[fChk]

I was just reading a VPS review and something in there made me want to ask the following question to the active members of this community, both those with and without a VPS hosting: Do you actually need a control panel to manage your VPS's services? Can you do without it? or Is it absolutely vital to get the job done?

By VPS services, I mean whatever things you're running on it: Web server, databases, DNS, mail, game servers (as this seems to be the main attraction around here) etc...

Given the number of threads about those control panels laying around this forum, I would guess many are!...

So, please feel free to give your opinion and take part in the poll.

[deanhills]

@fChk  I do.  Probably because I'm lazy.  Panels I understand are risky, and if you take some time to buckle down and learn how to work with Linux and a good OS like Debian, you don't really need a panel, it is almost a 100% more secure and you're completely in control of what you are doing (most of the time).  I do some of my Websites from the command line only.  However for Website DNS, mySQL databases, phpmyadmin, etc I use VestaCP.  

My needs are mostly of a hobby nature, so possibly you must be a professional developer.  I'm more interested in the management and administration of hosting accounts.  I also like WordPress very much and have a few hobby blogs I like to keep to myself mostly with comments etc disabled.  I try to keep them as secure as I can with only using WordPress approved themes and plugins that I've researched properly first.  That took years of learning during the course of which I did a really good course as well.  WordPress can be as good or as bad as the learning curve you put in it.

I started out with using VestaCP in 2014 when it was iffy from a documentation point of view.  Kept learning through trial and error, and now it's the devil I know situation.  Like I've mastered (hope I have) most of what is needed by me personally which may not be the same for others. I can get it up and running through to setting up the domain and site within minutes of getting a new VPS. I don't use it for FTP or e-mails as those areas seem to be very vulnerable in most panels.  Most valuable tool of VestaCP for me is its discussion Forum.  What I need to know is a click away with a good Google search, and if I can't find the answer, which very rarely happens, I open an inquiry in the VestaCP Forum.  I don't always get an instant response, but somehow the answer always manages to find its way to me.  But yes, for someone brand-new to VestaCP, possibly they may throw it out as it's not the same as cPanel.  

I guess all of us got terribly spoilt with cPanel and Windows completely knocked our brains out.  Like we became willing sheep (I'm right ahead of the pack) and let others do the thinking for us.  Guys like you, Hidden etc must be smiling and probably wondering at the stupidity of it all.  When you can get right under the dashboard instead and with some good learning effort and experience run everything from the command line. All the tools are there to do so as well, including training courses that are getting better quality every day, and so many of them freely available as well.

[xdude]

I prefer using a Hosting control panel whenever I do need a web server. If you just have one or two times with simple functions then it might not necessary but when you have 10-15 websites it saves lots of time and makes life easy for you. This is why people pay big bucks for cpanel and others use cheaper panels or free panels. If you are running a web hosting service then its a must. Also you don't have time to get yr hands dirty and prefer to get things done easy then panels are a great option.

Early days even I wondered why should people use these panels when you can do all these things command line. But years have pasted, things have changes and now need to less messy and time saving methods. I can handle a web server my self but for my most important sites I use a managed vps. I prefer to let experts to take care of the service while I can deal with other important things related to site. So for me panel is always the way to go and I use command line only it's really necessary.

[Mashiro]

When I setup servers or any kind of server applications and services such as web servers, databases and so on I always use the command line. The same applies for the general usage and maintenance of servers, applications and services. Always CLI!

Control panels aren't my thing and they're more of another liability to carry on your shoulders. With control panels you introduce so many unknown variables that could have a very negative effect on performance and most likely on security. Some web hosting panels are really bad in terms of security. Sentora Panel and alike. So I'm generally not using any control panel to reduce attack surface as much as possible.

CLI means full control of your system and as much detail as possible. I know what is going on and I can control it better. Unlike in a control panel where you click a button and something happens but you never know what exactly.

What about you @fChk? You started this thread but I didn't see your opinion on this matter. I love it when this kind of threads start like that. You know when OP starts such a poll or discussion but never says his own opinion or experience.

[fChk]

What about you @fChk? You started this thread but I didn't see your opinion on this matter. I love it when this kind of threads start like that. You know when OP starts such a poll or discussion but never says his own opinion or experience.

I feel the same myself and I love it too, except when it's somebody else doing it :-)

Joking aside, thanks for asking!.. Actually I've erased a paragraph in the OP where I was laying out my thoughts on the subject, but did have to erase it as been a bit premature, preferring to wait for a representative enough sample in this thread's Poll... so I guess, it's the OP's authorship privilege that's at play here :-)

Okay folks!.. Thanks a lot to all of you who contributed to this thread with your input (reflecting your experience and thoughts); much appreciated indeed. For everybody else, please, all I'm asking here is to participate in the Poll, there is no need to post anything if you don't have anything to say on the subject.

The poll is anonymous by the way, so make sure your answer reflects reality for it(/the poll) to be of any meaning. Thanks!

[youssefbasha]

My first time to use a VPS without panel was here at p4v, it was hard sometimes to manage my VPS through the terminal but i learnt much things so i dont think that i need it now like before but in sometimes you cant access the vps without that panel (locked out/vps crashed) in this case you shall make a topic/create a ticket to get your vps back.

[chanalku91]

,A few months ago, I used a control panel like Webmin for VPS management!
Control panel makes all work easier!
But that takes a lot of time!
So I left the panel for VPS management!
I switched to using the Command Line Interface!
and only use panels for emergency situations!
I use CLI because all work feels faster and saves time!

So, I no longer use Panel for a lot of work, but I need a panel if the situation is too emergency!

[sAmI]

I can probably say, For the first VPS i pretty much used CLI everything without panel, I'm more focused in game servers. Installing game servers editing CFG's and downloading through CLI i have learnt alot from it. I would probably say someone should start with CLI, It provides more control as other people mentioned here and you can actually see whats going on, For example : OpenGamePanel, You get so many problems sometimes with some missing LIBS or etc you cant see logs sometimes. For learning linux i would probably say do things without a panel.

[Melvin]

@fChk thats really an interesting question.
so your question divides to 2 parts its mean it can be yes and no.
Lets start with yes part, so for those with huge experience dealing with vps's, dedicated servers and have the good knowledge with many os such as Centos Debian, Ubuntu etc and can figure it out easily without contacting the support, we are talking about professionals in my part they doesn't really need a control panel to manage their vps because they can do everything via terminal command, and for them using the control panel is such a waste of time so it's not that necessary but for certain things like such as contacting support or emergency with the vps turned off for no reason it may happen, so in that time control panel is needed and useful.
Now lets move to the no part, we are talking about people with no and medium experience that following online tutorials to install certain things and trying and learning and their knowledge is weak so they just know only some commands like me :p, in that case the control panel is useful and much more easier for them to use first because lack of experience second because of issues while trying and following some tutorials so they may face problems such as logs errors or as i mentioned earlier their vps may turn off because of errors i don't know i'm just giving examples so they need to use the control panel for restarting the vps or switching to another operating system and thats what i am specially doing heheh.
to conclude control panel is needed in both parts yes and no, because its a thing we can not remove we can call it the emergency thing.

[ikk157]

I was just reading a VPS review and something in there made me want to ask the following question to the active members of this community, both those with and without a VPS hosting: Do you actually need a control panel to manage your VPS's services? Can you do without it? or Is it absolutely vital to get the job done?

By VPS services, I mean whatever things you're running on it: Web server, databases, DNS, mail, game servers (as this seems to be the main attraction around here) etc...

Given the number of threads about those control panels laying around this forum, I would guess many are!...

So, please feel free to give your opinion and take part in the poll.

The short answer would be no, you don’t NEED a panel to manage your VPS.

The long answer would be:

It really depends. You can manage your VPS without a panel (not really that difficult, just requires a bit of experimentation and learning). It’s quite straightforward.

However, some people don’t have time to learn all of that, and hence a panel is a much better solution for them.

Admittedly, you don’t need to be a beginner to appreciate a panel. For example, I’m comfortable doing everything through the command line, yet i still use CyberPanel.

Why? You may ask. The answer is simple: 

It’s time saving considering that you can do most things by simply clicking a few buttons. And I’ve also used it as a “back door” before when something, for a reason or another, would stop working through SSH.