Greetings, All.

I am the Web Admin at a small ISP, and we are about to start offering free 10mb personal webspace to our cable modem customers. I want to put this on a seperate server from our commercial stuff, and based on the expected increase in sites I'm about to have to setup, I'd prefer not to have to manually do them. In fact, I'd like a system where a customer could login and setup his own space. Will Cpanel and/ or DirectAdmin do this? Which would handle this setup better? We'll most likely go with a RH linux box, like our commercial server, where I currently use a custom script to individually setup each site.

Also, I'd like it to be fairly easy on the customer - is there a way for the bbox admin to 'dumb down' either Cpanel or DirectAdmin?

Thanks,

SC

edit: or Plesk?

Both control panels are real easy to use, cPanel costs a bit more($55 per month). DirectAdmin costs less and is far more secure then cPanel.

But since you are offering small free accounts, you might not wanna waste your money, and go with www.webmin.com

I would chose DirectAdmin though, if you don't mind paying.

DirectAdmin has been nothing but praised in our office. Their kind support team and stable control panel have made DirectAdmin our control panel of choice for a long time to come.

DirectAdmin rocks - especially with their online support guide. Helps us support customers. ;-)

Roj

I would just cpanel - easier interface for the clients as well as it is knowen. I really don't like directadmin (just dont lol).

cPanel would be the way to go :). cPanel is more user friendly (i think) and easier to manage.

cPanel is easier to use then directadmin.

shawn just outsource it. oops..i mean scleaves, have u considered outsourcing? :)

i use cpanel but direct admin looks good too.

KwelX
aka -Mr. K

Cpanel is only "the big" control panel on WHT because of the ease of use from the admin side. Almost any bone-head could start a hosting company with Cpanel and not know a single shell command.

That said... Cpanel is riddled with bugs, and for every bug squashed, it seems 12 more appear. DA is a great panel. It may not have all the "bells and whistles" from the admin side that Cpanel does, but it has far fewer bugs and is a very well written control panel.

cPanel's bug issue that JustinH brings up is true. However the bugs do get squashed by the cPanel team and the upgrade procedure isn't that bad the way cPanel designed it.

DirectAdmin is very good too though and the simplicity might be all that's necessary for your customers.

Roj

I just got myself a dedicated with CPanel.

Admin level was easy enough to pick up even though I only had CPanel Reseller level experience. Been looking at WebMin but its not made for hosting/reselling management ease.

Read wonderful reports about DirectAdmin.. small footprint, secure, almost 100% free bug, superb responsive support... was just wondering if it provides similar features as does CPanel for a hosting/reselling environment.

But back to thread.. I doubt any of these CP's can give you the automation you are looking for. But CPanel does allow you to save Packages which you can use to quickly setup accounts/domains.

I think DA is an awesome resource - especially for new users. Try it out.

I would use Direct Admin , we have had no complaints to this point , and we have a substantial number of servers online running DA.

DirectAdmin all the way. Been using this for almost 8 months from now and we simply love it :) We had a couple of issues that we're resolved with the nice staff at DirectAdmin.

For me, CPanel is made for newbies who don't know anything about Linux. For experts or for people with good linux knowledge, I recommend DirectAdmin, HSphere, Plesk or Ensim (Good luck, this one's though to maintain). We tried Ensim, DA and CPanel; DA has my vote :)

If I were choosing between Cpanel and Directadmin for the application you describe, i'd go with DA all the way. I have lots of experience using both panels as an admin and as an end user - if you are familiar with doing some basic administration in linux via shell, you will be just fine using DA. Your users will like it's simplicity, and DA even provides a dedicated support website that you can use to help answer questions your customers might have.

Cpanel does have some nice features, but boy you pay for it in server stability, bugs, security issues, and bloat factor. Much of our operation runs on cpanel just due to it's popularity, but if I could convice my customers to move i'd do it in a heartbeat.

Basically, if you have fair linux administration skills, go with DA. You will be happy with your decision.

Directadmin has my vote 100%. Stability is excellent.