The background:
Recently I tried moving from Verio over to Micfo and was sufficiently happy with their service save for one thing. The cPanel control panel that they use on the Web Hosting accounts uses a Linux-based mail handler called Exim and it wasn't allowing me the level of email filtering I wanted to use. Trying to go through their support team repeatedly didn't help much other than to point me toward researching, Exim, CPanel, joining the CPanel forums and so on. At some point I said, "I'm not the server admin here, why am I doing all this work?" So I'm imminently going to cancel this micfo.com account (still in the 30-day guarantee period) and start my research all over again.

So here is the question:
What experiences do you all have with various Web hosts' control panels? Verio used a custom "Signature Hosting" panel for my migrated account. It was reliable but limited in featured. Micfo uses CPanel which seems feature rich, but is technically complicated where it counts for me (email filtering)—to the point where I couldn't even get a straight answer about how to get Procmail working. I'm currently digging up info on Exist Hosting (existhosting.com) and they use Hshpere for their control panel.

Anyone have any further opinions on cPanel? Any thoughts on Hsphere? Is there a control panel that you'd recommend to look for? In the end, I'd like to be able to use Procmail to filter emails at the server level and write some circular 'and' and 'and not' type of statements to look for patterns in the email. Spamassassin only catches so much and when I made my own procmail recipes, I caught nearly 100% of the hundreds of spam I receive each day without a single false positive.

I like cPanel. But I have discovered quite a few bugs recently

Well I believe Cpanel is the most popular followed by Ensim. Cpanel however has by far the most bugs etc.

Cpanel for sure. Cpanel seems to be the most popular for our users as well.

Popular does not mean best by a long shot. But I appreciate that cPanel does some things right; it just doesn't do what I need it to do most very well. Searching around cPanel's own forum confirms the bugs and frustration folks are having.

Anyone have any thoughts or details on other control panels?

It seems like most of the people with Cpanel problems are running EDGE or latter versions. I have been running on Stable for years now and I have never had any major problems.

Again - cPanel.
I know it has bugs, but to be fair, they have done an amazing job with their product (darkOrb I mean :))
I'm sure they will get the bugs sorted sooner or later, but it is a sure sign that if there are bugs, they have to be sorted, which will also mean even more features - so its bitter-sweet! :)

Go for cPanel :D

Alex

U shd give Plesk a try!

i find plesk okay but its painfully slow 4 me when i use it...
whm is fast and user-friendly... but many have pointed out the bugs it has

honestly, the command line and a good L.A.M.P. book for me makes me feel in control! makes you feel like a real expert!

Can somebody tell me what kind of bugs Cpanel has?

I have read alot about bugs but no-one is telling what kind.

Cheers

Runar

In my opinion:

Plesk > cPanel/WHM > Ensim > DirectAdmin > others :D.

The bugs are not life - threatening. Infact, it is worthwile mentioning that even with these "bugs" - cPanel is still a great product.
The bugs change from update to update, and there are a few... but not a lot as you'd notice them 24x7.

Read the cPanel.net forums, for more info, and also get cPanel and have a play yourself.

Really, people do make a big thing of the bugs - when, in actual fact they don't need to -, yet everybody also reccomends it... :)

Alex

runar, some of cPanel Security Bugs (Exploit and Vulnerability) are here:

1. cPanel Secuirty Advisory CPANEL-2004:01-01 Rank: 1000

Last modified on: 2004-03-11
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/357172

2. cPanel mod_php suEXEC Taint Vulnerability Rank: 912

Last modified on: 2004-06-05
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/365328

3. Exensive cPanel Cross Site Scripting Rank: 883

Last modified on: 2004-03-30
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/359002

4. cPanel/Formail-Clone E-Mail Restriction Bypass Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 839

Last modified on: 2003-05-30
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/7758

5. Cpanel 5 and below remote command execution and local root vulnerabilities Rank: 830

Last modified on: 2003-02-19
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/312298

6. Re: Non-logged Brute Force Attack Vulnerability forFantastico-Created Databases on cPanel Based Hosts Rank: 797

Last modified on: 2004-05-20
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/363964

7. cPanel Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 786

Last modified on: 2004-05-24
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/10407

8. CPanel Admin Interface HTML Injection Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 773

Last modified on: 2003-07-07
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8119

9. cPanel mod_phpsuexec Vulnerability Rank: 773

Last modified on: 2004-05-24
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/364112

10. cPanel Openwebmail Local Privileges Escalation Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2003-02-19
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/6885

11. cPanel Guestbook.cgi Remote Command Execution Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2003-02-19
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/6882

12. cPanel Resetpass Remote Command Execution Vulnerability (Vulnerabilities) Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2004-03-11
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/9848

13. cPanel Malicious HTML Tags Injection Vulnerability Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2003-07-06
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/328107

14. Re: Non-logged Brute Force Attack Vulnerability forFantastico-Created Databases on cPanel Based Hosts Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2004-05-20
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/364025

15. More Cpanel Vuls (cross site scripting) Rank: 760

Last modified on: 2004-03-23
URL: http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/358358

Cpanel is the most popular with my customers, then h-sphere, then plesk, with ensim bring up the rear. I don't know why though. Personally I think plesk 7 rocks! I didn't like plesk 6 though, so maybe customers didn't like one version then just don't want to try the new one. Anyway, Cpanel seems to be the most popular, from my experience anyway, but it is buggy.

I have used many, but I prefer h-sphere CP. I just like the way it handles mail vs the others, and I think thats one of the most widely used things in a average persons CP. It also makes setup easy for people who maybe aren’t as savvy. Also at a technical level I think very powerful. You can do many functions I never say on Cpanel and others in regards to DNS, helpdesk functions and more.......who knows, maybe they are include in other platforms becuase revisions happen often these days but I still prefer over the others ive used. I like it from a end user and from a reseller perspective....I use it at both levels.

Ensim on the other hand....NIGHTMARE from my experneice. It works obviously, but I had so many problems even my Host was about to bash the BOX it was on ;) HEHE

acceptcc, my friends said that h-sphere CP gets the server slower (I couldn't test it). And it has got few security bugs. All my friends changed to cPanel from h-sphere... Maybe h-sphere is good but really, cPanel is the most popular...

I can agree, I think cpanel is the most popular. I also dont know about security....I would imagine thats an ongoing issue with most but I feel it does a good job. I have a sever hosting about 25 sites, its very fast and stable. I think if anything the graphics are what makes it slow, not the build. Also, my host just upgraded.....what I do like with all is that in this industry its super competitive so Its only gonna get better. I think that all have their up and down sides, if everyone could add in the features they way easily.......and you could make your dream control panel with a snap :)

Bottom line is, there isnt a best.....its preference...

Well I like directadmin it's easy on the cpu, easy to use, easy to afford, and I was able to copy directadmin from one drive to another with very little fuss, that is what really made me love it, how easy it was to restore an installation customer data, databases, email, and all from a backup to a fresh server. I never had any luck doing something like that in Ensim or Plesk. It's far from perfect but so are the rest.

I like cPanel best but it has lots of problems and it could do with alot more features, I want to give directadmin a try but no one will give me a free account to play with for a bit.
I have had Ensim but didnt like it that much so i soon moved from that.
I will stick with cPanel :) But for the price it should be alot better.

Hello,

You are comparing:

Cpanel = A Control Panel

Hsphere = A Complete Automated Web Hosting System

The two are not comparable AT ALL. In terms of features, Cpanel doesn't even come close to what hsphere offers.

That's why we chose Hsphere over Cpanel

Yes existsite, I must agree it Hsphere does offer a lot more features then Cpanel.

I like CPanel best. Alot of features.