The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of web hosting control panel software packages.
Control panel | License | Free | Open Source | Alive (last release) | BSD | Linux | Windows | Frontend | Backend | Plugin Support | VCS | IPv6 Support | Multiserver Support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AlternC | GPL 2 | Yes | Yes | 2017/11/07 [1] | No | Yes | No | PHP | PHP / Perl / Shell script | Yes | git | Yes | No |
Domain Technologie Control | GNU LGPL | Yes | Yes | 2013/04/04 | Limited FreeBSD support | Yes | No | PHP | MySQL | ? | git | No | ? |
Froxlor | GPL | Yes | Yes | 2023/10/13 | No | Yes | No | PHP | PHP, MySQL | No | git | Yes | No |
i-MSCP | GPL, MPL | Yes | Yes | 2018/05/16 | No | Yes | No | PHP | Perl, C | Yes | git | Yes | No |
ISPConfig | BSD | Yes | Yes | 2022/11/22 | No | Yes | No | PHP | PHP, MySQL | Yes | git | Yes | Yes |
Kloxo (formerly Lxadmin) | AGPL | Yes | Yes | 2011/11/13 | No | CentOS (6 not currently supported) or Red Hat EL 5.x | No | PHP | PHP, MySQL | No | git | No | Yes |
Usermin | BSD style | Yes | Yes | 2019/08/17 [2] | Yes | Yes | No | Perl | Perl | ? | tarball | ? | ? |
Virtualmin | GPL | Yes | Yes | 2023-09-15 [3] | Yes | Yes | No | Perl | Perl | Yes | tarball | Yes | Partial |
Webmin | BSD style | Yes | Yes | 2023-11-08; 3 months ago | Yes | Yes | Partial | Perl | Perl | Yes | git | Yes | Yes |
Zentyal (formerly eBox Platform) | GPL | Yes | Yes | 2015/10/22 | No | Yes | No | Perl | Perl | Yes | No | git | ? |
Control panel | License | Free | Open Source | Alive (last release) | BSD | Linux | Windows | Frontend | Backend | Plugin Support | HTTP/2 Support | IPV6 Support | Multiserver Support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cPanel & WHM | Proprietary | No | No | 2020/04/06 [4] | FreeBSD version retired | Yes | EOL | Perl | Perl | Yes | Yes [5] | Yes | Yes |
DirectAdmin | Proprietary | No | No | 2019/09/25 [6] | FreeBSD version retired | Yes | No | C++, scripts, PHP, Vue.js | C++, scripts, PHP | Yes | Yes [7] [8] | Yes | Yes |
HDE Controller X | Proprietary | No | No | 2012/07/24 | No | Yes | No | PHP | PHP | ? | No | Yes | Yes |
Hosting Controller | Proprietary | No | No | 2014/12/24 | No | Yes | Yes | .NET | MSSQL | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
InterWorx | Proprietary | No | No | 2019/08/28 [9] | No | Yes | No | PHP | PHP, MySQL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Plesk | Proprietary | No | No | 2019/06/04 [10] | No | Yes | Yes | PHP | PHP/MySQL | Yes | Yes [11] | Yes | Yes |
Virtualmin Pro | Proprietary | No | No | 2016/01/05 [3] | Yes | Yes | No | Perl | Perl | Yes | No | Yes | Partial |
Some control panels allow shell (console) access to the underlying OS through a Java applet, requiring that the client-side computer use Java Virtual Machine software. Other control panels allow direct access using telnet or secure shell (SSH).
Control panel | FTP | Anonymous FTP | Terminal | File browse/ |
---|---|---|---|---|
cPanel & WHM | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
DirectAdmin | Yes | Yes | SSH | Yes |
Domain Technologie Control | Yes | ? | SSH | Yes |
HDE Controller X | Yes | Yes | SSH | Yes |
Hosting Controller | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
i-MSCP | Yes | No | SSH | Yes |
InterWorx | Yes | Yes | SSH | Yes |
ISPConfig | Yes | Yes | SSH | No |
Kloxo | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
Plesk | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
Usermin | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
Virtualmin | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
Virtualmin Pro | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
Webmin | Yes | Yes | SSH, Java Applet | Yes |
While all control panel software below supports multiple email accounts, the features they provide vary.
Control panel | Antivirus | Antispam | Forwarders | Mailbox quota | DomainKeys | DKIM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cPanel & WHM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
DirectAdmin | Yes [12] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Domain Technologie Control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
HDE Controller X | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Hosting Controller | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
i-MSCP | Optional | Optional | Yes | Optional | Optional | Optional |
InterWorx | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ISPConfig | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Possible | Yes |
Kloxo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Plesk | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Usermin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Virtualmin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Virtualmin Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Webmin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Webmin is a web-based server management control panel for Unix-like systems. Webmin allows the user to configure operating system internals, such as users, disk quotas, services and configuration files, as well as modify and control open-source apps, such as BIND, Apache HTTP Server, PHP, and MySQL.
cPanel is web hosting control panel software developed by cPanel, LLC. It provides a graphical interface (GUI) and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site to the website owner or the "end user". It enables administration through a standard web browser using a three-tier structure. While cPanel is limited to managing a single hosting account, cPanel & WHM allows the administration of the entire server.
Horde is a free web-based groupware.
Roundcube is a web-based IMAP email client. Roundcube's most prominent feature is the pervasive use of Ajax technology. Roundcube is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL-3.0-or-later), with exceptions for skins and plugins.
Selenium is an open source umbrella project for a range of tools and libraries aimed at supporting browser automation. It provides a playback tool for authoring functional tests across most modern web browsers, without the need to learn a test scripting language. It also provides a test domain-specific language (Selenese) to write tests in a number of popular programming languages, including JavaScript (Node.js), C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Scala. Selenium runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It is open-source software released under the Apache License 2.0.
Google Web Toolkit, or GWT Web Toolkit, is an open-source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain JavaScript front-end applications in Java. It is licensed under Apache License 2.0.
Many computer user interfaces use a control panel metaphor to give the user control of software and hardware features. The control panel consists of multiple settings including display settings, network settings, user account settings, and hardware settings. Control panels are also used by web applications for easy graphical configuration. Some services offered by control panels require the user to have admin rights or root access.
DirectAdmin is a graphical web-based web hosting control panel allowing administration of websites through a web browser. The software is configurable to enable standalone, reseller, and shared web hosting from a single instance. DirectAdmin also permits management of server tasks and upgrades to package software from within the control panel - simplifying server and hosting configuration.
Virtualmin is a domain hosting and website control panel which gives the ability to create and manage many domains, as well as simplify both automation and tasks. It is based on Webmin. Virtualmin is an alternative to cPanel and Plesk.
Plesk is a commercial web hosting and server data center automation software developed for Linux and Windows-based retail hosting service providers.
SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates natively with Microsoft 365. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, although it is also used for sharing information through an intranet, implementing internal applications, and for implementing business processes.
Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Store and Microsoft Silverlight. It can produce both native code and managed code.
GNOME Shell is the graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 3, which was released on April 6, 2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications and switching between windows, and is also a widget engine. GNOME Shell replaced GNOME Panel and some ancillary components of GNOME 2.
Hosting Controller is a multi-purpose cloud control panel and Active Directory synchronization solution that operates out of Canada and offers Saas, Active Directory and Migration services to enterprises and service providers worldwide.
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs or components to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build or use such a connection or interface is called an API specification. A computer system that meets this standard is said to implement or expose an API. The term API may refer either to the specification or to the implementation. Whereas a system's user interface dictates how its end-users interact with the system in question, its API dictates how to write code that takes advantage of that system's capabilities.
Construct is an HTML5-based 2D video game engine developed by Scirra Ltd. It is aimed primarily at non-programmers, allowing quick creation of games through visual programming. First released as a GPL-licensed DirectX 9 game engine for Microsoft Windows with Python programming on October 27, 2007, it later became proprietary software with Construct 2, as well as switching its API technology from DirectX to NW.js and HTML5, as well as removing Python and adding JavaScript support and its plugin SDK in 2012, and eventually switched to a subscription-based model as a web app.
Softaculous is a commercial script library that automates the installation of commercial and open source web applications to a website. Softaculous scripts are executed from the administration area of a website control panel, typically via an interface tool such as cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin and InterWorx. Softaculous applications typically create tables in a database, install software, adjust permissions, and modify web server configuration files.
AlternC is a set of open-source Web Hosting server management software for Linux/UNIX-like systems, whose aim is to promote self hosting by individuals or small structures, and provide its users with an easy web-based interface to manage a web and mail server.
WebAssembly defines a portable binary-code format and a corresponding text format for executable programs as well as software interfaces for facilitating interactions between such programs and their host environment.
Froxlor is a free and open-source web hosting control panel which originated from the SysCP project. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.0.