9 Awesome Web Hosting Control Panel and Server Management Software

Save your time in managing servers and websites by using this intelligent software.

Keeping a record of utilization, performance, and possible maintenance issues is complicated. Higher complications occur when you build up your infrastructure, including multiple components like server, database, messaging, authentication, load balancer, etc.

When you have 1 or 2 servers, it is probably easy to manage manually, but when dealing with hundreds or thousands, you need a tool. An intelligent tool that can help speed up administrative tasks like installation, patching, configuration, monitoring, etc.

Imagine you are a sysadmin and manage 50 servers without a tool. You will be busy all the time!

Here are some of the tools you can leverage for an easy and better life. Some are free, so you don’t have to convince your boss about the payment.

Cockpit

Cockpit is an open-source Linux server administration solution. You can do things like starting containers, managing storage, configuring the network, inspecting logs, etc.

It is capable of controlling and monitoring multiple servers at the same time. All you need to do is include the systems you want to monitor, and Cockpit will see after them. Some of its features include:

• Visualize system performance
• Manage Docker container
• Web-based shell in a terminal window.
• Manage user accounts
• Gather system configuration and diagnostic information
• Modify network settings

With their excellent documentation, you can get it installed and start monitoring your servers quickly.

Ajenti

Ajenti is a popular open-source solution that offers a browser-based server admin panel. You can install packages and run commands, and view necessary server information such as RAM in control, free disk space, etc.

If you are looking to manage multiple websites, you may consider using an add-on called Ajenti V. It allows you to manage sites based on PHP, Python, Ruby, and Node.js. Ajenti is a highly modular and extensible framework, remarkably useful for various use cases.

Some of its features include:

• Clean and well-documented interfaces
• GUI based on Google’s AngularJS
• Single-page AJAX-based frontend
• Responsive layout
• Notifications, modals, and live updates
• Pluggable Authentication and authorization
• Firewall

Webmin

Webmin, as the names indicate – a web-based admin panel for a system administrator to manage Unix servers. It supports more than 100 Unix flavored OS. It acts as a comprehensive interface to the underlying applications on servers, including support for configuring applications like FTP, ssh, mail, Web, databases, and more.

Webmin is module-based, making it easy to add new functionality and possible for anybody keen on writing plugins for server management. There are more than 100 modules available to help you get started.

InterWorx

InterWorx contains two modules.

• NodeWorx for managing servers
• SiteWorx for managing websites and domains

It has application-based support, including Apache, PHP, MySQL, Perl, and Djbdns (DNS) and has email-based support, including POP3, IMAP, and SMTP services using Qmail.

Some of its features include:

• Manage backups
• Bandwidth usage
• Get notified when things go wrong
• CLI, API, and support for plugins
• Clustering for high-availability

cPanel

cPanel is for Linux, which automates web hosting tasks with its simple GUI, and it helps you manage your servers and websites with ease.

It has one of the best web hosting control panels in the industry. This control panel has options to publish a website, create email and calendars, manage files securely, manage domains, launch databases, add or remove DNS, configure FTP, schedule cron jobs, provide log stats, etc.

If you don’t prefer cPanel, you may check out these alternative hosting platform control panels for WordPress and others.

Plesk

Plesk is for everyone to manage cloud servers, WordPress, Joomla, etc. It got more than 100 extensions.

Why choose Plesk for web hosting?

• User-friendly interface
• Supports multi-tenant
• Robust security
• SEO toolkit

Any web professional like IT admins, infrastructure providers, developers, digital agencies, and content managers are Plesk users. Its main competitor is cPanel, which I mentioned above.

DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin is a web hosting control panel with three default access levels – admins, resellers, and users. The different level has different features.

• Admins have DNS administration and clustering, IP management, user management, software upgrade, etc.
• Resellers have account and package management, user communication, and system info features.
• Users get file and database management, email administration, FTP management, site backup, etc.

Virtualmin

Virtualmin is a powerful and flexible web hosting control panel for Linux and BSD systems. It has a very easy-to-use user interface on Desktop, Mobile, and tablets. Virtualmin is open-source with premium support. With 100,000+ installations, it is one of the widely used virtual web hosting solutions.

When you install Virtualmin, you get full features of the web hosting stack like web, email, domain, DNS, analytics, reporting, etc. It also offers a few exclusive features such as 2-factor authentication, LDAP authentication, command-line management, and many other advanced access controls.

CloudPanel

It’s a free cloud hosting control panel for Linux servers that can help you manage static sites and PHP, Node.js, and Python applications.

CloudPanel works with top-tier cloud server providers, including DO, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc. Besides, the documentation has guides to set up CloudPanel on any dedicated server or other cloud providers.

It offers features like a straightforward installation wizard, IP/bot blocking, free SSL configuration, SSH/FTP access, Cron job management, and Vhost Editor.

The user dashboard also mentions overall CPU, memory, and disk usage and the average load on the system. Besides, you’ll get in-built tools to effortlessly manage users with role-based permissions.

This server manager also supports connecting external database servers, adding custom firewall rules, and using CloudPanel with a custom domain. In addition, the CloudPanel CLI console lets you automate certain tasks, such as adding sites, databases, certificates, etc., and do much more, as mentioned in their rich documentation.

Conclusion

Logging into each server and manually checking their operation is very time-consuming for a user. Server management has taken so much of our attention over time.

If you are not ready to install and manage control panel software yourself, you may consider leveraging a cloud-based control panel to manage servers and applications.