In the world of web hosting, there are two control panels that are commonly used; cPanel and Plesk. Both solutions are usually offered by all web hosting companies on a VPS or dedicated server plan, and they are usually at about the same price. Sometimes you may find Plesk offered for less than cPanel, but that will be different. If you use a shared hosting solution, you are usually offered only the cPanel user.
Comparison table: cPanel vs Plesk
Compare cPanel and Plesk face to face in the table below.
| Cpanel | Plesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Auto Install | ||
| Yes/No? | Yes | Yes |
| Statistics Features | ||
| Services | Analog, AwStats, Webalizer | Webalizer, Plesk Traffic Manager, AWStats |
| Other features | Custom Reports, Graphical Analysis, Logs, Log Rotation | Real-time bandwidth, user reports, graphical user breakdowns |
| DNS features | ||
| Services | Bind | Bind |
| Other features | Clustering, Auto-tuning Hands-off | Remote DNS, support for load balancing, master / slave management, automatic file mapping, DNS recursion, SOA settings |
| FTP Information | ||
| Services | proFTPd and PureFTPd | Proftpd |
| Other features | Access to letter to disk, anonymous FTP, image file manager FTP upload, additional accounts | Anonymous FTP, directory upload, FTP Throttling, file manager |
| Database support | ||
| Services | MySQL, PostgreSQL | MySQL, PostgreSQL |
| Admin panels | phpMyAdmin, phpPgAdmin | phpMyAdmin, phpPgMyAdmin, Secure Setup, Multi-user / Multi-DB |
| Mail Features | ||
| Services | Exim, Courier-IMAP, Courier-POP | Qmail |
| Distribution list | postman | Mailman Aliasing, answering machines, groups, user access |
| Webmail | Horde, Squirrelmail | Horde imp |
| Anti spam | SpamAssassin, BoxTrapper, Spam Boxing | Spamassassin |
| Antiviruses | Clamav | DrWeb, Kaspersky |
| Web features | ||
| Web servers | apache | apache |
| Scenarios | Apache, CGI-Perl, PHP, SSI, JSP | Apache ASP, PHP, Python, SSI, CGI, Mod_Perl, Ruby, FastCGI |
| Devlopement Tools | Frontpage | Coldfusion |
| Security | SSL, phpSuExec, SuPHP, mod_security | SSL, Suexec |
| access | IP Deny Manager, Hotlink Defender, Anti-Leech, Passwords | unknown |
| mistakes | Recent 300 Errors, Custom Error Pages | unknown |
| Account Types / Levels | ||
| Reseller Login | Yes, with WHM 11 | Yes |
| Login for domain owner | Yes | Yes |
| Mail user | Yes | Yes |
About cPanel
Originally released in the year 1996, cPanel was originally developed by J. Nicholas Coston; and now it is managed by cPanel Inc. in Houston, Texas. The software supports a wide range of Unix-based operating systems, including CentOS, Red Hat Linux, and FreeBSD. cPanel is the most commonly used control panel, as it is usually provided for free with a shared hosting account. cPanel offers two interfaces for the client and one for the reseller; the reseller panel is also known as the WHM panel.
CPanel official website: http://www.cpanel.net/
About user Plesk
Plesk, on the other hand, was released back in 2003. The company was originally a SWsoft product (after SWsoft acquired Plesk Inc.), but now it is shipped to Parallels Inc; and the infamous Plesk is renamed to Parallels Plesk Panel. Unlike cPanel, Plesk supports both the Windows and Unix operating systems. Parallels Plesk Panel for Unix supports Debian, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat Linux; while Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows supports Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Personally, I believe that Plesk offers better flexibility (especially for Windows users) compared to cPanel.
Plesk also offers two different control panels; one for the user and one for the administrator. The administrator control panel is also known as the Plesk Server Administrator (PSA).
Plesk official website: https://www.plesk.com/