Choosing a control-panel licence

A control panel is optional. Everything a panel does — files, databases, mail, DNS, certificates — the dashboard already does. A panel is for when you or your clients want the interface they already know.

The choice

No panel. The default, and the fastest. Use the dashboard and SSH.

cPanel/WHM. The panel most hosting customers have used before. Licensed per server and, on the newer tiers, per account — so the price moves with how many accounts you create.

Plesk. Strong on Windows and on multi-server setups, and its Web Pro / Web Host editions differ mainly in how many domains they allow.

What decides it in practice

• Are you reselling? Your clients expect a panel, and expect it to be one they recognise.
• How many accounts? cPanel's account tiers step up in price; Plesk's step up on domains.
• Windows anywhere? Plesk.

Panels → Buy a licence shows the current price for each tier in your currency, and the licence is billed with everything else.

Installing it

Buying a licence for a server installs it on that server. The panel is then reachable at the address shown on the server's screen, and its own admin credentials are in Credentials.

⛔ Install a panel before you put sites on the machine. A panel wants to own the layout of a server, and installing one under existing sites is a migration rather than a click.