What is your favorite windows based control panel software?

So far Ive looked at Helm and Hosting Controller. Any comments about either of those two? Good or bad.

Thanks!

-Matt

I know that CWIpanel is there as well....

lifetime fee is about 250 euro i think....

We use HostingController, I also tested helm a few months back and decided to stay with HC.

Helm... definitely the best one I have worked with.

I hear Plesk 6.5 is coming soon to a Windows server near you :) It looks good. Never tried it myself though.

Ensim has a nice windows control panel.

Also H Sphere supports windows but you need at least one linux server to run the core services.

Hsphere is a beast to setup (I hear) and takes a unix pro - not something for the light hearted.

Helm is great because it provides easy and ecconomical start up AND is wonderful with clustering...

Helm has the best user/admin/reseller interface, is stable as a rock has good third party product support and good all round support.

Yep IMO Helm is the best...

I currently have a reseller account on an HSphere provider.

Although the final user interface is nice.
The reseller/manager interface is far from easy to
understand and setup (and I consider myself not a newbee)...

Maybe this dificultness is the price to pay for the billing/support
applications integration.

Now I am looking for a move to Helm or Ensim.

Just one question for the Ensim or Helm users:
Sometimes I have clients that only want webhosting
(no mail and dns services).
How do you handle it on Helm or Ensim.

On my CPanel/Linux reseller account, my provider could fix
this, but my HSphere provider tells me that this can´t be
properly handled unles the dns are set to the HSphere server.

Ensim is really bad I have heard.

We finally decided on Helm. After admining it on 2 servers for a couple of months it has really grown on me, glad I made the right choice :)

Helm is great and getting better.

I tried Helm but found it to be too complication and decided to go back to Ensim.

Ensim is really bad I have heard.

Ensim is not bad. You have to try it to appreciate it and not just base it on any hearsay. Granted that Ensim is simple, pretty basic and almost featureless when it comes to managing a web hosting business as it lacks the payment integration and other fanciful things which Helm and HC might have.

In the end, it depends on your very purpose. If it is to use a control panel to run a web hosting business then Helm and HC would be more apt for your needs.

If it is to manage sites without the need to integrate payment solutions, Ensim is great. It is easy to use.

Just one question for the Ensim or Helm users:
Sometimes I have clients that only want webhosting
(no mail and dns services).
How do you handle it on Helm or Ensim.

Yes, you can. In Ensim, you can always set the mail box to 0 and disable the DNS entry during creation.

Well my experience with ensim is limited but like I said I have heard from a number of sources that it is very insecure and extremely buggy

On the contrary, I have never encountered any problems with Ensim Webppliance Pro 3.6 on Windows 2003.

As far as security is concerned, it actually based its reputation on protecting clients' data.

In any case, it all depends on your personal preference and needs.

There are not so many comments on HELM yet at WHT.
This makes me think that this is still young or inmature product.

What do you think?

Moving from HSPhere to HELM would be like jumping from the pan
to the fire?

One feature I like most of ENSIM is that it have a remote backup one.

>
>Yes, you can. In Ensim, you can always set the mail box to 0 >and disable the DNS entry during creation. [/B][/QUOTE]

Just wanted to comment that I found a similar feature
in Hosting Accelerator (that seems to me that is simpler to manage).

Helm has been in the public domain for a year now. Can handle whatever resource set-up you want, mail, no mail, web, DNS etc.

It is daunting to start with purely becuase the design is to allow complete flexibility of set-up thereby making the first install a lttle getting used to.

We think it is great, but then we do sell it.

Plesk 6.5 looks really intersting, its apache based. Ensim Pro isn't that bad either, its pretty simple based of IIS

Well the only pitfall I notice with helm is the billing feature not built-in, and no support from the developers on weekends, so if your cp goes down on Friday night,,, good luck..

Umm... Now that i dident know... Helm must offer emergency support?

we have 15-17 servers running ensim. We havent had many if any complaints from our customers either. We also have one ensim working on a dualy-xeony for our main shared windows server and have no problems with it.

Originally posted by ResellerFla
Well the only pitfall I notice with helm is the billing feature not built-in, and no support from the developers on weekends, so if your cp goes down on Friday night,,, good luck..

Well they do have a billing system (very buggy atm though), which they are working at getting right :)

Unfortunately RC are right, no After hours support :( Again its something they are working on...

Umm, Any one know their support timings ?

Monday through Friday 10-7. Talked to a few providers on their forum,,, 1 in perticular that stated his CP was down Friday night and they couldn't get it fixed till Monday... grrr.

Now I find this out after buying the software,,, not good.

Mark, the guy who runs the place said they are looking into offering it down the road.....

Originally posted by ResellerFla
Monday through Friday 10-7. Talked to a few providers on their forum,,, 1 in perticular that stated his CP was down Friday night and they couldn't get it fixed till Monday... grrr.

Now I find this out after buying the software,,, not good.

Mark, the guy who runs the place said they are looking into offering it down the road.....

Yup I read that post from Zombie as well. Crazy stuff...

Lets hope that "down the road" is soon.

by the way, does any one know the number of sites helm can handle with the recommended hardware configuration?

Helm can handle an unlimited number of sites since is uses a distribution model that allows you to just keep adding servers as and when you want.

As for the 24 hour support it isn't something currently offered, however do many other Control Panel companies offer phone support?