Hello,

I am very excited about all of the new control panels that are appearing lately. Untill this afternoon, I was about 99% sure that I was going to setup an H-Sphere cluster at the beginning of next week. Then I read on this forum that HostGUI is very close to being released. I checked out the HostGUI site and I am very impressed. I now do not have any idea what to do.

I would like to hear everyones thoughts on a comparison between H-Sphere and HostGUI. They are both great in their own ways, I am just trying to determine which control panel will best suit my needs now and in the future.

H-Sphere -
It seems to be more of a corporate-wide management platform. Ie, you can split the services up into many machines. Primary / Secondary DNS, MySQL, etc. Now, this seems like it would be more ideal than having a single box perform all of these functions. It also seems like it lends itself better to growth.

HostGUI
Well, first of all it has a WAY better interface. I am not sure exactly how it works when you have more than one server. IE, if there is some way to integrate all of the servers' billing systems, or do you have to just run a seperate billing system on every server?

What do you guys think will be the best option for a small (but growing) hosting company? As of right now, I only have 1 server. However, I expect to have 4-5 by the end of 2002.

I will more than appreciate everybody's thoughts and comments on this!

Thanks!

Originally posted by mpope
HostGUI
Well, first of all it has a WAY better interface. I am not sure exactly how it works when you have more than one server. IE, if there is some way to integrate all of the servers' billing systems, or do you have to just run a seperate billing system on every server?


I talked to Jag about this about a week ago, since I run several servers, I wanted to know if HostGUI has clustering capablity.. And to my surprise, it does... In the past several weeks, I've went from knowing nothing about the project, to loving it...



I just got to talk with Jag a few minutes ago about this after my post, and this is his exact words:

H-Sphere is a good product. HostGUI has cluster functions that tie multiple servers together so now you dont setup billing for each one, you can cluster them ...or if you wanted you can run each server solo.... also the h-sphere method of splitting services across other servers is already on the books for future versions...very near future... you will have the choice to run hostgui either way

Wow, that's great! Sounds like HostGUI is going to be more scalable than I originally thought.

Both look like great products. However, if Jaguar takes the flexible pricing approach they have indicated with Hostgui, I believe they will make incredible inroads. It's sort of the best of both worlds....buy it...but also can pay over 6 months...So you get the CPanel advantage of minimum initial outlay and overcome their disadvantage of continuing to pay $99/month forever.

HSpere's pricing is interesting, but they need more alternatives. Initial outlay of $545 high for some small hosts and $4.50 per account high for some large hosts. One plan can't be designed to fit all.

I don't think HostGUI supports other OSs. While H-Sphere supports windows and a solaris version is coming out(last time I checked). Also, I have heard good things about their sales/support, especially how fast features requested are developed.

Multi-OS support might be something to look for if you plan to offer more than just Linux.

Peter

To my lastest knowledge, HostGUI has been installed and tested on FreeBSD and RedHat....

A solaris version would help greatly. Neither has a solaris version released yet, but I gather from the information on their site, H-Sphere is working on it. It would be nice to see the same thing from HostGUI.

We will probably do a windows version before Solaris but that is down the road, first things first.

I have to say HostGUI... But please Jag get HostGUI the door bug free or at least get it out the door unlike the nocSOFT.. :)

;) Its on the way my friends, on the way. As for NocSoft , I beleive there was a post here on wht that was copied from cpanel forums that basically said (but don't quote me), they put it on the back burner for now to shift their focus on imporving Cpanel. If you ask me I think that is an admirable move since so many people already use Cpanel, its deserves the full attention of its developers.

Originally posted by jw
A solaris version would help greatly. Neither has a solaris version released yet, but I gather from the information on their site, H-Sphere is working on it. It would be nice to see the same thing from HostGUI.
H-Sphere for Solaris is already developed (as well as support for Zeus under Solaris & Linux), and we are starting to beta test it for some clients.

Originally posted by Jag
As for NocSoft , I beleive there was a post here on wht that was copied from cpanel forums that basically said (but don't quote me), they put it on the back burner for now to shift their focus on imporving Cpanel. If you ask me I think that is an admirable move since so many people already use Cpanel, its deserves the full attention of its developers.

THat post was made by me and what was what I was told when I called burst talk about a long term hosting solution. It didnt take more than a few minutes to find that all out so its no big secret around htere, NocSoft just seems to be a second priority....


Given their track record, id take another panel any day and hostgui is looking rather nice (and affordable for my specific needs).

Originally posted by Jag
;) Its on the way my friends, on the way.

Can u narrow it down? I'm getting ready to get 2 cpanel servers but would rather on your product if we're talking just another week or two.. another month or two and I can't wait :)

Well no I can not state a date unfotunately, but I can say this. Don't put your business or site on hold, just go with what best suites your needs the very moment you need it. So if your servers are setup tomorrow or even next week and you need cpanel then go with it and at elast you can rest easy and not worry about deadlines. We have a Cpanel converter that will make a server transform seemelessly into a HostGUI server.