Best Free Control Panel?

What's the best free control panel? Will not bother buying a cPanel license so I'm looking at free alternatives.

 

I've been using Webmin for many years. It works great.

 

I'm looking at zPanel http://www.zpanelcp.com/
http://forums.zpanelcp.com/index.php

With CstyleX theme... looks like cPanel.
http://forums.zpanelcp.com/thread-6010.html

 

Zpanel has had some major security issues in the past. Haven't really kept up lately.

 

zPanel get's hacked a lot. For free panels, webmin is the way to go but it does have a pretty heavy learning curve, esp for someone without a lot of server admin exp. Since you said you don't have much server admin exp in other threads before, cPanel or Plesk would be your best options.

 

Neon: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...l-panel-for-websites-and-adminis?ref=kicktraq

 

Hello,

Virtualmin since 2005 for me

 

why not just stick with cpanel ? for VPS license costs <$14-15/mo

 

Or DirectAdmin for $5/mo on a VPS. Just depends on your provider.

 

IMO, your gonna spend the 5.00 on DA, you might as well just pay a bit more and go cPanel. DA is a bit more of a hassle to get up and running too.. cPanel is just 3 simple command lines and wait 30 minutes

 

Completely agree. Unfortunately, not all providers get cPanel licenses at a reduced price. The $15 price tag is often twice as expensive, or as expensive as the VPS itself. When somebody is on a budget and is looking for free panels, the $15/mo. can often be hard to swallow.

I do agree with cPanel though. Painless and it generally just works.

 

Been a long time since I used DA, but don't you have to install each module you want just like Webmin.. Apache, MySQL etc don't come installed when you install it?

 

I haven't used it for anything in ages. I think Apache, MySQL, PHP and such get installed now, but anything else needs to be custom installed.

 

cPanel updates software slowly and painfully. PHP 5.5 isn't there yet, and won't be there for couple of months.
xCache version 3 has just been integrated couple of days ago after about several months that it's out.
They are just "over testing" 3rd party add-ons/software and it puts them behind. I can do much more customization with DA than cPanel. When I had cPanel I felt like I'm in prison.

Sure you can do manual installation, but cPanel doesn't really support it, and it can break stuff.

 

cPanel isn't about being bleeding edge. It IS about being stable.

 

Yes, here too. Any other has too many overhead.

 

exactly... different tools for different purposes

unless all your php scripts and addons/plugins are PHP 5.5 compatible you usually won't jump on PHP 5.5 ASAP