Hi,

I find that alot of people ask for cpanel when looking for a webhost. What makes it such a popular panel? I've used it on previos hosts and overall it was ok, but I didn't enjoy it half as much as direct admin. On top of this, the cpanel defualt skin is horrible and very confusing! DA comes with the enhanced skin which is fantastic.

I've had several customers wanting cpanel, I ussually managed to convince them to give DA a try, every one so far has loved it and claim they would never go back.

The one advantage cpanel has is RVSkins which I thought was very appealing. But doesn't do alot you can't with a little work on direct admin. For instance we've allready added support for several languages requested by customers. I've also looked at panels such as plesk and they also seem much nicer then cpanel.

So tell me why cpanel seems to be such a big thing? Am I just wierd?

One thing for sure is that cPanel has much more features.

It has bells and whistles that when working, makes someone think like theyre getting alot for their money. The admin side is a newbies dream as it does most of the admin stuff and creates a breed of software admins. Cpanel is bundled with a lot of servers from the noc so the chump change people pay for it makes it appealing.
I for one do not like it. The way it ties into a server makes me sick. I prefer DA which goes on top of the distro and isnt set into stone in the way you can admin the box. DA is a sysadmin's dream, a panel that makes adding hosting accounts easy and lets you handle the admin issues w/o fear of breaking the damn thing.

I find it really that a lot of people only know about cPanel, and are afraid to try something they don't know.

The other main reason is there isn't much you cannot do from it, except have it cook the dinner and wake you in the morning.

Another reason is that so many dedicated server companies offer cPanel that people think "They offer it, so it must be good." and a lot of the time these people also believe AOL is good... so you know. :P

Thankfully though there are a fair amount of people who realise that cPanel isn't the best.

I would also like to say that, after using Plesk and cPanel, I can not find any feature that cPanel has that can't be done by someone within the time period of five minutes (that isn't included with Plesk).

So I suppose it's for just that--if you can do something in the click of a button, why bother learning to do it? Get cPanel. :stickout:

The main reason is CPanel is working in most cases, it's polished during several years by a lot of users and developers.

CPanel is popular because when it was released, it was one of a kind. It allowed people to offer reselling services and over the years many custmers have become acustomed to it.

I don't know why people love Cpanel so much. I have a Cpanel server just because so many customers want it. And it has given me more headaches this month alone than the entire 2 years I have had my Plesk server, or the entire year and 1/2 I had my Ensim one.

I personally LOVE DirectAdmin and wish I could sell more people on it so I could dump Cpanel forever.

Also consider that Cpanel has been around the longest. And from an admin point of view, a lot of the stuff just "makes sense." When the person who envisions the software and is the problem expert is also the one writing the software, what you get is something that is very usable and has the right functionality. I think with many of the other systems someone comes up with the idea and then programmers are hired to write the system based on specs. Clearly something is going to get lost in translation.

Just a theory though. If I really knew why it was so popular I'd write my own and do the same. :)

Originally posted by alrock
I don't know why people love Cpanel so much. I have a Cpanel server just because so many customers want it. And it has given me more headaches this month alone than the entire 2 years I have had my Plesk server, or the entire year and 1/2 I had my Ensim one.

I personally LOVE DirectAdmin and wish I could sell more people on it so I could dump Cpanel forever.


Make sure you do not have Cpanel's Auto update enabled. This will install sometimes buggy installations. I have had my cpanel servers for years and never had any major problem.

Becouse CPanel very compaitable and enhanced hosting conttrol panel software for me.

Personally I don't like CPanel, too many bugs and security holes but I guess its because its easy too use.

The thing is that many people seem to think that they should just put cpanel on a server, and then they're done and they can start offering webhosting plans. That's just a bad thing to think though, you should still configure, tweak and secure the server yourself, otherwise it is indeed buggy and has some security holes.

If you do it right though, cPanel will work very smoothly though, and for many purposes it's just more practical than DA. I do agree that DA has more flexibility, but many people just don't need such a flexibility.

Originally posted by oswebhosting
Make sure you do not have Cpanel's Auto update enabled. This will install sometimes buggy installations. I have had my cpanel servers for years and never had any major problem.

It isn't enabled and I updated to the latest "stable" release.

If you look on their forums, many people have had various problems with it. Some worse than others.

And they still have not fixed the ability to import accounts, and the fix for using FrontPage has not worked for many people and there has not been a definitive answer to that either. Those are two very important features.

Cpanel is not all it's cracked up to be when you run into problems like this.

The reason why cPanel is so popular is because so many people have it, its easy to use, and it has so many great features with a nice layout and design.

I've used it before when I had a site on Aplus.net, it sucked, also ECRII.com used it, :angry: I have found BETTER Panels exist, the one I'm using now is SO MUCH better, and the custom interface on ******.com is the best, just what you need, not a lot of junk.

Nice interface? cPanel has to have one of the worst I've encountered. There's no central navigation between pages, the file manager doesn't fit in with the skin, and WHM has a completely separate layout. It looks like it was make by a twelve year old.

Plesk, on the other hand, whether or not people like it, is extremely functional and well made. Each portion of it fits with the other, so you don't have separate panels to do the same thing.

[/flamebait]

Why's Kerry better than Bush? Why's FreeBSD better than Linux? Why's Slackware better than Debian?

Personal preference.

Clients tend to prefer cPanel, it has more features, and in my opinion, they prefer the interface over it. cPanel admins/business owners are smart enough to realize that they need to adapt to what their clients prefer. Even if H-Sphere is better, or ensim is better...or plesk is better...it's really what the clients feel is better in my opinion. Personally, I like cPanel, I'm a cPanel zealot even.

I rarely have problems with it, but I know it...and i think that's key.

I think from my personal experience view, it's difficult for installing and configuring for server admin, but the cpanel is easy to use for the end user. I found there are more functions for a reseller in Cpanel than Plesk.

Hi,

I have been using Confixx for some years because it is very successfull in Germany and customers really don't give you a chance if you do not offer Confixx, now I am also thinking about trying out another control panel like Plesk or cPanel. Actually some bigger hosters already offer Plesk which also looks very good to me, but I do not have any experience with cPanel or Direct Admin, so I would be happy about some more information to help me on my decision.

Regards,

Johnny

I just think cpanel has a horrible design (sure it can be covered up to an extent with skins), but its in the way they have it layed out. When I used to have cpanel hosting you log into cpanel and try and find something out of the million options there are. Its absurd, panels like DirectAdmin and plesk tend to show everything you need right there, the more advanced stuff is all intergrated into subpanels and overall it just works that much better. I once was trying to do a backup and had to search the page for the link to backups!

The term "cPanel" has become synonymous with "Control Panel." They were one of the first and at the time, the best. Things have changed in the web hosting industry, but cilents' preferences have not. I don't personally like cPanel and wouldn't offer it due to the increased headaches. I also agree the interface leaves much to be desired. The price is also one of the highest.

Im a graphics artist mostly and Cpanel is easy enough for someone like me to use :)

i havent seen too many others and i have a limited knowledge of many things lol
coudl also be that people just are used to it and its easier than haveing to relearn

I personaly have the feeling that you all forget about my GPL solution. IMHO, you always talk about very expensive stuff, regardless of the fact there is a big effort for bringing an open-source technologie to public.
Many users have always told me that they don't want to hear anymore about cPanel, neither they don't want to have headakes with Pl..k since they have my panel.
But here, you keep talking about "is pl..k better than cP...l". That is not constructive, you'd better join the free software effort and try, like me and some other guys that help, to kick out expensive and badly working exisiting commercial solution from market.

When I have a look to what those guys bare to sell, it makes me laught. I even one year ago, I recieved a mail from the commercials of cP...l saying that they would offer me good prices if I wanted to use that solution. Too bad... they did not succeed in stoping open-source effort, and I think they fear... :D