Web Hosting Control Panels Compared: cPanel, Plesk and More

Applies to: cPanel and WHM 138, Plesk Obsidian, DirectAdmin, Virtualmin 8.3, Webmin 2.670 and CWP (Control Web Panel), as described in each vendor's documentation

A web hosting control panel is software on a server that lets you manage websites, email accounts, DNS, databases, SSL certificates and backups from a browser instead of the command line. The best-known commercial panels are cPanel and WHM, Plesk and DirectAdmin, each licensed per server. Free options include Virtualmin (with Webmin) and CWP. Which one fits depends on the operating system you need, whether you host Windows sites, how many accounts you run and whether you resell hosting.

This article compares them on facts from each vendor's own documentation: licence model, supported systems and main features. It does not rank them.

What a control panel does

• For a website owner: add domains and subdomains, upload files, create mailboxes and forwarders, edit DNS records, create databases, install SSL certificates, choose a PHP version and take backups.
• For a hosting provider or agency: create separate hosting accounts with limits (packages), give resellers their own customers, and manage the server's services from one place.

On shared hosting, the provider chooses and maintains the panel; you only use it. On your own VPS or dedicated server, you choose the panel and install it yourself. Most panels must go onto a freshly installed operating system, so pick before you build the server.

cPanel and WHM

• Two interfaces: WHM (WebHost Manager) is the server administrator and reseller panel; cPanel is the panel each hosting account sees. People who search for a "control panel for cPanel" usually mean WHM. According to cPanel, cPanel runs on port 2083 and WHM on port 2087.
• Licence: commercial, one licence per server, priced by the number of cPanel accounts: Solo (1 account), Admin (up to 5), Pro (up to 30) and Premier (up to 100, then billed per extra account). A free 15-day trial licence is available for new installations.
• Operating systems: AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. No Windows. cPanel supports only LTS releases of Ubuntu.
• Notable: version 138 introduced Meridian, a new goal-based cPanel interface, an AI Assistant that can answer account questions and make simple changes after the user approves them (hosting providers decide whether to enable it), and an AI App Hosting plugin for Node.js applications in isolated containers.

Plesk

• Licence: commercial, per server, in three editions by number of domains: Web Admin (10 domains), Web Pro (30) and Web Host (unlimited). Plesk sells separate VPS and dedicated server licences with the same features, and offers a free two-week trial.
• Operating systems: Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL and CloudLinux, with current releases such as Ubuntu 26.04, Debian 13 and AlmaLinux 10 listed as recommended) and Windows Server 2016 to 2025. Plesk is the only panel in this comparison whose documentation lists Windows Server.
• Notable: WP Toolkit for installing and managing WordPress sites (with WP-CLI built in; the Web Admin edition gets a limited SE version), extensions, and reseller management in the Web Host edition.

DirectAdmin

• Licence: commercial, monthly, in three retail licences: Personal Plus (2 accounts, 20 domains), Lite (10 accounts, 50 domains) and Standard (unlimited accounts and domains).
• Operating systems: RHEL and its derivatives (AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS Stream), Debian and Ubuntu, on x86-64 and 64-bit ARM. DirectAdmin's documentation asks for at least 4 GB of memory plus 4 GB of swap.
• Notable: three access levels (Admin, Reseller, User) and CustomBuild, which builds and updates the web stack from source so you can choose software versions and compile options.

Virtualmin

• Licence: Virtualmin GPL is free and open source (GPL-3.0). Virtualmin Pro is a paid edition that adds, among other things, reseller accounts, resource limits, cloud DNS providers and installable web applications.
• Operating systems: fully supported ("Grade A") on RHEL, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 8, 9 and 10, Debian 12 and 13 and Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 LTS, installed with its install script on a freshly installed system. Other systems, including CloudLinux, are listed as Grade B.
• Notable: Virtualmin is a hosting module for Webmin and manages websites, mail, DNS and databases per domain. It can import cPanel backup files: a full, tested walk-through is in migrate cPanel to Virtualmin.

Webmin

• Licence: free and open source (BSD-3-Clause).
• What it is: a web-based system administration tool for Unix-like servers. It manages the server itself (users, packages, services, firewall, cron, configuration files) rather than hosting accounts. Add Virtualmin if you need hosting features such as per-domain mail and websites.
• Getting started: install Webmin on Ubuntu, Debian and AlmaLinux.

CWP (Control Web Panel)

• Licence: the core panel is free; CWPpro is an optional paid version with extra tools and more frequent updates.
• Operating systems: the RHEL family only. CWP's installation guide recommends AlmaLinux 8 or 9 (minimal install) and lists Rocky Linux and Oracle Linux as compatible; Debian and Ubuntu are not listed. It must be installed on a clean, freshly installed system.
• Notable: DNS and domain management, email, a file manager, resource monitoring and its own add-ons.

Other free panels

HestiaCP, CyberPanel, ISPConfig and Froxlor are also free, maintained panels, each with its own licence and supported systems. Our blog compares them, including which ones can import cPanel backups: free cPanel alternatives. An abandoned panel is a security risk; the Sentora project status is one example of what to check before you install.

How to choose

• You host Windows sites (ASP.NET, MSSQL): Plesk is the only panel in this comparison that lists Windows Server support.
• You sell hosting to customers or resellers: cPanel and WHM (resellers are managed in WHM), DirectAdmin (Admin, Reseller and User levels) and Plesk Web Host (the edition with reseller management, according to Plesk) are built for that; Virtualmin needs the Pro edition for reseller accounts.
• Your server runs Debian: Plesk, DirectAdmin, Virtualmin and Webmin support it; cPanel and CWP do not list it.
• You want no licence fee: Virtualmin GPL, Webmin or CWP's free core.
• Your customers already know a panel: moving them is work; check import tools before switching.
• You only need to manage the server, not hosting accounts: Webmin, or the command line.

Check the panel's current requirements page before ordering a server, because supported operating system versions change with each release.

At Ucartz: shared Linux web hosting with cPanel, shared web hosting on Virtualmin, a managed cPanel VPS, a managed Webmin VPS, and cPanel, Plesk and LiteSpeed licences for your own VPS or dedicated server.

Related articles: how to install DirectAdmin, managed VPS with cPanel: what you get.

Official documentation: cPanel system requirements, Plesk software requirements, DirectAdmin installation, Webmin and Virtualmin, CWP installation.