Many of the Web hosting companies provide cPanel and Plesk as web hosting control panels to their clients with the servers. These control panels work with different types of operating systems and hence are provided with the same. Plesk is available with both the operating systems Windows as well as Linux, whereas cPanel is available with Linux operating systems only. But according to the sources, this will change when cPanel will release its cPanel/WHM 2008 control panel for windows 2008 which is said to be released in 2008. This means that after this release cPanel will be available with Windows operating systems also.
cPanel
Generally for Linux operating systems the control panel which is preferred by most of the users is cPanel and this is due to the fact that cPanel is based on Perl scripts and this is the reason why it requires little to no database access most of the time. Also, as it is based on Perl scripts its loading time is comparatively less than many of the other control panels available. When using cPanel developers can build their own custom functions and programs for use within cPanel as cPanel has the capability to sort add-ons and also provides add-on functionality. Some of the examples of add-ons include ‘Fantastico’ and ‘RVSkins’. cPanel also provides server side information to the end user which they may have to use in some mission critical cases and due to these reasons cPanel has greater capabilities in comparison to Plesk control panel.
cPanel also includes Web Host Manager (also called WHM in short) which is also a control panel specially created within cPanel and it is designed for the purpose of simplifying the task of reselling web hosting services. Due to this reason it is very simple to resell the web hosting services by setting up a reseller account with the help of cPanel. In comparison to cPanel, it is difficult to resell web hosting services with Plesk as it is a single control panel and setting up a reseller account is difficult with it. You can also migrate your hosting account to another cPanel hosting provider easily by integrating a site migration module as cPanel allows you to do so. So with the help of this system you can transfer all your sites and settings without loosing your important data. This system makes cPanel completely different from all the control panels available with the web hosting providers as this system is not available in other control panels.
Plesk
Plesk is considered to be the most reliable control panel in the Windows web hosting industry and this is the reason that it is also preferred by most of the users of Windows operating systems. HostingController which is also a control panel for Windows operating system and is said to be a rival to Plesk could not succeed as it is considered to be unreliable in comparison to Plesk and due to this Plesk gained more importance in the Windows web hosting industry. Plesk is a cross platform control panel and is available with different versions for both Linux and Windows operating systems. Developers are unable to create there own add-ons with Plesk and so it is said to be a closed operating system. However, it is possible to integrate many other programs with the help of Plesk as Plesk allows integration for many other programs in different fields and it also has the ability to allow clients to use SmarterMail in the Windows version of Plesk.
As Plesk is a cross platform control panel and has versions for both Windows and Linux operating system companies can run the same control panel for both the operating systems instead of different control panels for different operating systems due to which technicians will require less training as they have to work on the same operating system and this will result in the saving of time and money for the company. However Plesk cannot be considered as the best control panel in terms of security for Windows as well as Linux operating systems as several holes have been found out within the Plesk software which allows Hackers to take control of the Windows server through Plesk control panel and Hackers can still gain access to the server even if the administrator password of the server is changed which is also a backdrop of the Plesk control panel.
Conclusion
If you want a control panel for both the systems then you can go with Plesk as what you will learn can be applied to both the operating systems which will save your time and money and make an effect on your business. However, if you want to go with the leader of the market and have enough time to study both the control panels (cPanel for Linux, Plesk for Windows) then you should go for cPanel as you can customize it according to you requirements and provide your customers with a good control over their websites.
