How to choose the right control panel

What is a Control Panel?

On Linux systems, a control panel is a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays a simplified set of controls for your system. Control panels are capable of installing, configuring, and updating common software packages and performing Linux system administration tasks. Common features are:

• File management
• Web servers
• Databases
• Nameservers
• Email
• Firewalls
• Logging, monitoring, and analytics

Things to look out for when choosing a control panel

When considering which control panel to use, review the following factors:

• Cost to use the control panel, if any.
• User interface: Does the control panel’s UI appeal to you, and is it easy to understand?
• Features available in the control panel.
• Community support: Is there is a community forum, and do the members seem friendly/helpful?
• Documentation: Is it easy to understand, and are there articles for most/all of the features?
• Paid support (if desired): Is it available, and what is the cost?
• Frequency of updates: Is the control panel actively maintained, and are security updates promptly issued?
• Distributions supported: Can you install the control panel on your preferred Linux distribution?

It’s navigation is logical

Even if youre not a professional, having a control panel can immensely help your work flow by making sure you are able to perform regular tasks quickly. Usability is one of the biggest reasons that we at HostingB2B choose to license cPanel.

Installation is only a click away!

cPanel allows you to install commonly used software with a single click, making your lives much easier!

Vigorous server administration tools

Even though cPanel is an easy panel to use, it provides server administrators with a toolkit to help with most administrative tasks, enabling us to carry these out through the user interface rather than in the command line.

Strong support for operating system

Plesk is leading in the industry of panels for Window servers.

It’s interface is simple

Plesk is much friendlier to an inexperienced user than other panels, because the user needs to follow the instructions step by step to complete the regular tasks, rather than diving right in.

There is support for an SQL Server

If our clients are reliant on Microsoft technologies, Plesk is a must-have to make sure that we can integrate all their technologies with ease.

Webmin’s coding is fully open source.

This gives us the ability to customize the panel to fit each clients needs accordingly.

Keep control of your server

Even though control panels require any change to the GUI, Webmin lets you make command line changes without dettering your system.

Small resource footprint

Unlike most most control panels that need a large RAM space to work, Webmin uses around 256MB of memory, which can be easily reduced by tuning its performance.

• Panels should be designed for safety, reliability, serviceability, maintainability, testability, features and operator friendliness. It should have quality related certifications which will ensure the supplier assures you a high level of workmanship and nearly zero defects.

• Above all, look beyond the price tag. A lower price could seem attractive but often means lower quality in respect to workmanship, which is the driving force of reliability of the unit.

• When choosing a control panel, think of the ergonomics aspect of how the machine is to work. Many control panels are not designed well in terms of accessibility or usability.

• To choose the right control panel, ensure that the engineering design and requirements of operation are conveyed well to the panel supplier. Reputable suppliers will more often than not go over the panel’s requirement in detail with the buyer to make sure there is an excellent level of understanding and iron out any design and implementation misunderstandings.