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VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - TrK - 03-31-2021
Hello fellow members, I have been in the industry since 2014 testing out stuff that doesn't even make sense like several control panels I have tested just for the fun, and honestly speaking I had an urge to test out their functionality and user experience. I have tested several Free ones open source ones and some commercial ones too. So let's just share them all here. I will be covering the Panels which are Free as in $0 for any fees. So let's just get started with the list of free panels.
1. Keyhelp
You might be wondering what is this thing, well keyhelp is been a really helpful panel from the last year(i.e. 2019) it supports everything I needed to run a shared hosting server for several of guys(they said they wanted to isolate users and all) keyhelp is actively developed for Debian based Linux distros with several new features popping out every new update. The features and capabilities of this one are really good it has a special function where it will automatically update all packages swiftly but it will also let you know if few packages require your attention, amazing isn't it? it has all the features one can ask for including but not limited to An advance file manager, DNS manager, mail system with queue management, and of course white-labeling(you already know what this is :wink: ) so what makes it stand out? the only thing I can think of its capabilities to automate things and preserve your settings for automatic updates without any errors(at least I didn't encounter any).
More information and setup instructions: https://www.keyhelp.de/en/
2. TinyCP
You guys might have heard about this thing another Debian based panel with some awesome features(typically the same as every other panel there is like file manager, DNS, mail, etc etc) but the thing is not only with all the features running intact the memory footprint for this specific beast is low means it won't be hogging your resources at all and with the beautifully crafted code with the modular approach is just simply amazing. Sometimes I wonder why isn't this thing famous? well maybe because it's limited to Debian-based distros? who knows at least not me(i am not a god so meh).
More information and setup instructions: https://tinycp.com/home/index
3. VestaCP
Wait I know before you say something I already know the development for the "official" branch is all but active there are several high-risk security issues in the code but there are still some forks that are actively in development trying their hardest to fix things that are just ignored on the official development branch. A fork from the MadeITBelgium is such an example where they are actively developing this fixing bugs and security vulnerabilities but this branch is limited and only meant for the RedHat-based Linux distros, perhaps you can find some other branch with the same active development for your favorite Linux who knows. Talking about features vestacp is really good when I consider the apache + Nginx(reverse proxy) setup it optimizes the website to its maximum performance but there are things I don't understand why did they do that. One such thing is the file manager and sFTP plugin which are paid, I know it's not a bad thing for something good to be paid but the reason stated before releasing something was "We will have paid plugins to support our development" which technically just died without any notice or announcement it was like now you can see me, poof, now you can't.
More information and setup instructions: https://vestacp.com
4. HestiaCP
Remember the vestaCP from the above point? I know you do well Hestia is a fork of VestaCP too but for Debian-based distros(IDK why did they renamed it though) well technically speaking they are of course a fork but with a different approach and what is that? their free file manager that comes out of the box to be used yay! a file manager for those who are lazy or just doing some small modifications on the go! ahem, brahmasmi! just kidding it's been an overall good experience using the hestiacp, of course, their UI is something I didn't really like but it depends on person to person. So any other features? aside from active development and file manager I can't think of any(but isn't it all you need?).
More information and setup instructions: https://www.hestiacp.com/
5. aaPanel
Yep it's this one alright, aaPanel the internationalized version of Pagoda(Baota in Chinese) panel(bt.cn panel) yeah it's a Chinese product but I assure you not all Chinese products are bad like corona, ahem, I think I shouldn't have said that well speaking of aaPanel this thing is really amazing for single users(like me woohoo! yeah boi!) the features are good as well the modular approach like tinyCP making it better and better and on top of that it supports many things like docker, ruby apps, etc just name it and you will the module inside its AppStore, simply breathtaking me and some of my friends started using this panel like a year ago, of course, there were some issues and concerns(there are still some though) but overall satisfaction this one provided was simply over the top, then why didn't I put it at the top? because it still lacks some features like multi-users(i know it's a deciding factor for some) also this one is buggy if you want it to be you're all in one web server serving mails + websites + DNS + some random app it might break your patience when configuring it to your liking but once you get yourself familiar with this one it's quite easy(not technically you can still face some issues like lsphp installing itself even after removing OLS).
More information and setup instructions: https://aapanel.com
6. ISPconfig
I don't think I need to say much about it one of the oldest and still growing with active development and great community support. It has most of the features one can think of from basic administration multi-user shared hosting ones just name it(well not like aaPanel that support docker, ruby, etc) the only thing I don't like about this one is the installation process if you are a beginner you will be facing something you never encountered and it will really cause a headache at some point. This one is especially for advanced users as they know what do to if an error occurred during the installation. But to be honest I really like its permission engine or whatever it is called it's by far the best I have ever seen in free panels.
More information and setup instructions: https://ispconfig.com
7. CyberPanel
Some of you might already be using this one it natively works with OLS(OpenLiteSpeed) and has a really good UI. It also supports containerizations and git subversion control able to deploy apps directly from the git repository. I used to be a big fan of this project just because of OLS but as time pass and I started noticing OLS is not as fast as they claimed it to be but instead, sometimes it was awful they say it supports apache rewrites but you have to restart the OLS if you made any changes and wait until it auto-restart itself after saving your .htccess file. I was testing a bunch of stuff and finally made a decision to shift from OLS to Nginx thus I made a move towards other panels. If you are into fancy things and modern UI you might prefer CyberPanel as your daily driver.
More information and setup instructions: https://cyberpanel.net
8. Virtualmin
I don't think there is any veteran here who hasn't used the Virtualmin as an extension of the webmin server management panel, while webmin is meant for server management Virtualmin is meant for website management allowing you to have a fully functional multi user shared hosting server. The features are by far the same as any other panel out there but the complete code visibility just makes it WOW! if I remember correctly I was successful in imitating the Cpanel server which sent the same headers and same pages rendered by Cpanel the only thing left was the UI and I dropped it after I lost the instance(it was from a provider who went in hiding in the early stage of post4vps).
more information and setup instructions: https://virtualmin.com
My verdict
I know I didn't include many other panels like fastpanel, ajenti, etc but the point on this thread was to give a general idea about Server panels you can try and dig out their potentials I migrated my keyhelp VM to aaPanel as I no longer have multi-user requirements and/or hosting specific needs I am mostly deploying JS, python and PHP apps and aaPanel do the job for me without any issues if you feel like I should edit and include other panels in the list do feel free to PM/DM me and I'll make sure to discuss the usage and efficiency for the said panel.
Thank you for your time.
Last updated: 31st Masrch 2021
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - xdude - 03-31-2021
I think Virtualmin is my all-time favorite panel. Probably the free panel which I used for the longest. It's a very solid panel. Once you get it installed and configured you get a very smooth ride. What I like the most about it is the ability to macro manages so many things without using ssh. But they haven't change the skin for over a decade. There are 2 skins the default one which looks very dull and another which looks a little better. Also, it takes a bit of time to get used to it since they have different names for fuctions. Once got me to move away from it is slow to support for free users.
Right now I'm using the Cyberpanel which has a really good GUI. It's pretty easy to install too compared to Virtualmin. It has an active forum but still supports is not so quick. I have asked several questions and found it some others have the same problems especially related to mail. But these are somewhat server-specific I think. It works smoothly in my previous VPS which was vps5 but I'm a hard time getting everything run in VPS9. It seems there are some restrictions are put on VPS9 by providers to keep it safe.
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - TrK - 03-31-2021
I know right @xdude i agree with you on virtualmin being a one rock solid panel out there but my personal new favourite is aaPanel, i know it might be a Chinese virus but its really good one. I might have still using cyberpanel only if the "fastest webserver" claims were real used it more than a year and boom i was fed up and decided to make a move towards nginx i found nginx to be faster than OLS and with ngx_pagespeed things are just speedy fast.
Someone suggested me wordops i will spin a instance tonight to see if its worth being in the list. If you happen to know one as well please do let me know.
Warm regards
TrK
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - tiwil - 04-01-2021
Thanks for the recap @TrK. I'm with Cyberpanel right now, I just don't find any other panel that is easy and intuitive to use. I cannot pass with other panel until Cyberpanel shutted down (same reason why I switch to Cyberpanel from VestaCP).
I tried HestiaCP before, really looks like VestaCP but still have bugs here and there. They're keeping to update it which is very good but for now it's still pretty hard, at least for me, to use HestiaCP. So my choice still for Cyberpanel.
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - TrK - 04-02-2021
(04-01-2021, 04:32 PM)tiwil Wrote: Thanks for the recap @TrK. I'm with Cyberpanel right now, I just don't find any other panel that is easy and intuitive to use. I cannot pass with other panel until Cyberpanel shutted down (same reason why I switch to Cyberpanel from VestaCP).
I tried HestiaCP before, really looks like VestaCP but still have bugs here and there. They're keeping to update it which is very good but for now it's still pretty hard, at least for me, to use HestiaCP. So my choice still for Cyberpanel.
You can try aaPanel it supports nginx, apache and OLS as modules(one at a time) they said they are working on configuring apache + nginx(reverse proxy) which would be really interesting to see. As for hestiaCP yeah there are bugs yet to be found my time with it was flawless i hardly encountered any bugs, maybe it was because i only used it for like a week? who knows.
Currently each and every server of mine is equipped with aaPanel i found it much more impressive than any other panel out it's just the team behind it is native chinese and they misssed some things like a responsive UI and made their mobile application paid, well if someone knows android app development it isn't that hard to develop an app for it as it comes with fully functional API so yeah it's really a great piece of work at least for now.
Regards
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - tiwil - 04-02-2021
(04-02-2021, 04:02 AM)TrK Wrote: Currently each and every server of mine is equipped with aaPanel i found it much more impressive than any other panel out it's just the team behind it is native chinese and they misssed some things like a responsive UI and made their mobile application paid, well if someone knows android app development it isn't that hard to develop an app for it as it comes with fully functional API so yeah it's really a great piece of work at least for now.
We're using free service means we cannot push them really hard to fulfill what we need. Even they're generous enough to share it with other. I'll take a look for aaPanel. I believe from ur post it's developed by Chinese? Do their docs/forums in Chinese too or they do support English?
I mean, we all know that VestaCP developed by Russian (or other Soviet country that uses Russian) but their support forum also support English and many are using VestaCP. So we can get help easily. Sometimes Google failed to translate things correctly
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - tryp4vps - 04-02-2021
Wow, a very great post for comparing different free control panel software @TrK.
For me, I would particularly interested in TinyCP, because of its smaller memory requirement of course.
But although I have not tried Keyhelp before, it does sounds quite good in overall performance.
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - mzltest - 04-02-2021
Actually the BaoTa panel experienced significant security vulnerability months before.Guess what happened?They allow you to access PhpMyAdmin without any restriction.And they have a nick for "Bug Ta".Baota is also a freenium model.The basic version is free while advanced functions requires a license.
Similar Chinese cps include appnode,AMH etc and I can say appnode is a good choice too when I was experimenting my friend's vps however the free version can only hosts 3 domains.
And BTW ,what do you think of Ajenti X?I have heard od that but never tried it out.
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - TrK - 04-03-2021
(04-02-2021, 05:01 AM)tiwil Wrote: We're using free service means we cannot push them really hard to fulfill what we need. Even they're generous enough to share it with other. I'll take a look for aaPanel. I believe from ur post it's developed by Chinese? Do their docs/forums in Chinese too or they do support English?
I mean, we all know that VestaCP developed by Russian (or other Soviet country that uses Russian) but their support forum also support English and many are using VestaCP. So we can get help easily. Sometimes Google failed to translate things correctly
Well i did said it's the "internationalized" version of their original chinese BT panel they have everything well documented in english available on their website. As for their mobile application they are running a promo to offer their mobile plugin free for three year for teams you can join my team as i already have two members on it and will need three more to able to get that for free here's the link if needed https://www.aapanel.com/invite-friends2?group_id=aZyh4X2z
(04-02-2021, 08:01 AM)tryp4vps Wrote: Wow, a very great post for comparing different free control panel software @TrK.
For me, I would particularly interested in TinyCP, because of its smaller memory requirement of course.
But although I have not tried Keyhelp before, it does sounds quite good in overall performance.
Both tinyCP and keyhelp are great but if you are not going to provide shared hosting to your peers keyhelp is not that amazing overall performance is great specially the optimized apache configs sadly no nginx for me
ad:(04-02-2021, 09:06 AM)mzltest Wrote: Actually the BaoTa panel experienced significant security vulnerability months before.Guess what happened?They allow you to access PhpMyAdmin without any restriction.And they have a nick for "Bug Ta".Baota is also a freenium model.The basic version is free while advanced functions requires a license.
Similar Chinese cps include appnode,AMH etc and I can say appnode is a good choice too when I was experimenting my friend's vps however the free version can only hosts 3 domains.
And BTW ,what do you think of Ajenti X?I have heard od that but never tried it out.
Ah, i remember that one they fixed with an emergency patch after reported but as i always say better safe than sorry so i just had my phpadmin access and process killed right after i am done with it, sometimes even not bothering to install at all. I've heard about appnode and i do believe appnode and Baota share some short of same base. Comes to freemium model aapanel i guess doesn't have freemium as i didn't encountered any limitations as of yet but appnode is different story as i am not familiar with the source i don't want to get too close with it.
As for ajenti, for me it was really great until it worked for me as you might have guessed i shifted to aapanel just because of customizations it offered apparently i can't recall ajenti x but there was ajenti v but it's code is highly outdated and i won't recommend anyone to use it for anything at all but their ajenti v2 is really something for standalone devs or server management needs.
For your guys information aapanel installation script does indeed have another thing you guys might as well know or should def know it, during the installation the scripts fetch and send your server ip to be logged or count on baota/aapanel servers, they say they only collect this information to count total servers running their software or package while some will say it's questionable apart from few panel most of available panels(commercial and free) do that in some way just not telling you how and why.
RE: VPS control Panel Comparisons (FREE) - mzltest - 04-03-2021
(04-03-2021, 03:44 PM)TrK Wrote: Ah, i remember that one they fixed with an emergency patch after reported but as i always say better safe than sorry so i just had my phpadmin access and process killed right after i am done with it, sometimes even not bothering to install at all. I've heard about appnode and i do believe appnode and Baota share some short of same base. Comes to freemium model aapanel i guess doesn't have freemium as i didn't encountered any limitations as of yet but appnode is different story as i am not familiar with the source i don't want to get too close with it.
As for ajenti, for me it was really great until it worked for me as you might have guessed i shifted to aapanel just because of customizations it offered apparently i can't recall ajenti x but there was ajenti v but it's code is highly outdated and i won't recommend anyone to use it for anything at all but their ajenti v2 is really something for standalone devs or server management needs.
For your guys information aapanel installation script does indeed have another thing you guys might as well know or should def know it, during the installation the scripts fetch and send your server ip to be logged or count on baota/aapanel servers, they say they only collect this information to count total servers running their software or package while some will say it's questionable apart from few panel most of available panels(commercial and free) do that in some way just not telling you how and why.
Yeah,BaoTa is opensource while appnode seems to be closed source(I didn't see the repo) .BaoTa only charges for the premium plugins while appnode charges forvsome functionalities/limit-removal.I've mentioned amh(amh.sh) in my reply and seems they only limit the use of plugins too however it might be another close source.But Baota and appnode are all out-of-the-box panels for web hosting(while I think appnode is friendlier for newbies like me) and AMH acts like webmin.
Thanks for the thoughts on Ajenti.I misrembered the panel name but it seems I will switch to another one as it is old(I am mainly attracted by the LAMP environment).Seems you can use webmin to build an environment similar to LAMP - just install them separately and you can config them.
And I noticed there is something called OneInStack,and looks like it's a command-line web host tool,which is not suitable for me.