Early this month Cpanel announcing new licensing structure to customers who are using Cpanel for hosting control panel. Cpanel no longer offer UNLIMITED hosting account per license for VPS and Metal server but the licensing structure will be based on how many account in the server.
There are 4 type of license which is Solo, Admin, Pro and Premier. Cpanel Solo is for single account, Admin for 5 accounts, Pro for 30 accounts while Premier is for 100 accounts. Cpanel Solo, Admin and Pro is for VPS/Cloud only. For Premier can be installed on Cloud and Metal server and the additional account after 100 accounts will be charged $0.20 each.
So, what is the alternative?
Actually there are many other control panel for hosting out there including free version. But the majority user still using Cpanel because of easy to use and straight forward interface. Some free version control panel like Centos web panel is a good alternative but still lack of functionality and rely on fundraising for development. Actually CWP is the good alternative for Cpanel especially if you just want to create functional website with basic features.
Centos WebPanel(CWP)
We already test CWP and below is our finding.
>>>Weakness
– Cannot restore addon domain
– Only can restore per account. Not per batch.
– Account password reset and email reset.
– Addon domain email not restored.
>>The advantages
– Free
– Can restore full Cpanel backup
– Softaculous support
– User interface same as Cpanel
– Cloudlinux support
Plesk
We also try Plesk control panel. We found Plesk is a good replacement for Cpanel with lower price with UNLIMITED hosting but the price structure might change because the parent company who own Cpanel also own Plesk.
>>>Weakness
– Paid license
– Account restore under admin and not under user.
>>The advantages
– Can restore account by batch.
– Tested restore account. No problem found just account restore under admin.
– User friendly
– Cloudlinux support
VestaCP
Another control panel we test is VestaCP. We found this control panel also a good alternative for Cpanel but the interface may not very user friendly. New user might find difficult to use.
>>>Weakness
– Cannot restore cpanel account by batch.
– Simple interface but not user friendly, Just have web,DNS,Mail,DB,Cron and Backup.
– Not really user friendly
>>>The advantages
– Free
– Can restore cpanel backup with addon domain, db and email
– Support Softaculous
Directadmin
We also try Directadmin control panel. Recently they have update their cpanel restore script because the restore script before Cpanel price change is complicated. We have test and found the restore script have no problem to restore cpanel backup but must put under admin backup folder.
>>>Weakness
– Paid license
– No verbose log during restore. Only have log after success/failed restore
>>>The advantages
– Have many features same like Cpanel
– Softaculous support
– Cloudlinux support
We also try Sentora and Cyberpanel. Sentora is free while Cyberpanel developed by the people who develop Litespeed.
Conclusion
The best alternative for paid control panel is Plesk and Directadmin. Alternative for Free control panel is Centos Webpanel.