CPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel from the point of view of the host. Part Two / Parallels Blog

master1981 June 9, 2011 at 10:46

CPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel from the point of view of the host. Part two

Hello. I continue to publish the translation of the epic comparison between cPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel 10.2, which was published on the pages of TheHostingNews.com. The first part about the functional review of both products under study is published here . Today we are talking about the possibilities of integrating panels with other products (including third-party developers), as well as about automation, which is often mentioned with reference to hosting.

In the second part of the review, the functionality of cPanel and Parallels Plesk Panel will be examined from the point of view of three categories of users:

- Hosters of all sizes, including large ones (from 1,500 clients)
- Web developers who create sites for customers and conduct these sites themselves, thus having average 60 customers
- IT professionals and end users.

In the USA and Europe, hosting is developing towards the automation of internal business processes, as well as towards selfcare services. The client is invited to install plugins and additional applications on his own - for example, add a photo gallery to the site or fasten an online store to it. Hosters abroad are intensively developing this part of their business. A new trend has already come to Russia. Therefore, the integration of panels with other software is an option for growth, which can bring money without investing in new hosting software and hardware.

For end users / IT pros

Parameter	Parallels plesk	Cpanel
Vendor support	Parallels partners and resellers are expected to support their customers on their own, but Parallels provides all Plesk users with free installation, migration, and migration assistance. The cost of support when contacting Parallels directly is from $ 75 to $ 299 per incident.	In the case of a monthly subscription, cPanel customers receive support for free. Priority or emergency phone support is paid and costs $ 65 per incident. Wholesale cheaper - you can buy 10 hits for $ 300.
Add-ons	In the Applications section of the panel, both paid and free applications are available. They are packed in APS, they can be easily managed. There are actually a lot of add-ons - for example, anti-virus modules.	Plugins and add-ons for cPanel must be licensed for this control panel. Therefore, there are not so many of them.
Third Party Products	Third-party products are available through Storefront and integrate in one click.	There are quite a few cPanel compatible applications, for example, Fantastico script library. But it’s paid.
Documentation	Plesk Panel 10 documentation is available on the vendor’s website: www.parallels.com products / plesk / documentation /	cPanel provides a fairly large array of documentation at: docs.cpanel.net

For reseller / web developer

Parameter	Parallels plesk	Cpanel
Migration	Provides free control panel and billing migration	Free control panel migration
Security	Plesk Panel provides remote procedure calls via API or XML. Authentication passes through HTTP_AUTH_PASSWD. PPP 10 allows you to use a key for remote access, but this key is generated by the API. Liked: admin password is randomly generated for the first login. You can also log in using the username and password of the root user.	Remote access is one of cPanel's key options. It is used with any API for user authentication.
Community	forum.parallels.com . More than 100 thousand registered users and more than 2.2 thousand active.	forums.cpanel.net . More than 120 thousand registered users and more than 2.5 thousand active.
Licensing model	Two types of licenses - monthly or forever. A month without limiting the number of domains - $ 69.99. For 100 domains - $ 39.99. Forever - $ 1399.	Monthly use is sold through resellers. Directly sold subscription for 1, 2 and 3 years. All licenses are for an unlimited number of domains. It costs $ 25-55 per month. In a year - $ 425. For two years - $ 775. For three years - $ 1075.
API	Parallels Provides Remote API Calls Using XML and HTTP, Easily Integrated	cPanel has an XML API and a JSON API. With their help, you can implement role-based access, which allows you to customize the interface or even create your own interface for cPanel subsystems.
Add-ons	It is possible to add resellable services (antivirus, antispam, tomcat, mobile sites). All of this is offered through Storefront.	Commercially available add-ons are available from third-party developers. Speech about Fantastico, Softacolous or RV Skin.

For large hosters

Parameter	Parallels plesk	Cpanel
Upgrade	The upgrade comes with RTM packages. Within 30 days from the date of the new version / feature, all customers receive update information. Micro updates can be turned on or off. An upgrade to a new version must be initiated by the user, that is, manually.	Automatic updates in cPanel make sure that the most current version of the software is installed.
Clustering / High Availability	The billing system integrated into Plesk can be used to distribute server resources in accordance with tariff plans. Nevertheless, this feature cannot be called full clustering.	CPanel clustering is limited to DNS. In another case, the control panel starts all services on one server.
Branding	Starting with version 10.1, the Plesk interface can be customized to your preferred colors and set the desired background. Cool: now in Plesk there is a special wizard for creating custom buttons, which is accessible from the inside of the panel.	CPanel has an interactive editor with which you can customize the interface, background, colors and logo.
Integrated Billing System	Business Manager So far, only Parallels offers integrated billing. Therefore, here Plesk is beyond competition, especially since Business Manager is a real advantage of Plesk. In addition to creating accounts that are no longer tied to domains, for the client this means a kind of web space where he can get many domains on the same file structure. That is, we are facing a transitional stage to Parallels Automation. In other words, Business Manager makes Parallels Plesk Panel a “boxed” solution for creating a small hosting company - even on a single server. In addition, thanks to the integration of billing in the control panel, you can try various options for the gradual transfer from free basic services to better paid ones.
Additional custom account settings	Using Business Manager, you can make changes to the customization settings, and these changes will immediately appear in the account options and in the billing system. However, changes made to Plesk will not entail changes in billing (this may be useful in some cases). Due to the simplicity of the interface, you can add clients to Plesk that will not use the API.
Order form	Business Manager provides a full-featured interface for the end-user. The system can display plans for user groups (Windows / Linux hosting) and take into account the cyclical load to distribute it efficiently. When the tariff plan falls into the basket, the user is informed about what exactly he bought and how much it costs. The user is led “past” additional options, which, if he sees fit, he can add to the order in a few clicks.
Tariff comparison table	Parallels Business Manager builds a comparison table.
SSL certificates	SSL certificates are sold through Business Manager by default
Widgets for websites	This is a customization feature that was invented for those users who want to make their order form. PHP snippets provide quick access to the capabilities of Business Manager.
Payment gateways	Business Manager supports more than 20 payment gateways, including from third-party developers.