I'm not an expert in website administration.
I have only one site, a personal one. I started with a very personal page, less than ten visits a day, but all of a sudden, after I started writing some pages about a certain game, my visits had a huge increase in visits so I'm dedicating more time to the website, still a personal website, non-commercial.
But, the point is: my webhost company gave me ensim control panel when I signed it. Then, I read a lot of messages about how ensim "sucks" and how cpanel is way better than ensim, so I asked my webhosting company if they could change my control panel to cpanel and they did. But, I'm not liking cpanel. Actually, I found ensim more user-friendly and there are some features in ensim that I can't find in cpanel and that I miss a lot, as squirrelmail (cpanel has its own webmail softwares, but they don't have an easy address like squirrellmail). So, my question is:

Why the expert webmasters say that cpanel is better than ensim? What features cpanel has that ensim doesn't? What is so bad in ensim?

Thanks for your opinions.

To put it simply -- eyecandy. Cpanel looks good (well, it looks better), navigates well and over all is a useful system in terms of user interface. Cpanel also has more "extras" like scripts and little utilities. In the end ensim is probably pretty close in features and more stable but layout and user understanding go a LONG way. After all, what good is a panel if you cant figure out how to use it?

They're supposed to be working on making Ensim look better now (they're supposed to be adding a 'skin' feature sometime in the future from what I've read around here), so I guess maybe Ensim will get the eyecandy value CPanel allready has and be better appreciated.

I personally prefer Ensim over CPanel. Don't ask me why, I just do. Probably because it has grown on me. I must admit I've only used CPanel as an end user, so I don't know what it's like on the sysadmin side... But I know I wouldn't pay $99 a month for a licence, that's for sure.

funny thing, when I talked to an ensim sales rep about the layout (6 months ago) they told me they didn’t allow license holders to change the layout because they didn’t want people making them look bad by providing a bad layout with their logo on it. he also told me that people who use ensim like the layout (question is, how many don’t use it because they don’t like the layout).

i do agree though, ensim is more stable and more practical. $99 a month for a panel per server is just not right

I've always used CPanel, and have been using Ensim on one server since the beginning of this year.

The reasons I do not like Ensim include:
1. It lacks many important features. Just an example... End-users can not create sub-domains or additional MySQL databases.
2. The interface is clunky and can not be customized.
3. Its shells are too limited. Yes I'm all for security, but when you can't even tar a file...
4. Lack of reseller support at this time (I heard this will be added in the next version).

So basically I think if Ensim can add a few very needed features, add the ability for custom skins, and add easy reseller support and they're on to a winner. Also make it more flexible... Right now if you as much as touch the kernel for example it will break. Not very good.

CPanel has many more features than ensim, shopping carts pre-installed etc.... is easier to work with, easier to understand for the user and has a good reseller interface.

I hear about the ensim reseller add on - Is it actually released and working yet?

I really don't get why you need to have 3 levels of site/server management with ensim, seems pretty pointless to me.

As for the monthly fee - $99 is about double what most people pay for CPanel/WHM on a dedicated and you can now get CPanel/WHM for only $19.95 per month with certain providers.

Oh, I vote CPanel btw...... lol

Regards

Thanks for your opinions.
I'm an end-user.
I noticed that cpanel is prettier than ensim but what makes me really prefer ensim is the webmail option.
In ensim I have squirrellmail and I can access my webmail just by using the address:
http://mydomain.com/webmail
But, I don't see this option in cpanel. There are two options but both have a big address to access webmail.
Also, I think I'm used to the "ugliness" of ensim.

1. It lacks many important features. Just an example... End-users can not create sub-domains or additional MySQL databases. I'm hoping the subdomain thing will be addressed in LS 3.1. Endusers can create their own databases, at least I think they can, should be just a matter of setting the user's permissions up right in phpmyadmin.

3. Its shells are too limited. Yes I'm all for security, but when you can't even tar a file... Strange, I've never had any trouble tarring a file in SSH on my Ensim server...

Ensim has it's drawbacks, but the programmers seem to be addressing them slowly, so let's just hope the endproduct is the stable CP Ensim is now combined with the versatility of CPanel in one package.

In ensim I have squirrellmail and I can access my webmail just by using the address:
http://mydomain.com/webmail
But, I don't see this option in cpanel. There are two options but both have a big address to access webmail.


CPanel users can access webmail like so...

http://mydomain.com/webmail/ - Only 1 character longer than the URL that you referenced to.
:)

Ensim is about 100000x's more secure then cpanel. A friend of mine who is a security guru audited cpanel code about 2 months ago and found many many vulnerabilities, infact he got access to the code by , well by rooting cpanels website... I am sure ensim and plesk have some undisclosed vulnerabilities but cpanel seems like it was very sloppily coded. They seriously need someone to do an audit.


My 2 cents..

Originally posted by stack
Ensim is about 100000x's more secure then cpanel. A friend of mine who is a security guru audited cpanel code about 2 months ago and found many many vulnerabilities, infact he got access to the code by , well by rooting cpanels website... I am sure ensim and plesk have some undisclosed vulnerabilities but cpanel seems like it was very sloppily coded. They seriously need someone to do an audit.


My 2 cents..

I just cracked an Ensim box so I would say that vulnerabilities are everywhere.

You cannot compare CPanel with Ensim, they are something completely different. It's like comparing PLESK PSA with HSPHERE or HostGUi

Did you crack it using ENSIM code or the redhat rpm's? I have access to many ensim boxes, most of them are vulnerable but not from ensim's code but a lack of security updates of the vulnerable rpm's. Cpanel is vulnerable from within its control panel code.

Any box is vulnerable if they dont keep up to date with the latest security advisories, but i was referring to the actual code of the control panel softwares. No code is uncrackable and you are right vulnerabilities are everywhere but it would be much harder to crack an ensim box by trying to crack ensims code then it would be to crack a cpanel box.