If you’re going to become a webhoster – the control panel will be one of most important decisions. If the control panel doesn’t work reasonable, you will loose your customers.
So, it’s not easy to choose an apropriate system. In this article I will present a few free webhosting control panels, which runs on linux. In a future post, I will also present some commercial panels.
The ASM (Account Service Manager) project
The ASM project is a nice control panel to serve some relatives or friends. The panel is well sorted and offers the most required features. Because of the styling and layout, I would disadvice that panel for commercial services.
The last activities are long time ago, so I suppose the developer has stopped the project. What a shame.
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- Perl based system
- Secure login – locks sessions by IP and hostname
- Changing theme properties by config file
- Modular architecture – easy customizing
- API library
- Easy configuration by a single file
- Own configuration file for each customer to define limits
- Language: english only
Finding project here: http://www.acctmgr.com/
The DTC (Domain Technology Control) project
This project seems to be more active than the above one. DTC is a nice looking control panel and supports the most required features and is sponsored by at least two companies. It’s advisable for commercial environments.
DTC can delegate the task of creating subdomains, email, ssh, database, mailing lists, and FTP accounts to users for the domain names they own.
Furthermore you can find a comprehensive wiki and install instructions.
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- Real-time bandwidth monitor for all server on each user basis
- Antivirus and anti-spam with spam quarantine (“spam” imap folder) for mail
- Automated backup NS and MX between 2 or more control panels (with domain list exchange over HTTPS)
- Unix type independency (can run on FreeBSD, redhat, debian, OS-X…)
- Store-front integration with registration form and payment gateway option
- Mailing lists with many options
- Package installer (like fantastico) to be able to install many apps (phpBB, osCommerce, Drupal, etc…)
- Full internationalization: translated to many languages
- Management of all types of hosting: Shared, Dedicated or VPS
- Full billing system, including customer invoicing and renewals, and company book keeping with multiple company support
- Integrated support ticket system
- Chrooted cgi-bin with execution limitation to protect your server
- No ugly daemon running: we use apache directly
- Choice of running daemon: apache 1.3 or 2, mysql 3.23, 4 or even 5, from php 4.1.2 to php5, proftpd or pure-ftpd, qmail or postfix, etc…
- Commercial support available
Supported distributions:
- Debian
- FreeBSD
- RedHat
- MAC OSX Server
- Gentoo
Finding project here: http://www.gplhost.com/software-dtc.html
The Web-CP (Webhosting Control Panel) project
Web-CP is a nice control panel, but not really advisable for commercial use. The look and feel could be more modern – but it’s open source – so you can adapt it for your needs.
The panel has less features inside customer section. I am missing:
- FTP account management
- htaccess menue
- error page management
- mysql management (create and backup databases) / You can create customer databases only in the serverCP section, but not as customer. phpMyAdmin is available
- SSL management
Maybe there are some more features in the future. The current version is more useful for own website projects on a vserver / dedicated server, than for commercial webhosting control panel.
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- Skinnable
- Configurable Levels of Access
- Task Automation
- Advanced Reseller Management
- Reseller, Domain, User Creation
- Advanced User Management
- E-Mail Settings; manage catch-all, aliase, autoresponder & forward
- Access Restrictions
- Flexible Domain Settings: IP Address, Hostname, Domain Name, Hostname Aliases, Domain, wildcard and redirect options, HD, User, Data Transfer, Database, Subdomain, Pointer Quota, PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, SSL, SSI, etc.
- Database Management
- Mailing list Management
Finding project here: http://www.web-cp.net/
The SysCP project
SysCP and VHCS are the most popular free webhosting control panels. With SysCP I have a lot experience – I’ve used this for a few hundred customers in several environments.
SysCP is very flexible an easy to adapt to your own needs. But be carefully, because of update compatibility. The system doesn’t have a template engine and is divided into typical three sections: Admin, Reseller, User.
I can advise the system for commercial use, it’s supports all necessary features.
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- Apache, Apache 2.x, Lighttpd
- Bind9, PowerDNS
- Courier, Dovecot
- Postfix, Exim4
- ProFTP, PureFTP
- Awstats, Webalizer
Important points:
- Mail, FTP & Webspace management
- Traffic-, Billing- and Ticketsystem
- (Software as a Service) one click application installer (APS-Standard)
- 15 languages supported
- DKIM & individual DNS/SPF Records
- SSL for SysCP Panel and Customers
- Full FastCGI/fcgid support
- Full IPv4 and IPv6 support
- Safemode and open_basedir chosable
- Editable email-templates
- Panel logging
- Custom errorpages and path settings
Supported distributions:
- Debian 4.0 (Etch)
- Debian 3.1 (Sarge)
- Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
- Gentoo Linux
- OpenSuSE Linux 10.0
- FreeBSD
Finding project here: http://www.syscp.org/home.html
The VHCS project
VHCS is also an very common control panel and often used in commercial hosting environments. Without any doubt, I can advise this project.
The panel contains the three typical sections for admins, resellers and users. In addition to SysCP, VHCS contains an own WebFTP and WebMail interface. The project is well documented.
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- Hosting services plan management – create your own hosting plans
- Аutomated creation of users and domains
- Graphical evaluation of every reseller’s and user’s traffic
- Virtual hosts management (Name-based, IP-based)
- CO-Domains (Domain alias) and sub domains management
- DNS (BIND 8 and 9) management
- Managing FTP, EMail adresses, POP3 and IMAP accounts, autoresponders
- CGI, PHP,SSI configuration and management
- MySQL user databases, backup, restore
- SSL-secured domains
- password protection (.htaccess files)
- Custom error files – 401, 403, 404 and 500
- Multilanguage support
- Skin-based graphic user interface – 4 pre-installed skins
Supported distributions:
- SuSE Linux 7.x 8.x and 9.x
- Red Hat Linux 7.x and 9.0
- Debian Linux sid, woody and sarge
- Fedora Core1, Core2 and Core 3
Used daemons:
- Apache
- Postfix MTA
- ProFTP
- PHP 4.x, Perl
- MySQL
- Courier POP3, IMAP
- OpenSSL or mod_ssl for SSL-Webs
- BIND8 / BIND9 (DNS Server)
Finding the project here: http://www.vhcs.net/new/
Please feel free to comment any further free control panels or forgotten features if you know.
Hirako
May 6th, 2010
thanks, the template that you have and I will visit again when there are new templates and new information on your website
Hamed
January 12th, 2010
Sehr hilfreich, besten Dank. Mein Favorit ist derzeit SysCP.
Businessbroker
September 1st, 2009
Excellent tool! Thank you.
chris
March 14th, 2009
Danke für die Übersicht. ISPConfig gibt es auch noch.