Plesk and cPanel are two powerful control panels with rich features and similar functionalities. They are popularly used by millions of web hosting solutions. However, which one is exactly better for WordPress hosting service? This Plesk VS cPanel comparison just focuses on their prices, ease of use, features, and available plugins, to help customers have a clear understanding about two control panels and easily select a proper one for their server management.
Quick Overview
Plesk, also called as Parallels Plesk Panel, is an effective, flexible and secure control panel for webmasters to meet the broadest range of customer requirements. It is compatible with both Windows and Linux platform but has a better reputation in the Windows web hosting field.
cPanel is a Linux based web hosting control panel that offers an easy to use interface and automation tools. It is comes with a simplified operation, which gives users the ability to quickly and easily manage their websites and servers. Actually, cPanel is regarded as the most user-friendly control panel in the web hosting field.
Before contrast Plesk VS cPanel carefully, we make an overall table about their prices, interface, features, security, and available plugins. See the detailed comparison in the following table.
Overall
cPanel
Plesk
Price
Ease of Use
Platform
Linux
Windows, Linux
Requirement
Functionality
Popularity
Plesk and cPanel are two effective control panels for the server and website management. Only Plesk is popular for Windows platform while cPanel is famous for powering Linux-based servers and websites.
In the following, let’s learn about their advantages and disadvantages in detail.
Cost & Plans
It’s necessary to learn about the price before choosing a control panel. cPanel only offers 1 plan that prices for $425 per year or $35 per month. The similar plan for Plesk is charged for $70/mo. However, Plesk also offers smaller plans, which doesn’t cover the premium features included in VPS or dedicated server, such as web site builder, Kaspersky anti-virus, premium antivirus, power pack. For advanced users who need these features, they need to pay for extra price.
However, as the licenses of cPanel and Plesk are common bought by web hosts for the webmaster usage, the price is no longer a concern for customers. For example, a large number of shared hosting packages include cPanel as control panel for free, such as BlueHost, HostGator, and JustHost. Even BlueHost VPS offer free cPanel.
Ease-of-Use
Plesk is a complete multi-level hosting control panel, offering the server administrators a wide range of options to build and maintain the hosting business and also giving the end users full control over their websites. It has an easy-to-navigate interface, which offers huge convenience to users to navigate to multiple sections so that users can quickly find the functionality they need.
Plesk has a menu bar on the left and shows the detailed features or applications included on the right, just as the following.
cPanel is a graphical web-based control panel that helps users easily manage their websites and hosting accounts. It allows users to handle and maintain nearly all aspects of server operation, such as email and file hosting, web statistics, site builder, and so on. Whether you are handling one or hundreds of servers/ websites, the user-friendly cPanel interface allows you to customize your control panel to match your requirements.
Actually, cPanel has grown to be the most popular web hosting control panel, utilizing by many famous providers over the Internet, such as BlueHost, HostGator, JustHost, and others. For the popularity, people are more familiar and comfortable with cPanel, especially it has become a standard to choose WordPress hosting.
The Requirements of Plesk VS cPanel
Before make a decision between them two, it’s important to ensure you have the right resources allocated to the server as both cPanel and Plesk have their unique requirements.
Overall
cPanel
Plesk for Linux
Plesk for Windows
Disk space
10 GB
10 GB
32 GB
RAM
512 MB
512 MB
1 GB
Supported OS
CentOS, CloudLinux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SmartOS
CentOS, Debian, CloudLinux
Windows Server 2008 R2/SP2/2012
Plesk supports both Linux and Windows operating systems and needs at least 512 MB of RAM and 10 GB hard disk for Linux system while 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB hard disk for Windows system.
cPanel supports Linux based system only. The system requirements for cPanel& WHM software range from a minimum of 266 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, and 10 GB hard disk. Besides, it is fully compatible with some virtual environments, such as
KVM
Linux-Vserver
Microsoft Server 2008 Hyper-V
OpenVZ
Oracle VM VirtualBox, VirtualBox OSE
Virtuozzo
VMware Server, VMware ESX Server
Xen, XenEnterprise, XenExpress, ZenSErver
Conclusion
cPanel and Plesk are both excellent control panels for web servers and websites. cPanel is outstanding for Linux based users while Plesk is the preferred option for Windows fans. Both of them come with great functionality to allow users to configure website, view statistics, manage email accounts, handle files, and more. The better control panel is determined by your actual requirements and preferences.
For customers who would like to choose a cPanel hosting, we recommend the following options.
Rank
Company
Highlights
Price
1
InMotion Hosting
Automated daily backup
Max speed zone technology
90 days full refund
100% customer satisfaction
24×7 US technical support with holding time <= 30 seconds
To learn more, visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com/
$3.49/mo
2
Arvixe
Free domain name
6 domains on 1 account
99.9% uptime guarantee
60 day money back
Fully adheres to all WordPress hosting requirements
To learn more, visit http://www.arvixe.com/
$2.80/mo
3
HostGator
cPanel for Linux
Plesk for Windows
PHP, Rails, MySQL5, PostgreSQL & SSH
99.9% uptime & 45 days refund guarantee
Free $150 Google AdWords & $75 Bing/Yahoo search
To learn more, visit http://www.hostgator.com/
$3.96/mo
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