Introduction
Web Hosting Control Panel plays a vital role in managing the website, but it is not always necessary to use GUIs, some may have a different requirement, for example a single website would be easy to manage through terminal but if you are managing hundreds of websites, then surely managing through commands is not a best option at all. Additionally, using just commands require a great experience and skill. A leading control panel, known as cPanel is a perfect web control panel. But due to its price, one cannot easily afford it. If you are a big company, and can afford the costs easily, then the perfect solution for you is to use some premium control panels like DirectAdmin, cPanel, Plesk etc. But what is the solution if you can’t afford it? What are the free options? Centex Hosting has brought you the options available for free!
Free Web Hosting Control Panel List
1. Cyber Panel
A latest web hosting control panel, which makes the use of latest web server, known as OpenLiteSpeed. In terms of speed, OpenLiteSpeed is extremely faster than Apache. Most common control panel uses apache by default, however what differentiates Cyber Panel is the use of OpenLiteSpeed. Along with perfect caching, it is good for WordPress. The control panel also has numerous features, along with good backup system and allows restoring the cPanel generated backups, hence making the migration easier from premium control panels. User interface is clean, and looks easier to manage sites. It is open-source, which is perfect for developers to add any features. Cyber Panel also has a paid license, which is known as Cyber Panel Enterprise, it comes with LiteSpeed Web Server which is a great web server, perfect for the companies hosting many websites.
2. VestaCP
VestaCP is simple web hosting control panel, it has all the basic features that every web hosting control panel must have. However, there are some reasons why some people does not prefer it as it is not often updated. It also has a history of vulnerabilities which were not fixed for a long time. Their community is large and help. It does not have features such as Softaculous which is an automatic web application software. The GUI is good looking, and can be recommended for personal usage.
3. Control Web Panel (CWP)
Another common free control panel which was previously known as CentOS Web Control Panel. Just like the features such as CloudLinux and Softaculous is present in premium control panels like cPanel and DirectAdmin, CWP also has it which allows the management and performance of website easier. This is a good alternative for cPanel but getting used to the CWP GUI may be hard for the users who are already used to cPanel. It is updated regularly, however during the security audit, lot of bugs and issues were found.
4. Froxlor
This web hosting control panel is not that common; however, we were surprised to see its functionality as it looks perfect with all basic features required for a control panel. GUI was also user-friendly, and is perfect for personal use. Not recommended for companies that are looking to host their customer’s website as better options are available.
5. Sentora
Very similar to cPanel in interface, and it has numerous features. This control panel must be only used at your own risks as we have found out that it has lot of vulnerabilities and issues. Good for development and test applications.
6. aaPanel
Another fairly new web hosting control panel which has been in industry for very short time. But it has made its name as its free and open-source. It can be deployed quickly through different environments such as Apache, NGINX and OpenLiteSpeed. It is good to see a web control panel supporting NGINX as it is a free web server with great performance. aaPanel consists of different security options, which includes firewall and advanced security settings.
7. Webmin
Another free and old control panel, which is great for its functionality. It used to have an outdated graphical user interface for a very long time. But recently, a new interface was released which is user-friendly along with numerous functionalities. Installing this software can take few minutes through a single command.
Some of the known free web hosting control panels were listed above. Most of the people would only use these free control panels if they have their own Virtual Private Server or a Dedicated Server. So, if you think that managing own server is hard choice, you can always go for a Shared Hosting which will be easier to manage.