We've used cPanel for many years. A long time ago it had way more features, and was so much easier for clients to use than Plesk, so I put up with all the bugs for which cPanel is known.

However, the bugs have gotten so bad lately that it takes up all my time trying to get them fixed. Our servers are not oversold at all, the loads are minimal, and everything is up-to-date. Its just the basic cPanel set up, nothing special, yet its one mini-disaster after another. I just want something that works the way it is supposed to. I've heard that Plesk has gotten a lot better, and am so fed up with cPanel that I'm willing to begin the monumental task of transferring customers to Plesk (which means that some will undoubtedly be lost.)

Before giving Plesk another chance, I would like to know if anyone who has recently used both cPanel and Plesk has anything to add. Specifically, how bad are the bugs, if any, with Plesk?

I don't care if it has slightly fewer features than cPanel. I just want everything that comes with it to work as advertised. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Any thoughts?

I used plesk client only interface and it seems to be ok. But then again I've also used cPanel and WHM and haven't really had any issues.

I have only a few clients so far, but only error I got from cPanel is that the www Linux shortcut folder that was supposed to point to the public_html folder wasn't and the clients site didn't work when he uploaded it to the www folder. Only issue I've had with cPanel since I started.

But from what I've seen of plesk it's stable and haven't had any errors, from the clients side. But I have to say that it's very featureless :(

...However, the bugs have gotten so bad lately that it takes up all my time trying to get them fixed...Important line. Probably the main reason I use Plesk is because of its stability. I have about a dozen servers running thousands of domains and probably average ONE support ticket per day, and that normally has nothing to do with the control panel! I've been sat here for 2 days now with zero support tickets :cool:

I haven't used cpanel, I remember looking into it years ago and soon turned my back on it. I'm sure its improved since then but still nowhere near as stable as Plesk. I wouldn't consider using any other control panel as I know it will lead to a dramatic increase in Support tickets (and support costs).

One thing I don't like about Plesk is the company behind it.

What do you not like about SWsoft?

Just a few personal disagreements with the way they treat their customers and they can take a looong time to correct some (minor) bugs. Not going to go into all that here though.

If you manage to get in touch with the programmers (I think most are Ukrainian), you can get very fast responses to problems and implementation of features. Going through the proper SWsoft channels can be extremely slow.

I've dealt with both and cPanel's distinct advantage is it's popularity, but it doesn't have the stability or reliability I have found in Plesk.

SW-Soft is working to put Plesk on par with the features cPanel has and they are getting very close. I expect with the release of Plesk 9, hopefully sometime mid to 3rd quarter 07, they will match cPanel's feature set.

As for the issues with SW-soft I would ask if ZeroSixty is a partner or leases his licenses.

Unfortunately this does make a difference. If you lease your licenses from SW-Soft on a retail basis or from one of there partners the support is not the same as if you are a partner.

Although, if you plan to become a partner review all of the options so you can make the best choice for you.

Thank you all for the advice. I think I will add a Plesk server in the near future and begin transferring any customers who are willing to give it a try.

One more thing from the wonderful SWsoft management (sorry, they've really annoyed me this time) - SPAM direct to your clients via Plesk!

http://forum.swsoft.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38274

Grrrrr.....such a good product is being destroyed :(

One more thing from the wonderful SWsoft management (sorry, they've really annoyed me this time) - SPAM direct to your clients via Plesk!

http://forum.swsoft.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38274

Grrrrr.....such a good product is being destroyed :(

I just brought up a Plesk 8.1 box and haven't had the chance to look at it, but the Plesk News is no different than what cPanel does........

cPanel by far is the best hosting control panel available

I do believe most hosts use cPanel or DirectAdmin

cPanel by far is the best hosting control panel available

I do believe most hosts use cPanel or DirectAdmin

You need to broaden your view of the world. cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, Ensim, and hSphere are all widely used on Linux.

Then you have Helm, Plesk, hSphere, Hosting Controller and maybe others for Windows.

I don't feel like digging now, but at one point a market share analysis showed cPanel as top with Plesk as second for Linux hosting control panels.

And Plesk is gaining ground little by little due to issues like this with cPanel.

My personal preference is cPanel

"Best" is a relative term. cPanel is best for you if you like a lot of features and have easy-going customers. But for serious, no-nonsense customers with mission-critical needs, it sounds like Plesk is best.

I have been using DirectAdmin lately and it has been a very pleasant experience. Far easier than using Cpanel.

Anyone know if Plesk is allowed to SPAM customers?

I must say, I very strongly disagree with the prevailing viewpoint in this thread. From a stability standpoint, I find both of them to be about the same. Both of them have both bugs and design flaws, both with varying degrees of severity. I don't think either one trumps the other in that regard.

But what really separates the two is the flexibility of cPanel. IMO, cPanel is far more forgiving on making custom changes to your configuration that Plesk. To the point where it becomes a debilitating factor on administration. The kicker was this past week when setting up rails for a Plesk customer, which was far more cumbersome than the times I've done it on cPanel (or boxes with no control panel). It's this level of control that wins me over for cPanel. And the fact that, at least in my experience, it is just as stable as Plesk truly gives it the leg up from my standpoint. The fact that Plesk stores so much of it's information in a MySQL database is a design flaw IMO.

I've used Plesk since 5 and cpanel/whm on other servers. I find that Plesk has always been more stable, less security problems, etc. With 7 and 8 the features set and just entire interface is way better than cPanel.

I've used Plesk since 5 and cpanel/whm on other servers. I find that Plesk has always been more stable, less security problems, etc. With 7 and 8 the features set and just entire interface is way better than cPanel.What about the spamming issues? And the advertising that Plesk do?

What about the spamming issues? And the advertising that Plesk do?
What are you talking about?

I must say, I very strongly disagree with the prevailing viewpoint in this thread. From a stability standpoint, I find both of them to be about the same. Both of them have both bugs and design flaws, both with varying degrees of severity. I don't think either one trumps the other in that regard.

But what really separates the two is the flexibility of cPanel. IMO, cPanel is far more forgiving on making custom changes to your configuration that Plesk. To the point where it becomes a debilitating factor on administration. The kicker was this past week when setting up rails for a Plesk customer, which was far more cumbersome than the times I've done it on cPanel (or boxes with no control panel). It's this level of control that wins me over for cPanel. And the fact that, at least in my experience, it is just as stable as Plesk truly gives it the leg up from my standpoint. The fact that Plesk stores so much of it's information in a MySQL database is a design flaw IMO.

I've never seen a cPanel box as stable as a Plesk box when administrated properly. I've administrated both and not only does cPanel have "MORE" bugs and problems, it's completely prioprietary design makes it hard to implement anything that they don't add themselves.

As for Plesk using MySQL being a design flaw, how do you see that? MySQL is rated as one of the best database systems out there and one of the most widely used.

"Note, I didn't say the best".

At least Plesk uses a centeralized transaction storing method so that when problems do occur you have a centralized area to rebuild from.

Using "JUST" the database you could rebuild an entire plesk server, minus data, can cPanel say the same? No.

The other advantage of this is the fact you can run scripts to verify "ALL" data against the database.

Unfortunately when you get "disappearing" accounts on cpanel show me one script that could recreate them or even help you track them down.

Both have there advantages, personally I believe Plesk is the better of the two "OTHER" than the changes to the desktop.

As for the desktop changes and the person who commented it as spam and wondered if they could do that.

They own the software. They sell "licenses" to use the software that "they" own so in essence they can do whatever they want, unfortunately.

cPanel is only good for people new to linux, whom have no idea how to manage their server. But once people understand how to do most of the stuff via shell, most of cPanel's features seem useless.

I use DirectAdmin, it has all features I need, and the price is very reasonable, especially if you're getting it from your dc, rather than direct.

What are you talking about?

He's talking about Plesk 8.1 which was released yesterday. It contains advertising for other SW Soft product (Virtuozzo) that cannot be turned off without hacking the Plesk control panel CSS files.

It also contains ads for SW Soft products in Horde/IMP webmail, where they included a new "News Feed" widget sort of thing that all users who log into webmail will see by default.

It grabs real world news from some RSS feed, but it also has manually injected "News items" from SW Soft where they try to pimp their product.

There's a lot of outrage and debate going on over this on the SWsoft forums and I think that the dissent from customers will only grow louder over the next few days as more people give Plesk 8.1 a try and discover the new ad-ware.

I've seen it also and I don't agree with it. I'm looking at what ways there are to remove it and have also emailed my rep at SW-Soft over it. Luckily we don't have 8.1 on any servers nor will we be installing it at the moment.

I don't mind the Virtuozzo feed as it is "ONLY" for the admin to see, but the other feeds are an issue.

He's talking about Plesk 8.1 which was released yesterday. It contains advertising for other SW Soft product (Virtuozzo) that cannot be turned off without hacking the Plesk control panel CSS files.

It also contains ads for SW Soft products in Horde/IMP webmail, where they included a new "News Feed" widget sort of thing that all users who log into webmail will see by default.

It grabs real world news from some RSS feed, but it also has manually injected "News items" from SW Soft where they try to pimp their product.

There's a lot of outrage and debate going on over this on the SWsoft forums and I think that the dissent from customers will only grow louder over the next few days as more people give Plesk 8.1 a try and discover the new ad-ware.Gotcha, the misuse of the term spam confused me. I hadn't noticed that yet, it sucks but it will be gone soon, none of their partners will stand for that sort of thing. I'll go add a bitchy post at swsoft as well.

I would say Plesk, Why?
Pretty much simple, because Plesk NOT includes all useless options and add-ons thats only overload the server and also from what i could see Plesk much more BugFree and even i can say Littlebit more secured.

but that's only an opinion. Control panel is like a good bear every one loves some thing deffer in every and each control panel.

:)