Comparing BlaqPanel vs traditional control panels…cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin.
BlaqPanel PROS:
- BP is easily cheaper than most paid control panel licenses. cPanel and Plesk licenses can easily run to $50/month per server if you have many sites or a large server size. BP license is currently only $5/server.
- BP user-interface is far more WordPress-centric and easier to use. cPanel and Plesk have a ton of management areas that are only appreciated by diehard Linux admins.
- BP is more modern and more easily integrates with modern hosting technologies. Simply more agile development by a focused team rather than an older tool with lots of legacy code and bureaucracy in the way of every addition.
- BP arguably has better support. Which isn’t saying much because traditional panels only have a support channel for admins, not end-users. But still…our documentation and community is so much more helpful and specific than theirs.
BlaqPanel CONS:
- BP may not have all the features that cPanel & Plesk have (email hosting, DNS hosting, remote MySQL, etc). Of course…the argument is also that most people don’t need all those features.
- End-user account and billing management. These panels are great for hosting companies who sell packages to clients and give each their own hosting panel account. BP currently doesn’t do this (and neither do many cloud-hosts)…but hey, maybe one day.
Specific comparisons:
- cPanel – BP is way cheaper than cPanel and has more features specifically for WordPress. Cpanel has a billion features, and can host emails and such…but we believe that panel is overkill and way too expensive ($7-45/month) for today’s modern WordPress hosting needs. If anything…our cloud interface is more convenient for managing many servers at once.
- DirectAdmin – great product and nice interface. It’s designed as a cPanel alternative, which can be good or bad depending how you like it. Our product is geared most specifically for WordPress hosting and has more modern features.
- Plesk – similar comparisons to cPanel. Tons of features you don’t need and IMO, kind of messy UI (for both users and server admins).