Plesk 12.5 vs cPanel 11.56: Which One is Better?

On average, most websites use a scoring system of hosting features for day to day operations from spam filtering to web analytics. Most control panels do deliver on most of these features, but do have their own unique differences within their usability, security, maintainability and much more.  Therefore, both Plesk 12.5 and cPanel 11.56 have a natural design with subtle differences with the way features are grouped together and worded. This can make a big difference to someone who is just starting out. It is important that all control panels are user friendly and easily customisable. Deciding on which control panel to use for your business, you should check out these factors of each control panel.

Plesk 12.5 vs cPanel Functionality

A control panel is required to only deliver four services which are DNS, Mail, Web and Database when just looking at the basics. Web hosting is more complicated and one needs spam filtering, SSL management, backups, reseller support, file management, log analytics and much more. Both Plesk and cPanel cover these features the best.  The difference between these two panels is the additional features that are offered by 3^rd party contributors. Plesk 12.5 offers add-ons through their extensions directory, parallels add-on directory and from external app providers; including 4PSA. However, cPanel offers API based access which allows multiple external contributors to build add-ons which extend the basic cPanel functionality; such as Fantastico, CSF firewall and RV Skins – that increase the amount of apps and improves security.

Operating System Support

Plesk 12.5 is capable of working on both Windows and Linux servers with the same feature sets and interface. In comparison to cPanel; which is only on Linux servers. If you are trying to spread your market as wide as possible; with the Windows hosting market being big, Plesk 12.5 is a better fit.

Usability with Plesk 12.5 and cPanel 11.56

The web UI needs to be intuitive in order for customers to not find control panels; with an easy interface to manage complex server operations to be difficult in order to run daily business operations. These two control panels are equipped for entry level web masters; offering various functions that are organised under related groups. CPanel provides a UI with a low barrier of entry, making it a clean minimalist design with bold functions and big icons. Plesk 12.5 is a bit more congested offering multiple options that are presented on the main page. However the account actions are not as easy as cPanel with the left-side pane. Also. the ungrouped options make it a bit confusing for new comers.

Multi-System Management

cPanel provides a multi-server functionality that clusters all your servers together, making it easy to login to all the servers at one time. This makes it simple to run updates every time a new one is released as well as security updates being published. With cPanel you are able to login as the administrator and update all servers with a single command, which Plesk 12.5 doesn’t offer.

In conclusion, it really depends on what you are looking for! Choosing a system you feel would run your servers more efficiently. Both Plesk 12.5 and cPanel are good choices depending on what features really best suit your needs. Contact us now for more information at www.bytehouse.co.uk.