Plesk vs. cPanel: Which Is Right For Your Business?

The web server’s control panel is known to be the gateway to your online business, whether you’re a big company leasing the dedicated servers, a medium-sized firm offering web hosting service, or a small shop relying on shared hosting venue.

cPanel and Plesk are the two most popular web panels available in the market today. They have the same goal – managing website and the web hosting functions but they differ on the user experiences end. So, you might be thinking what are the major differences? So, One Hosting Center Team is here once again with a complete solution for Plesk vs. cPanel: which is right for your online business?

Plesk vs cPanel: Market Share

cPanel is a prevalent web control panel in the world. As per the recent stat, its servers create a domain every 6 seconds, and a hosting account using a control panel is created every 14.5 seconds.

Plesk casts the second widest net. As the current stats, more than 50% of the top 100 worldwide service providers are using Plesk today. It powers more than 10 million websites and applications.

cPanel and Plesk Similarities:

Both control panels offer the following suite of website management functions:

1. Web-based file system access
2. SSH user/key management
3. Database management
4. Logfile access and reporting
5. FTP management
6. Email system management
7. Domain name system management
8. Plugin systems for additional services & installing apps

In spite of so many similarities, there are some important differences. We’ve listed them below:

cPanel Is Still Not Compatible with the Windows Servers.

When it comes to executes ASP or .NET code website, or directly accesses Microsoft Access or MSSQL databases then Plesk is the better option. cPanel was offering support for Windows servers titled Enkompass but since 2014, cPanel no longer supported it.

Plesk vs. cPanel: Security Features

Undoubtedly Plesk vs cPanel is two of the most widely-used web control panels in 2024. Both panels offer enriched security features to keep your web apps secure, including the multi-layered authentication as well as web application firewall protection. However, their security suites offer different services in order to achieve similar goals.

cPanel security features include:

1. IP deny manager
2. SSH/shell access
3. IP address denials
4. SSL/TLS for e-commerce companies
5. Password-protected directories
6. GnuPG key settings for encryption

Apart from the stated above, cPanel also offers site protection via HotLink (use to stop media file misuse) and the Leech (use to prevent unauthorized visitors from using username and password) as well.

Plesk security features include:

1. Social media authentication
2. Fail2Ban intrusion prevention system
3. Active Directory integration
4. Inbound & outbound anti-spam services

Besides so many enriched security features, cPanel and Plesk also offer numerous app add-ons to improve web security. So when coming to the security comparison: the basic package features are different, but we must say they both provide plenty of top-quality security tools.

Related:How to Choose Web Hosting Provider

Sub Accounts and User Roles

cPanel requires a single password in order to gain access,. The password is created during the account setup. The administrator then assigns certain functions to the sub-account users. However, the functions are limited to the email, FTP, and web disk use. Some other features like file manager, database access, and email lists, are not available.

Plesk enables individual user accounts with their very own log-in credentials and provides total access. Administrators can open or hide the resources and services for the user accounts by defining the subscriptions and roles. This is something that many cPanel users wish they had.

Server Account Management

cPanel offers a separate application so that you can manage other website accounts on a server: WHM. A past update allowed the users to sign directly into the cPanel and WHM via preferred & compliant authentication service.

In Plesk, the two functions are integrated into the same browser-based interface using the separate sections. This enables quick management of the server alongside individual website accounts. From your panel homepage, you can:

• Manage subscriptions
• Set the server’s language and skin
• Open/modify/suspend accounts
• Sell software and script add-ons
• Monitor server usage and traffic reports
• Configure global server settings
• Monitor the domains on the server

If you are looking for webmaster capability alongside the server administration, Plesk is the better choice. If you’d like to keep the two functions separate, cPanel provides more extensive functionality.

Also Read: Full Service Web Hosting Service For Your Small Business

Plesk vs cPanel: Interface

With the goal of providing a comprehensive experience, cPanel offers a bevy of applications. If you are experienced you will find this very useful as you can easily select the functions you like but for a newbie, the interface is slightly cluttered. When talking on look and feel, cPanel categorizes all applications and tools into groups.

Plesk takes a more streamlined approach. The home page panel is clean and relies on app add-ons to plug functionality holes. The base program may be less comprehensive, but for beginners, it’s not so confusing. Plesk offers customized choices to customers based upon the server OS, so the interface may appear different than another customer who bought a different version.

Timeline for HTTP/2 Support

In an effort to advance the website performance, the Internet Engineering Task Force has developed HTTP/2. This feature cut page load times, help to relieve the TCP connection congestion as well as stop several advanced hacking tactics.

Plesk now supports HTTP/2. Since 2016, it introduced the IIS 10 web server. It also incorporates features like wildcard subdomains, HTTP/2 support, and new cipher suites. While the latest version of cPanel provides make files for HTTP/2. It enables developers to get it working via customized configuration. As it is a customization, any problems won’t be fixed or supported. cPanel recently says they do not intend to support HTTP/2 in this current release (through an update or otherwise).

Conclusion: Choosing Between Plesk and cPanel

Going through the article, we hope we have helped you to pick the right control panel for your web administration needs. Both products offer free demos on their websites. So our team always says to check them out for a few days & if you have a preference.

Note:Switching a server between the two panels is not recommended.

Plesk offers uninstall scripts but cPanel, does not. It requires reformatting the server and then reinstalling the OS if you wish to remove it. Also, Plesk data cannot be exported and imported into cPanel, or vice versa.

So choose wisely – Plesk vs. cPanel! Good luck with your web hosting management. Stay Home, Stay Safe!!!