Plesk. They are superior in their interface and the functionality they offer. However, your choice should be based on how comfortable you are with the interface and the GUI and what are the several security features that the control panel offers. So, here’s everything that you need to know about cPanel and Plesk if you are willing to determine which is the best one.

cPanel

cPanel is a very popular web-based hosting control panel used by many reputed hosting provider companies. The user interface of this control panel is quite simplistic and gets the job done. Used by a lot of shared web hosting service providers, cPanel is a great control panel that can be easily managed by even non-technical users as well. With cPanel, users are able to control their portion of the Unix server. The best thing about this control panel is that it allows different levels of access for users i.e. administrators and end-users. cPanel can be easily accessed right through the browser.

Plesk

If you are a fan of a centralized Control Panel, Plesk is your winner in the debate. Users and server administrators can use a single login to manage and monitor their servers. Plesk is a great Control Panel for web professionals that are either Infrastructure Providers, IT Admins, Developers, Digital Agencies, or Content Managers. With Plesk, users are able to use a single dashboard to build and manage their multiple websites. Users are able to run updates and manage and monitor the performance of their web host from this dashboard. As for the latest update, the UX/UI for Plesk has been completely redesigned with modern JavaScript technology usage.

If you are a WordPress user, you get the Plesk WordPress toolkit which is a complete and secure solution to manage the web host for your WordPress site. With Plesk, users always get to see upgraded functionalities.

Essentials of a good Control Panel

An efficient Control Panel has the following features to help its users seamlessly take care of their server and hosting management and monitoring. So, here are the most important elements of an effective Control Panel.

• Enables seamless domain and DNS management
• Lets the users add a number of domains to the hosting environment
• Lets its users create as many domains that they want
• For every add-on domain , an efficient Control Panel lets its users fully customize DNS
• Effective file and mailbox management
• Lets its users easily log in and effectively and seamlessly manage and monitor through the dashboard
• Advanced security features
• Great support for troubleshooting

Plesk vs cPanel

To get the debate sorted out on the superiority of one of these panels, here is a crisp comparison between the platforms of cPanel and Plesk.

User Interface

cPanel: It has a rather simplistic and graphical interface. Users are allowed to customize their dashboard and family features are grouped together. cPanel allows you to customize your dashboard.

Plesk: As for the latest update, the UX/UI for Plesk has been completely redesigned with modern JavaScript technology usage. It is beginner-friendly and users are able to easily locate the features.

Support

cPanel: Support is available through tickets. You can raise a ticket and wait for them to sort the issue for you. However, if you want to get the troubleshooting done quickly, you can get priority phone support for $65.

Plesk: Their support is available through a call or chat, 24*7 for free.

Security

cPanel: With cPanel, users can easily encrypt their outgoing messages, implement form multi-factor authentication to customers, blacklist IPs that they want, and deploy SSL certifications.

Plesk: Users get to have one-click SSL Security for their servers. They can easily get security patched installed and bugs fixed. You can also monitor the updates that are going on with the plugins.

Operating System

cPanel: Linux only control panel. Provides support for CentOS, Cloud Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. No support for Windows by default.

Plesk: Plesk supports both Linux and Windows OS. It has support for Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, Cloud Linux, Amazon Linux, Virtuozzo Linux, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP.

Mobile access

cPanel: Has no mobile app.

Plesk: App for Plesk is available for iOS as well as Android.

Backup

cPanel: You get to have Backups by performing them manually. This backup is stored in the local backup directory of your server and can be accessed from there. It provides 3 types of backups; Compressed, Uncompressed, and  Incremental backups. So, if you are looking to set up a blog or a website, carefully weigh in your backup preferences.

Plesk: The control panel provides backup tools such as DropBox, AWS S3, Google Drive, and Acronis. Password protection is also made available where you can secure sensitive data with the help of password protection. Users get to take two types of backups; Complete backup and Incremental backup. Users can schedule backups and save these backups through external FTP storage as well as on their internal Plesk storage.

Conclusion

The hosting service of a website and its interaction with the server plays a crucial role in the smooth running of a website’s function. While cPanel is the popular kid on the block, Plesk lets its users manage multiple servers from the same panel. Based on the usage, it is fair to say that if you have quite many websites to manage, cPanel is going to be a pocket-friendly choice. However, if you have just a few websites to manage and are a beginner, Plesk is going to work for you. If you have any further consideration,s our crisp comparison above will help you decide the better choice for you.