Greetings,

I currently run and host my own web servers, from multiple T1 lines. Everything has been going great lately, however I have noticed that as my client base increases, users are demanding a more innovative control panel. So, my question to you guys is, does anyone have any suggestions as to if I should just purchase a control panel (and if so, where) or continue building on the custom one in which we have now?

Depends on what your custom one has now!

It's very basic, nothing special.

CPanel3 is $199 per server per month (overpriced IMHO!) so it is a matter of $$$$'s. Do you have a developer on staff to keep building yours or is it worth the $2400 per year per server. Personally I have always felt that leasing anything can only lead to trouble - if you own it you control it and control pricing and modifications. Just like Alabanza raised their prices catching most of us off guard, it can happen with any product you do not own.

I agree 100%.

WHat about alabanza? Is it any good? My primary concern is the end-users. I would also appreciate any kind of automation, which is what alabanza seems to be key on. Another issue is integrating with billing. Have you ever heard of Optigold?

We are with Alabanza and do not recommend them. We have one server that was mis-configured, went down, supposedly fixed, then went down for the same problem - both times sites were lost as they only do back-ups ever 4 weeks (if you're lucky) Support is generally poor and we end up fixing most things ourselves (RAID card misconfigured was the big error) then telling them what we did. Prices have been raised without any increase in service. In fact it is our experience support and service have decreased. This is only our experience of course. The automation is nice but buggy and there are better solutions.

ddunham

Also, Alabanza doesn't sell the control panel/dsm seperate from a server, meaning you would have to lease a server to have them (and only on that server)

Excellent point...CPanel3 is the only major Linux CP I'm aware of - we have our own now and will be using it.

I noticed CPanel is heavily designed for RedHat. Will it work for FreeBSD?

You guys should think about incoporating PcAuthorize into the list of supported credit card programs. This could be an easy-added feature, as to where the admin or whomever could simply click a button and have all credit cards due to be billed that month, exported into a comma-delimited text file and then imported into PC Authorize..


Food for thought..

I try to maintain a freebsd port, however it really hasn't gotten any love recently as there is little to no demand for it. I really don't plan on doing freebsd builds (although the code 99% supports it right now) because quite frankly there is not really a market for it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've only had one person ask for it.

I agree with Chris. Alabanza would be my last choice for a ded. provider, their support rarely replies to any questions, and if they do, it is a 'yes' or 'no' question.
Most of the time you ask one thing, and they tell you another!

I use the Cpanel3 on a FreeBSD machine (guess I am that one person who asked ;) ) On FreeBSD it is not a good solution...at least yet. We need more people asking for it~

I am number 2 :-)

----SNIP---
marksy
CPanel3 is $199 per server per month (overpriced IMHO!)
--------------------

The Pricing is very fair for all the features and all the additional features that will be installed. I personally have not found any product on the planet to match it. The $199.00 should not be treated as a software install. WebhostManager/ Cpanel3 is a “Solution” that runs the back end of your business. If you look at every feature in the control panel, and were to compare it to a staff of administrators and programmers, you would have to pay at least 5000.00 a month “for 2 or 3 low paid employees”.

Lets look at this, what does CP3 do for your business:

WebhostManager:
Monitors your server 24/7 and Restarts Services if it fails and even pages, ICQ and mails you that it was restarted. You can sleep knowing that it will fix itself.
Adds MYSQL, PHP4 with no knowledge of installing
Tracks resellers and end users
Security scans / System Security
Update Services – Proftpd, apache, PHP4 and other services.
Customized Features added in by the week.
63 More additional Features not listed.
Your Resellers can “manger their own accounts, you will get more Resellers because of this.

Most people can’t afford a Full time admin and Programmer. This is what this Service replaces.

Cpanel:
Allows Clients to Self service themselves
Cuts Tech support by 90%
Once they see the Control panel and all the functions, most likely they will host with you.
Self service
E-commerce, E-mail management
Net Tools

I can go on and list every feature here and make this about 8 pages long.

And you say $199.00 per month is High Priced?
You are not leasing / Renting / buying a software, you a “Using a Service” to run your Business. I’m Sure your Phone Bills are more then $200.00 a month, do we scream at them?

Yes, I said I think it is too high - just my opinion, $2400 a year may be worth it for one server, but as hosts grow and get more and have say 5 servers, they are paying 12k for the system...I'd rather pay $25k to a programmer or company to code something I own. If it breaks I can fix it, if yours breaks people have to wait for you to fix it. It's just my opinion, extolling the virtues isn't really going to change that. If you pay $200 in phone bills you must be making some hellacious calls.

The avg website owner doesn't require a ton of features - and anyone who uses it is then tied to it -much like Alabanza stuff. As someone who has grown from a small comapny, the value of owning SW or systems has become more apparent. If I sell my business, isn't it infinitely better to sell as the owner of all the SW or management systems surrounding the business? Certainly - so for all those reasons and the fact that for myself I'd be paying 24k a yr - yes, it is overpriced.

How come nobody ever say that Spera is overpriced ?

I'll say that too - it is way overpriced and not as nice as CPanel3. Am I advocating everyone write their own, no, but bigger hosts or smaller ones growing rapidly, need to consider it at least.

Does Cpanel3 work with Qmail?

marsky: Why be a hosting company in the first place then? Software is much more profitable.

ddunham: cpanel3/whm is a complete new layer on top of your standard linux distro. It requires a modified version of exim for mail (all changes made to exim are avalible on ftp.cpanel.net).

If you are purely in it for profit then i guess do the software. I enjoy hosting, I enjoy programming - however I don't want to spend all my time programming. You enjoy programming and can be profitable - that's cool. Within what i enjoy I will make profitable decisions however - for me our own control panel is one of those decisions that makes good long term business sense. We may market it in the future, who knows - we may make it GPL, no idea. I, along with most hosts, really don't need something as extensive as CPanel3 until we are much larger - and again, at that point it would make more sense for me to own the CP. I'm not telling other hosts to make the same decisions, but as a host of some size (2700 clients) this is a lesson learned - better to own than to rent/lease and better to own than use someone else's proprietary solution. Again, my experience only.

marksy: Its always better to own something then to rent/lease it. However you have to figure out if your time is better spent writing something or just going out and buying it. That of course has to be left up to you. Cpanel is definatly very proprietary, but thats not always a "bad thing." Anyways , I have released some cpanel components under the Artistic License (I'm not a fan of the GPV.. Sorry!)

http://missinglink.darkorb.net/pub/entropychat/
http://www.bandmin.org

and in a few weeks.....
http://www.entropydesk.org
(helpdesk software)

Exactly! Every host should decide if it is worthwhile...Would I release CPanel3 under GPL, no way, it certainly is an incredible piece of software. This thread started with someone asking if they should abandon some development they've already done - I'd say consider all the issues I and others have raised. If you do outsource it, CPanel3 should be your choice.

Originally posted by CRego3D
How come nobody ever say that Spera is overpriced ?

Sphera has a unique product. Unlike control panels that control the virtual account on a machine, Sphera actually splits the resources of that server. Each Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) runs its own mail, ftp and web server. All resources can be metered and allocated manually or on the fly as resources are required. The VDSs can also be moved from machine to machine manually or automatically as server resources require. Each VDS can host virtual accounts. with their own control panel.

I like their product and have gone through their live demo. Cost is a factor, however the VDSs are designed for a price point of $100-$200. Limited to 250 VDSs per server and virtual accounts in each VDS is limited by resources.

I'm not affiliated with Sphera I just like their product. - One question? Is anyone actually using Sphera? :-)

freevsd.com does that - for free.

You are right it does, but does not have as many modules etc... it is more barebones....

Originally posted by marksy
freevsd.com does that - for free.

You always get what you pay for...

What about installation, support, training etc.?

We do the install, optional Training Program, and 24/7 Support. There are also mailing list, FAQ and Manuals.

If you have more then 10 Servers or so we can always work out the pricing and such. but since the pricing is a flat rate per server, you can always get a bigger server and put 1000 accounts on it.

This is not something that "may make you money" it will make you money, we have a long client list thats currently using the cpanel and webhostmanager. so we know that you will be more then happy using it.

I've done a search in vain for cpanel3.

Can someone pls post the url?

Thanks

http://www.vdi.net

With thanks.

also

http://www.cpanel.net

You should check out PLESK. So far we have been pretty pleased with them. You purchase the software out-right @ $500 per server license. The tech-support is awesome.

Plesk.com (http://www.plesk.com)

Just my opinion, but I'd rather go with freevsd then spehera because its free and I can hack new features into it. However, I'd rather have cpanel3, but then again I'm way biased because I have total control of the source code :-) .

I would like to say that I agree with William "it will make you money" since we introduced the Cpanel3 on our RackSpace servers we have had 14 referrals from those clients that just told their freinds how well it worked and the time it saved them.

I would like to disagree with what megmaster said. Pleask is SH*T compared to CP3.

You say Plesk PSA+ is not ok but for $99 one time fee you just can't beat it.

The version I used was ok (plesk). Fast enough, and worked fine, but it wasn't sexy. Nothing that would make your clients ooo and ahhhh. Maybe the newer version will do more but...