cPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel from the point of view of a hoster. Part one

Hi, Habr. Not so long ago, I came across an article in TheHostingNews.com, in which the editors compared the two most popular hosting control panels abroad - cPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel. I decided to translate this article for two reasons. First, there is no bias in it, the features of each product are transferred as correctly as possible. Secondly, I didn’t have to see full reviews of hosting panels in RuNet: apparently, it’s customary to discuss some specific “sores” or advantages of a particular solution, without paying much attention to the product as a whole.

Making the translation, I tried to pay special attention to some details of both products, which are fundamentally important from the point of view of hosts. I would be glad if the text and tables will be useful to the community.

Under the cut - the first part (there will be three). In it - the configuration of the test "iron" and directly review the functionality of the panels. The second and third parts will be devoted respectively to the integration of the panels with other software and automation issues in hosting, as well as summarizing. I will publish them tomorrow and the day after tomorrow .
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At the very beginning, TheHostingNews.com team states for whom it has reviewed. Target audience of the study:
- Hosters of all sizes, including large ones (from 1500 customers)
- Intermediaries for the sale of hosting services
- Web developers who create websites for customers and these sites themselves lead, having thus an average of 60 clients
- IT professionals and end users.

Introduction

You can love or hate this or that hosting control panel, but the fact remains: this type of software is necessary for providers, hosting resellers, web developers, and just for those who have a website.

Hosting control panels provide standardization of the most popular scenarios of working with web hosting clients, directly from sites, email accounts and other services. Accordingly, a good and clear hosting management panel is one of the factors for the provider’s business. Understanding of the interface for the end user reduces the number of customer calls to support. Of course, along with this hosting control panel also solves traditional problems. With its help, servers are configured, software is configured for security, and in some cases, various internal and external operations related to hosting management are automated. In general, the panel performs many different functions, so its choice should be approached with all the responsibility.

What do we compare?

For hosting professionals, it is important that the control panel is able to do the maximum possible for this category of software. The motive of buying software "for growth" is absolutely correct. It is better to get redundant functionality than to find out at one point that a particular panel is weak at the knees to service an increasing number of customers or to introduce new services. Moving to a new panel is associated with avralah and failures. At best, it will make your admins nervous, at worst - it can annoy customers and provoke care of some of them, which is highly undesirable, since attracting every customer is expensive.

The Hosting News reviewers diligently listed the specific features of each panel from the point of view of each target group.

"Iron" for tests

Just as the theater begins with a hanger, hosting begins with servers. TheHostingNews.com used for review two almost identical Supermicro servers with 16 processor cores, 12 GB of RAM and two Western Digital enterprise-level hard drives at 7200 rpm. with SATA interface. The operating system on both machines is CentOS 5.5, Linux Kernel 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5 # 1 SMP.

To begin with - a comparative review of the capabilities of the studied solutions. To begin with, we will analyze what the hosting panels of each category of users give.

For site owners, web studios and other IT-professionals

Parameter	Parallels plesk	CPanel
Email. The easiest and perhaps the most popular service from hosters. Both panels support both POP / IMAP and web interface. The functionality is rich: creating accounts, mail forwarding, “black” and “white” address lists, auto answer, mailing lists and antispam.	Mail settings are collected in one tab, everything is simple. Spam is filtered using SpamAssassin (always on). Horde Webmail has an address book and a calendar. Atmail is offered as an alternative to Webmail and is put in a few clicks. XandMail is available free of charge from the application directory. Antivirus can be turned off manually. It was pleasant: it is possible to fasten external applications for e-mail (SquirrelMail, RoundCube), thus the user settings will be saved.	Mail settings are scattered across different windows. Spam is filtered using SpamAssassin (configured by the end user). What we liked: catch-all is enabled by default. Cool: there is a utility to check the route of delivery of e-mail. Users are provided with three email clients - Horde Webmail (with default detailed layout), SquirrelMail and RoundCube.
File management Both panels have a convenient interface for managing files, supporting both basic operations (creating, editing, deleting) and a number of advanced functions, for example, setting access rights.	The Parallels Plesk Panel File Manager is easy to use and includes everything you need for basic file management. Changing files - through its WYSIWYG-editor, from which you can convert into more than 100 formats.	The cPanel file manager asks for confirmation from the user to change this or that directory. The user has three different editors (text, code, HTML), compression and decompression functions, as well as common functionality typical of file managers.
Logs and statistics	By default, Plesk displays statistics graphs via AWstats. You can switch to Webalizer in just a few clicks. Also access logs and error logs are kept. They can be enabled in the Manage Logs menu, and they will be available along with statistics on disk usage and traffic by this or that service (FTP, HTTP, POP3 / IMAP or SMTP). The panel saves and archives the default logs.	cPanel has many options for statistics. You can switch them through the WHM interface. These options include: AWstats, Webalizer, Internet channel usage charts, access logs, error logs and Webalizer statistics on using FTP.
Database management. Both panels include phpMyAdmin (a good choice) and phpPg Admin.	Plesk's strength is its user-friendly interface for creating databases and adding users to them.	CPanel also has no problems with working with the base. Liked. MySQL rights management (user roles for each database) is possible through the database management interface.
Plugins and Add-ons	Plesk has an integrated application store (more than 200 positions) where assemblies of popular free products (like WordPress and Joomla) are available. Delivery and installation of assemblies is carried out in one click - thanks to the proprietary standard APS, whose number of contributors includes Parallels. Life hacking for admin: Plesk integrates Googletools for webmasters, with which the admin can set up a site for better visibility by its search engine and put content blocks on the site - to monetize traffic.	In the current version of cPanel there is no app store, but it is possible to connect Google tools for Webmasters and install many free modules via WHM.
Website creation	Parallels Plesk Panel 10 comes with a built-in Parallels Panel SiteBuilder, in which, in turn, there are site templates (with some content - for clarity) on various topics. The sitebuilder is very thoughtful and extremely flexible. This makes it one of the most powerful options in Parallels Plesk 10.2. Very cool: In just a few minutes, without any HTML skills, a full-featured and cute website is created for any occasion. Cool: SiteBuilder has support for Google Adsense and the Google site search service.	There is no site builder in cPanel - only a WYSIWYG editor in the file manager.
Testing and debugging sites	Plesk Panel 10 allows you to create a debugging copy of a site in just a few clicks to test changes before uploading them to real hosting (which is especially convenient in conjunction with SiteBuilder). Yes, it doesn’t hurt to read the manual, but once you figure it out, and then everything will go on the machine. TheHostingNews.com editors managed to meet this challenge in just 12 seconds. The bottom line is that you take the current content of the site, put it in a separate test environment, make the necessary changes, check how they look / work on the site and publish a test version instead of the current one with a clear conscience.	CPanel does not have a debugging site function, but this task can be done manually: create a subdomain, create a copy of the database and files, edit the configuration file, and then repeat it all in reverse order when the test site is ready to run.
SSL features	PleskPanel 10.2 has an SSL interface for purchasing SSL certificates and installing them on the site. I liked it: you can purchase a certificate from the control panel through Business Manager.	cPanel also provides SSL management.
user management	In Plesk Panel 10, much attention is paid to the role-based model of user access to the control panel, to FTP, to billing, etc. This is important if you want to allow other people different levels of access for different types of work with the site.	Allows a few clicks to create subaccounts for special services, such as email and FTP.
Interface usability	The Parallels product interface has become significantly more enjoyable when compared to the ninth version of Plesk Panel. Available text help and video tutorials. Cool: Plesk has several display modes. The default mode is shared hosting. But there is a Power User mode. It is designed for small hosters or for web studios, who prefer to sell hosting services through themselves and efficiently manage customer sites. In the Power User mode (for VPS hosting or for hosting on a dedicated server), billing and reselling options are hidden. They are simply not needed here. Power User Mode helps to focus only on those options that are really needed by a specific user.	cPanel is an extremely logical interface, for which the panel is loved all over the world. Help is available in a special section. Cool: cPanel has video tutorials open to the provider's customers. According to the developers, the lessons will help reduce the need for end-customer support by the staff of the hosting company.
Versions for VPS. Both panels offer them.	RAM requirements for the standard Plesk version - 170 MB, in the VPS version optimized - 57 MB.	RAM requirements for the standard cPanel version - 252 MB, in the VPS version optimized - 94 MB.

For resellers and web developers

Parameter	Parallels plesk	CPanel
Creating accounts. Although this process is automated and simplified using various APIs, creating accounts from the panel remains an important operation. Both panels offer a password strength indicator and thus help to eliminate the main breach in the field of web security - weak access codes.	The logic of adding new customers is simple and straightforward. Since Plesk Panel 10.2 can work together with Business Manager, or separately, make sure which version works for you. The BM version has more fields to fill out (company, fax, etc.). It is important that when a client is added to the control panel, it is not added automatically to the BM. I liked it: in the window for adding a new client, you can immediately select a subscription and a service plan for it. And here you can add to the selected subscription various additional services.	During the creation of a new account, the panel does not ask for unnecessary information. By default, an account is created with resource limits. To change the limits manually, you need to go to a special menu. I liked: the shortness of the menu and the speed of the panel. Excellent password generator.
Account / build templates. Both panels have many options for setting up basic (e-mail, disk space, etc.) and advanced (special applications and management tools) functions. Therefore, the panels do their work perfectly.	PleskPanel 10.2 allows you to fine-tune account templates. Service plans are templates for resource consumption and for additional add-ons above the base rate, which can also be included in hosting services. Any changes made to the tariff plans will be applied to existing accounts. Integration with Business Manager also allows you to create service plans not in PPP10, but in Business Manager. The system of assigning rights allows you to set user access to special programs and features inside the panel that looks at the end user. These are DNS, backup, spam filter and site statistics. Liked: For each user, you can set a limit on the number of connections.	cPanel "understands" hosting plans as service packages. You can create a custom package in which there are restrictions on resources and account settings. If you make a change in the package, it will affect all existing packages for a specific hosting plan. New settings will be applied automatically. The main client and resellers (access levels) can restrict the access of individual users or groups of users to applications and features from a specially created user / Feature List group. Feature lists are assigned to the packages, and thus with their help, new accounts are created. CPanel does not have its own billing system. Liked: video tutorials option.
Account Management	In Parallels Plesk Panel 10.2, there is a structure of user roles with the ability to separate individual customers and resellers. Cool: the subscription can be transferred to another user.	The cPanel system is reminiscent of Linux, where every user must have his own account and log in under it. If he wants to create his system account, he must register as a reseller.
Domain Management	PPP 10.2 has a section for managing the DNS configuration and other settings that are set from the default template. DNS is configured in the panel, which is available to the end user. Cool: the user can manage the default DNS settings. For some hosters this is good, for others it is bad. But in the settings you can remove this feature from the number of options available to end-users for any of them or for all tariff plans.	The standard has the option of remote clustering, which allows you to synchronize zones between servers with cPanel / WHM and DNS-only servers. It was pleasant: clustering is carried out in several clicks.
Resource Report	PPP 10 provides both simple and advanced ways to control resource consumption. I liked it: accounts are sorted on one page by type, by disk space usage and the number of applications used.	cPanel provides almost the same features as Plesk Panel 10.2, but when viewing resource statistics, you need to navigate through many different pages within the panel.
Ease of use / navigation	One URL for both users and admins. Same interfaces for Windows and Linux versions. Friendly, easy to learn interface.	There is a search - you can find the location of functions. Functions are named so that they are intuitive. Almost all operations are available no further than two clicks from the main page of the control panel.

For large web hosters

Parameter	Parallels plesk	CPanel
System requirements. Before you the minimum system requirements for which the panel will start. In normal life, use a minimum is not recommended.	The processor is 266 MHz, RAM 512 MB (1 GB, if there are many accounts on the server; when using SiteBuilder the required minimum is 768 MB), the hard disk is 10 GB. Funny: the panel will start on the server, made in 1998!	The processor is 266 MHz, RAM 512 MB (1 GB, if there are many accounts on the server; when using SiteBuilder the required minimum is 768 MB), the hard disk is 10 GB. Funny: the panel will start on the server, made in 1998!
OS support	CentOS 5.x, 4.x; RedHatEnterprise 5.x, 4x; Ubuntu 10.04, 8.04 LTS; openSUSE 11.3, 11.1, 11.0, 10.3; Debian GNU / Linux 5.0, 4.0; CloudLinux 5; Windows Server 2008 SP2, R2 (Datacenter, Enterprise, and Standards Conditions); Windows Server 2003 R2, SP1, SP2 (Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions)	CentOS 5.x, 4.x; RedHat Enterprise 5.x, 4x; FreeBSD-RELEASE versions 7.3, 8.0, 8.1; Windows (WindowsServer 2008 R2 is supported by EnPompass from cPanel)
Email, mail server and antispam	PPP10.2 comes with good old Qmail. Also available for installation service Postfix. Spam Assassin can be deployed additionally as desired. Parallels Premium Antivirus is available for a fee.	cPanel uses Exim, which is constantly being improved during development. Exim maintains logs and supports additional functionality add-ins. Spam Assassin is also there, it supports black and white lists. Free plugin protects against viruses. Clamav
Apache configuration	Plesk provides the default RPM based Apache server configuration (to always have the most current version with security patches), which can be changed by installing additional modules or another RPM. Shared hosting templates can be changed through the system administrator interface.	cPanel / WHM offers access to very detailed Apache HTTPD server configuration settings, including changing the httpd.conf file and its directives, changing PHP and SuExec, changing memory usage settings, and several other important options directly from the control panel.
Isolation sites. High density web hosting supported	Plesk uses FastCGI to isolate default sites. Also included in the control panel is SecureLVE, when Cloud Linux is deployed as an OS.	cPanel uses suPHP by default.
Backup and Restore Both panels support these options at the user level, at the server level, and also allow you to configure automatic backup / restore.	In PPP10.2, there is a Backup Manager, with which you can back up only the configuration, or the entire server. In addition, the backup can be configured and downloaded / deployed to remote servers. Cool: the recovery interface allows you to skip those repositories that conflict with the current server configuration.	The cPanel backup settings allow you to make backups with or without compression. There are options for scheduling backups, skipping backups for individual users, backups of remote servers and backups of configurations only. Backup and restore runs both on the command line and through the web interface. Cool: the backup process is especially good if it comes from cPanel to cPanel and through the cPanel interface.
Transfer account	In PPP10.2, it is easy to transfer accounts between Plesk servers (Windows and Linux) using the Migration Manager. Accounts created on cPanel are almost as easy to transfer - you just need to enter the root password.	Very cool: cPanel offers several types of account transfer (bulk or single) from one cPanel to another cPanel or to another product from cPanel. Most types of migration can be done by entering a user password, which is convenient for users who switch to another hosting.
Database. Both panels support MySQL and PostgreSQL.	PostgreSQL support in PPP 10 is easily installed from the panel installer. Remote database servers are natively supported.	cPanel supports PostgreSQL right out of the box. Attached convenient installer. Remote database servers are also supported.
Condition monitoring tools. Both panels are ready to monitor the server status, these functions are at the distance of one or two clicks. Monitors CPU utilization, RAM usage, disk usage.	Monitoring tools are located at: Home> ServerTools> System statistics interface, although the actual statistics are Health Monitoring Suite. The data is displayed in real-time graphs for Apache, MySQL, CPU, memory - you just need to tick. In addition to displaying statuses, simple indicators have appeared that will allow even a user without technical background to understand how the server is OK or NOT OK. Services for stopping / resuming / reloading are located at: Home> Tools> Services Management. Very cool: the disk load schedule and the swap usage schedule will tell when the server might crash.	In cPanel / WHM there is a list of running processes, a push button for terminating processes running in the background, a page with the status of the Apache server. The restart function is implemented through the Restart services menu. Like it: WHM can be configured to alert you by email when server load becomes critical.
Billing software	About the functionality of the Business Manager, you can write a book. About the excellent integration of this product will be discussed a little later, but now it is important to note: you get a billing solution out of the box, moreover, completely free. Very cool: PPP10 billing works with cPanel servers.	CPanel has no billing software, but this panel supports third-party systems. True, they will have to be bought separately.
Updates	OS updates are installed via Yum. With Parallels, updates can be rolled into specific services that are managed from the panel. The update menu is available in the Server Tools section. There you can enable / disable updates or micro-updates. If they are enabled, the critical software will be updated, for example proftpd. Major updates are set as RPM. Cool: customers receive notification of updates 30 days before its release.	OS updates are made via Yum, updates for applications (MySQL, Bind, etc.) are specified separately. It is possible to customize the update of the actual control panel depending on the version (Stable, Release, Current, Edge), in order to measure the risks and the possible functionality of the new versions. It was pleasant: both major, and minor updates can be put automatically.
Ease of use / level of control	PPP 10 is well insured against user error. When managing via the web interface in PPP10, it is very difficult to break something by pressing the wrong button.	cPanel / WHM provides enough opportunities for the end-user not to press what is needed and break something. At the same time, the possibilities for repairing are also huge.

If you've read to the end - thanks :) Tomorrow will be the second post of the series. Stay tuned to this blog.