When you’re purchasing web hosting for your site, you likely want the simplest possible way to control your domains and other features of your site. This typically involves the use of a web hosting control panel.
Control panels give you a central place from which you can do a variety of essential tasks, including, but not limited to:
- Managing your web and email domains
- Administering your email accounts
- Using FTP and web-based file systems
- Managing your databases, like MySQL or MariaDB
- Doing simplified installations of website platforms like WordPress
Plesk
Plesk is a popular control panel, although much less so than cPanel. It’s more popular overseas than in the Americas. Released in 2001, this panel is written in PHP, C, and C++. The current version is Plesk Onyx.
It has many of the same features as cPanel (see below), and is known for having a clean and intuitive user interface, though as a whole it’s not quite as flexible as cPanel when it comes to customizing your home screen exactly as you want it.
cPanel
At CanSpace Solutions, Canada’s leading web hosting provider and domain registrar, all our plans come with cPanel free of charge.
First released in 1996, cPanel truly is the industry standard when it comes to web hosting control panels. cPanel is written in Perl and PHP, and the current version is cPanel 66.
Versatility – cPanel has a few essential features built right in. For instance SSL certificates can be controlled right from the panel rather than from a different interface.
Security – cPHulk is a very versatile feature of cPanel that can be used to monitor and block login attempts to cPanel, WHM, FTP, email, and SSH. cPanel is also made with the needs of businesses in mind, and can easily be made PCI compliant for business owners who need that extra level of approval.
Support – Having the widest user base also means an extensive base of support. cPanel is the only control panel to have a “university” training program with several different courses on various aspects of the tool.
Performance – cPanel generally loads faster than Plesk, so if you’re an impatient admin, you may find cPanel just a bit more responsive.
cPanel is only available with servers operating on Linux operating systems. A workaround may let you load it on a Windows server, but officially, cPanel is Linux only. As a hosting customer, unless you’re doing something really unique, this shouldn’t make much of a difference for your purposes.
So, which one is better?
We give a slight edge to cPanel in terms of performance, security, and versatility, which is why we’ve chosen it as the default option for all CanSpace Solutions accounts. Ultimately, though, the thing to realize is that it’s very hard to make a wrong choice with either one of these control panels. Instead of focusing on choices like this one, we would recommend you put more energy in selecting a web hosting service that works for you, and adopting whichever control panel comes with it.
At CanSpace Solutions, we have been providing enterprise-level hosting solutions since 1998. We cater specifically to Canadian individuals, businesses, and government organizations. We service companies of all sizes – ranging from small sole proprietorships to large multinational companies – with equal levels of dedication and support. We always value your business, and it is this philosophy that has kept us successful throughout our existence. Visit this page to review our hosting plans, and contact us today if you have any questions!
