Are you cPanel dependent?

webling

Member
We as humans are naturally lazy. That's why we want someone else to do the work for us. There is a bit of psychology in all of this. We have gotten soooooooooooooooooo dependent on cPanel and WHM many of us have forgotten how to use SSH and FTP.

Does this make sense? Hello?

As I am migrating to Plesk on my web hosting servers I can't use cPanel because now I have no license for cPanel? Am I shocked? Heck no, I sent the order to my techs at the data center and everyone is simply going as I have requested.

Prior to this I told all my clients clearly and prepared them for what is ahead. My most important advice was, Back up your email.

I didn't listen to my own advice however. So what did I do? Logged in with FTP and backed up my email. No problem. I got it all. But so many of us who have become dependent on other software hare forgotten what we used back in the '90's. I learned FTP in DOS and can still use it if I have to. Mostly, we have just forgotten how to work.

Now, this is what stinks about using WHMCS. My knowledge base is in that. So now, I want an independent knowledge base I OWN FOREVER and is independent of all other software. Make sense?

I would rather write web pages for my knowledge base at this point than to trust all my writing to software I pay high dollars for every month. We thought this was good several years ago right? Why? We trusted that nothing would change. At least that's what I thought. Did you think that also? So sorry.

Here is MY problem, and YOURS if I am correct. We are lazy and have become dependent. Stop that! I'm stopping that too. Everything I teach, I practice and I am implementing even more. This is what I wish to present to the web hosting community is that we do a bit more work and seek our independence. Remember the early pilgrims who came to the USA? Independence and freedom right? So why are we so easily sucked in to those who make us dependent once again? Here is why, one word............laziness. I'm guilty. I'm changing that. I'll wear the spots off my keyboard after this so this will not happen again.

I am moving to use FREE everything, Or at least low cost and independent software. Knowledge base, shopping cart, control panel..................nothing bundled any more that allows anyone company to suck us into their product. Make sense? Let's change the patter folks that we were once drawn into. This will change the market and level the playing for all of us. I already headed in that direction the beginning of this month before the monster raised it's ugly head. I will no longer fall victim to companies who want to own my company. M company now owns them if they wish to work for me.

Thanks, now I feel better. :smash:
 
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I'll go one step further and say people don't even remember how to install WordPress without using Softaculous or similar auto-installer :)

One thing to not about FREE or Open Source solutions, sometimes the support level is just not there. This is why so many people get frustrated with plugins by developers on Wordpress or Drupal. Developers drop off and no longer reply.

When you look at corporations, they NEED someone to blame when something doesn't go right. They need to be able to shake a finger, and get someone on the other end to resolve it as quick as possible.

This is the reason .NET is used in most Schools and Government facilities (and corporations as a whole). It's not that it's inherently better than another, but they have a big company they are paying and can say "fix it" and it has to get done. That's the commitment they signed up for.

We paid for Red Hat Enterprise for years before moving into CentOS as it was an enterprise platform that we could rely and depend on. CentOS was just getting started so it couldn't be fully trusted. This was back in the early 2000's, and Red Hat was running $200-$300/year for their license. Multiply that by 100 servers ($20,000/year) but it was the cost of doing business. Once we swapped over to CentOS by late 2000's, that $20k didn't go into our pockets, we spent it on other softwares and hardwares :)
 
I'll go one step further and say people don't even remember how to install WordPress without using Softaculous or similar auto-installer :)

One thing to not about FREE or Open Source solutions, sometimes the support level is just not there. This is why so many people get frustrated with plugins by developers on Wordpress or Drupal. Developers drop off and no longer reply.

When you look at corporations, they NEED someone to blame when something doesn't go right. They need to be able to shake a finger, and get someone on the other end to resolve it as quick as possible.

This is the reason .NET is used in most Schools and Government facilities (and corporations as a whole). It's not that it's inherently better than another, but they have a big company they are paying and can say "fix it" and it has to get done. That's the commitment they signed up for.

We paid for Red Hat Enterprise for years before moving into CentOS as it was an enterprise platform that we could rely and depend on. CentOS was just getting started so it couldn't be fully trusted. This was back in the early 2000's, and Red Hat was running $200-$300/year for their license. Multiply that by 100 servers ($20,000/year) but it was the cost of doing business. Once we swapped over to CentOS by late 2000's, that $20k didn't go into our pockets, we spent it on other softwares and hardwares :)

I had a different experience with Red Hat. I stopped at one of the stores and bought a book about Red Hat and it came with a disc that had the OS on it. I had my first computer rebuilt to be a server and ran it on my own wire in my living room where I had set up my first network, ran a radio station, my own websites, etc. I had Windoze Server on that before that and wasn't crazy about it so I reformatted and installed Red Hat and I loved it. I didn't have to reboot the machine for months. By the way, I still have that server sitting next to me here. It just needs a power supply which I can take that off a workstation computer I have. I use my old servers and workstations at my NOC for testing purposes on my Intranet. Saves money from setting up a hosted server and is easier since I can make any domain name I want on my intranet. I might even still have a copy of Red Hat 5.0 from way back. That was when UNIX was still widely used and everyone had doubts that Linux could actually be used in production. Being that it was developed by Linus Torvalds as a college project, nobody took it serious at that time. But look where we are now? Many distros we can download free and burn to a disc for installation in a pentium architecture. Adios Sparc 5.
 
Luckily I never really got into cPanel.
I used to host at RackSpace years ago and found theat plesk was a total pain.
I found a host that offer DirectAdmin and took that approach, as it's easily fast and easy to use, and great at customising and hacking on extra features.
I was luck enough to have purchased lifetime licenses while they were still available.
I really do feel sorry for all the cPanel users, who stuck with cPanel all these years only to be betrayed at the last moment.

I do hope that DirectAdmin won't go the same way!
 
I agree humans are lazy, even now rather than use forums people use facebook as its all done for them.
But even those using forums

vBulletin etc. its all done for you by just a click of install button and a few tweeks in then settings.

you never here of anyone using then ultimate all in 1 forum/chat etc. software Boonex Dolphin, because to run dolphin you need a bit of red5 knowledge as your need to also install their free Media Server software (formerly Ray Media Server - RMS), based on open-source ​Red 5. ideally on a separate server to then one you have dolphin installed
 
We use Plesk and cPanel. I found that with the price increase it has turned the demand for reseller plans, when you thought these were being extinct!
 
We use Plesk and cPanel. I found that with the price increase it has turned the demand for reseller plans, when you thought these were being extinct!

Reseller plan or not you still have to pay the cPanel price increase, just reseller plans will increase in prices to cover the extra cost
 
I'll go one step further and say people don't even remember how to install WordPress without using Softaculous or similar auto-installer :)

I agree. cPanel’s popularity is because of easy management of websites, its integration with popular softwares like Softaculous, CloudLinux, JetBackup and much more. Too many users rely on Softaculous to install a lot of applications.
 
I agree. cPanel’s popularity is because of easy management of websites, its integration with popular softwares like Softaculous, CloudLinux, JetBackup and much more. Too many users rely on Softaculous to install a lot of applications.

I agree, but i know personally i install all software manually as Softaculous is not 100% reliable. i have had cases where some key components are missing in Softaculous installs
 
We use Plesk and cPanel. I found that with the price increase it has turned the demand for reseller plans, when you thought these were being extinct!

I offered plesk and cPanel in the beginning when I started my company, but nobody was ordering plesk plans. I had actually started with plesk before I started my company and liked what I saw. I didn't even know about cPanel at the time and so it wasn't even a consideration in my mind. So automatically when I started my company and set up servers it was all plesk.

Because I got into the business I was learning more and researching and ran across some info on cPanel and learned it was the popular choice over other types of software. Eventually I decided to set up more servers with cPanel even though I was burning a lot of money at the time running servers with no hosting customers on them.

I took time to learn cPanel and ended up liking it more than plesk. In time, I shut down all my plesk servers. I was comfortable with cPanel until this recent price increase. My company is very small, and I enjoy keeping it that way because I DO NOT want to be a high end company. I do my own sales and support, that's why I can promise Level 3 Tech support always.

I would rather have a few clients I can manage well, than a big company that employs hirelings who waste considerable time. One reason for that is, I live small and I am highly content with that. I think these big companies are owned by people who want to get all they can. I can actually compete with any of them. In fact, to a point that even though I got rid of cPanel, I actually ordered another server and my total network costs are lower. This new server will run a free open source control panel. Neither my upstream provider at the data center or myself have used this in production. So I set up a server on which to do this. If it pans out and customers accept it, it will lower my web hosting prices DRASTICALLY. I'm NOT kidding. Granted, it will mean I need to educate my clients more and I will have to do more writing, but I have the time to do that. And it will mean that my support will be so good that free web hosting companies will have trouble competing against me.

I'm using a website to reach a niche as a test pilot. If it pans out as I hope, I will begin setting up more based on this business model. I will not share the business model here, you wouldn't either right? But I will share the idea and value of the smaller companies who can offer high end support. Did I mention HIGH END SUPPORT? This is one of the first and most important concepts actually from my web hosting company before I went off on my own. They actually helped me to enter the web hosting industry on my own? I didn't stay with them because I learned enough that I no longer need them. Sounds funny right? It's all true and I am thankful to that company for helping me some of their own secrets, and in time I learned more.

My best advice is, learn what works for YOU and other people and you will find your niche in this business.
 
On the Softaculous note, I would rather customers use an auto-installer than not.

This way I know that the permissions on files are set the right way and that they can automatically update their software.

I find that customers who do know how to install software on their own, are not so keen on updating. (I'm not talking wordpress here, where it's a few clicks, but even then I think you know how many wordpress blogs sit there not updated)
 
I have used cPanel for a few days in 2014 and went with DirectAdmin as that worked easier for me. Still using DirectAdmin after 7 years.
 
Short answer: no. Using different panels, depending on the needs of each project. Most popular at the moment are:
1) Directadmin
2) cPanel
3) ISPConfig
4) VestaCP
 
No, as we offer/use DirectAdmin also, but in general hardly any panel can compete with cPanel for now, but this increase will push other panels development, we will see.
 
I worked on servers running with major panels like cPanel,Plesk,Direct Admin,Webmin,CWP etc, but no panel offers facilitates and usage friendliness as cPanel have. After cPanel it comes Direct Admin, then Plesk .
 
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