First of all, when it comes to choosing a web hosting control panel, the one thing you might want to consider first is which of the web hosting control panels will be suitable for you. Because Plesk and cPanel have dominate the market of server management tool.
Likewise it comes to the question of which is a better one? Read on to find out!
What is Web Hosting control panel?
While Web Hosting control panels provide a web-based interface to manage your hosting. Therefore, common things you should do with hosting control panels are:
- Manage your domain name (example: yourdomain.com)
- Manage your files on the server
- Set email accounts ([email protected])
- Handle databases
- Server security management
- Install server software
In short, a web hosting control panel gives you a web-based interface to manage your hosting setup.
About Plesk and cPanel
Interface
Because in user point of view, Plesk provides a cleaner graphic user interface (GUI) which makes it simpler to understand and easy to use. Thus, the interface is more streamlined with all the tools grouped on the left of the screen. So, you will find more options hidden under each tool.
In contrast, cPanel do not group the features and tools and make it look cluttered. Because it allows the user to customize the home screen, giving them the convenience to find things easily.
Security
Next, security is the main concern when it comes to your company website. Thus, their security features are different, both make the server bulletproof. But, Plesk and cPanel both come with numerous security tools. Hence, below will be the contrast in security of these two control panels.
Plesk
- Plesk Firewall – Plesk’s custom firewall that you can configure.
- AutoSSL – automatically installs and renews Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
- ImunifyAV – intelligent antivirus and monitoring tools: one-click malware cleanup, domain reputation monitoring, blacklist status checking.
- Fail2ban – a tool to scan log files and ban IP addresses that appear to be doing malicious things.
- Spam defence for emails
cPanel
- AutoSSL – automatically installs and renews Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
- cPHulk brute force protection.
- Supports CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall).
- Email spam filters
- Each user get to use SSH access, IP blocker, hotlink protection, leech protection, ModSecurity, two-factor authentication.
Distros
Besides, Plesk can be on Linux or Windows operating system, whereas cPanel is only on Linux operating system.
In contrast, Plesk work with 14 Linux distros which include Debian, CentOS, and Ubuntu. Hence, it is compatible with Windows servers. While, cPanel only supports CentOS, CloudLinux and RedHat Enterprise Linux.
Which is better?
A quick summary for both Web Hosting control panels:
| Feature | Plesk | cPanel |
| Works on | Support both Linux and Windows operating systems.
|
cPanel is Linux control panel.
Supported distributives: CentOS, Cloud Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. |
| Web Server | Apache, NGINX with caching | Apache with Nginx caching |
| Administration | Unified authorization procedure for users and administrators. | Consists of cPanel and WHM.
cPanel gives access control only over the website while WHM is accessible only for server-related administrational tasks |
| Security | A lot of security features are provided in the box (Plesk Firewall, Revisium Antivirus, Fail2ban) | AutoSSL, cPHulk, built-in support of CSF/LFD and some other useful features |
| WordPress support | WordPress Toolkit provides a full list of automation & management features vital for the scalable WordPress infrastructure support. | cPanel’s WordPress Manager is far away from perfection. |
| Extensions/Add-ons | Plesk comes with the ecosystem of various extensions, covering all possible needs of any server administrator. Among these extensions are Security Advisor, WordPress Toolkit, Joomla! Toolkit, Let’s Encrypt SSL support, SEO Toolkit etc. |
Extra apps are available via auto-installers. |
| DBMS | MySQL / MariaDB / MSSQL Server databases can be managed via a web browser. | MySQL/MariaDB databases management via web interface |
| SSL | Let’s Encrypt + Symantec | AutoSSL with Let’s Encrypt |
| Mobile accessibility | 
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| Backups | Ready to use solutions based on Dropbox, Acronis, Google Drive | Compatibility issues can be spotted between various cPanel backup versions. |
| Technologies | Support of Docker, Git, Node.js, WordPress Toolkit | Docker, Node.Js & Git can be still supported by cPanel (Workaround more sophisticated) |
Finally, which is better?
We’re afraid there are no straightforward answers. Similarly, both of these web hosting control panels comes with the features that are essential for you. Overall, both of the control panels make it possible to take full advantage of your web server.
But as a human who has to use an interface every day, you want to choose the one that makes your life easier.
