| Posted by ALLiNET, 10-01-2005, 05:06 PM | | If you are as reseller had ability to choose between two different control panels with witch one you would go?
cPanel/WHM Only Linux Based Shared Hosting
Add-on Feature: Fantastico and RVSkin
Billing System: NO
Support Ticket System: NO
H-Sphere Windows and Linux Based Shared Hosting, VPS, SSL, Domains.
Add-on Feature: EasyApp
Billing System: YES
Support Ticket System: YES
As I see most resellers did not realize when they signing up with cPanel/WHM reseller plans that they will have more expenses on Billing Software and Helpdesk software for technical support.
Also with cPanel/WHM you are locked you cant sell Windows Based Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Domain Names, and SSL Certificates from same control panel, you will need to get some kind of script like modern bill witch support all of this, then register a lot of different accounts etc
When the best solution in this case just pay is little bit more and go with H-Sphere Private Label Reseller Hosting. With H-Sphere you will be able to sell Linux and Windows Based Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, SSL Certificates from Comodo, and Register Domains from many different registers such us eNom, OpenSRS and more.
Very good comparison here
www.bestreseller.com offers Disk Space 5000 mb and Bandwidth 100 gb cPanel/WHM Control Panel for $64.99
www.jodohost.com offers Disk Space 5000 mb and Bandwidth 80 gb H-Sphere Control Panel with 5 Free IPs for $35.00 In this case it is even less.
So after those facts witch control panel you prefer to use? cPanel/WHM or H-Sphere?
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| Posted by ldcdc, 10-01-2005, 07:56 PM | | First, IMO you're walking on thin ice.
Second, it heavily depends on the market I would go for. If I would go for the whole Internet market with no special niche in mind and try to wrestle with the big guys, I would go for Cpanel. It is well known, the end users love it, many find it exceptionally easy to use and don't want to learn how to use another control panel. If I would target the average WHT user, I would also go for Cpanel.
If I would go for a niche, I would probably use H-Sphere (or another control panel), even though personally, I'm starting to be a bit repelled by it due to so many H-Sphere providers continually pushing it like it is the best thing since sliced bread. Arguably it is so, but I don't like it being rubbed all over my face day in and day out and I'm sad to say that I've repeatedly seen H-Sphere being mentioned in threads where there was no need for it to be brought up.
I realise I might have been harsh in my rant above, but that's just how I feel at the moment.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 10-01-2005, 09:07 PM | | Hi Dan, though we often disagree on various topics, I do value your opinion and judgement. I do agree with you that hsphere is being pushed quite hard - and I for one am probably guilty of this. However, the other side of the coin is that this board is predominantly cpanel - and sometimes its like trying to club somebody over the head to realize the benefits of an alternate solution...
We have loaded up hsphere v2.5 beta on our development servers, and Ill say this - the entire arguement is about to be a moot point. In the very near future, our resellers will be able to resell linux, windows, vps, dedicated servers (from us, or their own from any DC on the planet) and microsoft exchange - all from a single control panel and a single reseller account. Combine complete automation, the new LB features and a whack of other items not even worth mentioning after the list already provided - and fact of the matter is, the industry is facing a fundamental shift - and those not adept enough to adapt will be left behind...
Agreed - however, please remember, those of us that do use hsphere constantly have cpanel rubbed in our faces - and if someone requests items like billing solutions, automated signups, etc - we are looking at recommendations of modernbill, whm, etc - which are all hack job add-ons compared to the integration available with our solution - but, we bite our lip and wait for our spot to mention an alternative (and superior) solution...
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| Posted by ldcdc, 10-01-2005, 09:51 PM | | Hahaha! True, we do tend to disagree, which I find rather funny because once our differences are forgotten, I feel we're ultimately on the same side.
I understand that it must be hard the H-Sphere providers living in a Cpanel world, and in all honesty, where H-Sphere is the solution, I'm all behind recommending it. If someone wants to resell both Linux and Windows, H-Sphere is definitely worthy of mention. If someone is planning on starting a hosting business, all control panels should be considered and mentioned if possible, and so should H-Sphere with its advantages. I just don't want to see it mentioned when it is not the place for it.
I'm glad to hear that Psoft is developing things even further. True automation is likely to be a valid reason for hosting costs to go down (as opposed to the ever increasing overselling margins) and make H-Sphere providers better prepared for the fight for supremacy.
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| Posted by layer0, 10-01-2005, 09:57 PM | | H-Sphere all the way!
Just competely unmatched by cPanel...
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 10-01-2005, 10:09 PM | | SOOO true !! but, thats the difference between civilized debate and trolling - and Im quite happy we are on the debate side vs the the trolling side
I honestly believe the fight is already over - and we are just dealing with the transition period - but, Im sure others will disagree and that is of course their perogative
I must agree with Dan here, there really is no reason to bring up hsphere in a comparison study, especially when pricing is involved. Theres just so many factors involved in pricing, and control panel has very little to do with it. I would argue that the price you are willing to pay for hosting is directed by expectations of service (though pricing and service levels dont always go hand in hand unfortunately) - and this truely is control panel indewpendant....
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| Posted by Yash-JH, 10-01-2005, 11:27 PM | | If you compare cPanel & HSphere on a scalability or feature-wise basis, HSphere beats cPanel hands down.
I have always considered cPanel a light-weight panel for reseller hosting. Most resellers still prefer it because it is simple to use and will allow you to get yourself up and running very quickly. However it is has many limitations in automation and features when compared to HSphere. HSphere, requires a little more setup and a little more time to understand. But once understood, everything becomes very simple and you'll enjoy the automation
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| Posted by (Stephen), 10-01-2005, 11:40 PM | | I agree here, lets keep this between cpanel and hsphere features, not companies, CPs are only a minimal cost, for great benefit regardless of what you decide to go with.
My opinion is that H-Sphere is great for hosting automation, it many times lags behind on some "new things" but it does the automation and the control panel work better than any control panel I have used, and I have used many.
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| Posted by FHDave, 10-02-2005, 02:36 AM | | Another vote for HSphere.
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| Posted by vantage255, 10-02-2005, 03:26 AM | | Hsphere..
And as far as lagging behind in features.. Im not sure what features it lags behind in. We are far from up to date with reguard to hsphere versioning, But it contains all the features I could ask for and we have a lot of them turned off.
I am not always impressed by the service instalations that psoft uses, we do a LOT of customization there, and the file system layout takes some interesting partitioning to be as resiliant as it can be, but the feature set is hard to beat and the scalablility is unmatchable at the moment.
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| Posted by FHDave, 10-02-2005, 10:38 AM | | I think this will be the first time a poll between HSphere and Cpanel resulted in a favor towards Hsphere instead of Cpanel. 8 to 1 for HSphere.
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| Posted by ALLiNET, 10-02-2005, 11:58 PM | | 11 to 2 for HSphere.
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| Posted by (Stephen), 10-03-2005, 12:32 AM | | Shortlist of hsphere lackings:
Windows SubFTP is top fo the list, I have the new 2.5 beta so I will be testing this feature soon.
Coldfusion MX7 support, also in 2.5, but has been out for a long time.
64-bit(x64) linux, we are looking at 2 years since it has been in final release states now.
64-bit Windows Support(going on 1 year shortly), x64 windows is the best windows ever.
ASP.NET 2.0 has been in GoLive for a few months, same for SQL2005. No mention of support for these in 2.5 either.
That is just a short list I could think of, some are being addressed, others aren't even being looked into as far as I know.
However, that being said, hsphere is still the best out there.
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| Posted by vantage255, 10-03-2005, 02:05 AM | | OK..
The windows FTP bit is annoying. Ill agree to that.
As for 64bit linux support... I think I am loosing you there somewhere.. The Hsphere linux/bsd package is a bunch of scripts. shell and perl.. They should work on 64bit linux as well as on 32. I have not tested this myself so I may be missing something, but I cant really see what.
One thing that is notably lacking is support for distributing TomCat over multiple servers for the CP. One server for the CP and one for the CP database is kinda limiting. This doesnt really effect anything unless you are talking about a pretty heavily used CP though.
Last edited by vantage255; 10-03-2005 at 02:09 AM.
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| Posted by amfr, 10-03-2005, 05:45 PM | | I like cPanel because of its ease of use, also, as a programmer, it is much easier to create accounts remotely and that sort of thing
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| Posted by ALLiNET, 10-03-2005, 05:58 PM | | have you ever try H-Sphere?
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| Posted by (Stephen), 10-03-2005, 06:01 PM | | Hsphere has a great API, and we have resellers that have written some SWEET almost fully custom control panels using ASP/PHP/AJAX using the API.
Vantage,
It doesn't work on x64, linux or windows, I will test 2.5 on them, but I am 99% sure it won't work.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 10-03-2005, 06:06 PM | | We have tested 2.5 and can confirm this statement....
*Edit - of course, in theory, everything can be recompiled to accomodate 64bit, even in theory Java on the CP server can be modified to accomodate - but, out of the box - it doesnt work
Last edited by cartika-andrew; 10-03-2005 at 06:09 PM.
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| Posted by vantage255, 10-04-2005, 01:20 AM | | Java aside,
What doesnt work on 64bit.. the perl scripts..? Windows I can understand. There are compiled binaried involved... But there is nothing really on the unix install that I can thnk of that would cause an issue.
Maybe the default install script doesnt work.. But I havent used that since the first few boxes I installed. At this point I just take the scripts directory and move it to a new box with a working OS/apache instalation and then create the appropriate sim links and boom.. Working Hpshere web server...
CartikaHosting, We are looking at running the Java process for the control panel on a 64 bit box. We are hitting the limit of Java as far as 32 bit memory utilization.. Really wish that they would rewrite the CP java process to support running multiple java backend processes.
I understand that I may be in a unique position as we dont really use the Hsphere install scripts anymore, But everything that can be a perl/shell script on the unix servers... is. That kindof limits the problems you can encounter.
We are actualy looking at rolling out 64bit mysql boxes... I am very interested in what failures you have had.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 10-04-2005, 01:35 AM | | Although not given a "thorough" effort, the problem we see are with the few packages within hsphere whos source is not readily available (as well as several Java CP issues - though, looks like you got further here then we did). We're not really concerned with going 64 bit - at least not at this point in time, but, we were curious if 2.5 would accomodate....
Yes, that is a bit of a unique position
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| Posted by vantage255, 10-04-2005, 01:43 AM | | We run freeBSD and install apache, the stats programs and frontpage, etc from Ports. All of these ports should work 64bit. I dont think this would be a holdup for us. Ill "report" once we get a 64bit box to do some installing on.
I am interested in 64bit for our mail servers (I think I can bump the servers up a few thousand domain on a 64 bit install) and the mysql servers. From the testing I have seen, MySQL LOVES the opteron. If we can speed up and increase the DB capacity of our mysql boxes by going 64 bit, w00t... Im all for it.
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 10-04-2005, 02:30 AM | | Yes, please do - as you indicated, getting 64 bit working, even if for only mail and mysql, would be HUGELY beneficial ...
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| Posted by foxmen, 10-04-2005, 09:15 AM | | Hi, i think H-Sphere its better vs cpanel BUT H-Sphere is more complicate, many user don`t understand H-Sphere , cPanel its very easy !!!
foxmen
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| Posted by layer0, 10-04-2005, 09:42 AM | | From the user standpoint, H-Sphere is simpler than cPanel and has much less bugs. It may be harder to maintain from the admin standpoint, but that's good, keeps kiddie hosts away
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| Posted by vantage255, 10-04-2005, 09:45 AM | | I would disagree that it is harder to admin. With only one service running on each server and many many fewer random text files to edit if you need to work around the CP, I think it is a LOT easier to admin a, say 10 server, cluster in Hsphere then the same 10 servers in Cpanel. I also know from expiriance that you can put a LOT more domains on the same 10 servers in Hsphere then you can in Cpanel.
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| Posted by Yash-JH, 10-04-2005, 10:39 AM | | Oh yes, Hsphere is very economical to run with its clustered approach. You can put many more domains on your servers with lot lesser technical issues and much better uptime.
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| Posted by AvailNetworks, 10-04-2005, 03:53 PM | | when I first switched to hsphere for testing I kind of said "holy crap this is confusing" but sit down for 5 minutes and you realize that the program is extremely powerful and professional. cpanel seems like an OK program but it seems mosts hosts reason for using it are just because the guy next door does.....like a few other brands that are sort of the "default" for things (aol, dell, google, kleenex, vise grips)
might just be my perception but it seems that the hosts that choose hsphere tend to have done alot of research and thought of their company growing rather than just saying "well everyone else uses cpanel it must be good"
from a customer standpoint the end users that use hsphere seem to be really pleased with it, very easy to use icon interface and very well laid out.
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| Posted by CRego3D, 10-07-2005, 06:21 AM | | Thruth is, the veast majority of end users do not care, or to a certaine extent, do not even understand what the difference in Control Panels is, or wich one are they using.
What they care is .. can I create my own mailboxes and databases ?, and can I see my webstats easaly ?
Most CP's our there do this .. so the real pickle is to pick a Control Panel that will make your (Admin) life easier.
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| Posted by Datacenter1, 10-07-2005, 10:59 AM | | H-Sphere is a great control panel and I love it
The only problem:
Resellers find hard to understand and setup and is true reseller interface is a little complicated for beginners
End user control panel is ok and really easy to use.
Cpanel is probably easier but not so powerfull like H-Sphere
Another vote for H-Sphere here
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| Posted by successful, 10-11-2005, 04:33 AM | | Thumbs up for Hsphere! I agree that resellers find Hsphere a little overwhelming at first but once they get used to it they will never ever switch to another control panel. Reseller esentially have almost every option the host has. Hsphere is also working on making the reseller setup a little easier. I would suggest a decent reseller walkthrough by phone or some good step by step documentation posted specifically for your resellers.
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| Posted by Aorozco, 10-13-2005, 01:34 PM | | Other Point to Hsphere. Only problem i not see in Jodohost s the feature of backup as cpanel, but is far superior; the limitation of user modules is so embarrasing, but .50 usd for customer is not much.
And jodohost have the best costs !! =)
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| Posted by successful, 10-17-2005, 02:50 AM | | There's a great backup solution for end users specifically made for hsphere. Take a look at http://www.hspherepackages.com/prodview.php?packnum=1 . If your Hsphere host doesn't offer it let them know about this prog. It'll take them 5 minutes to install and it works very nicely.
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| Posted by vantage255, 01-31-2006, 05:34 PM | | Bump,
Ok,
I said I would report. I am reporting.
We now have freebsd6 on AMD64 running hsphere 2.4 patch 9.
We have web and sql running in 64 bit mode. No real issues. Anyone beet me to it?
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 01-31-2006, 05:40 PM | | getting sql to run in 64 bit is HUGE ! Thanks for updating this thread !
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| Posted by vantage255, 01-31-2006, 05:42 PM | | We ended up using freeBSD6 as it supports the new SUN amd64 boxes and that is what we are using at the moment.
I didnt do anu of the work, but I will get the guy who did to post up his experiance getting it working.
It took him about 4 hours to get it all working.
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| Posted by (Stephen), 01-31-2006, 06:08 PM | | The unix side is easier than the windows side at this point, there are huge differences in the metabase editing methods it seems on x64 windows, so not so much progress there.
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| Posted by Shaw Networks, 01-31-2006, 11:04 PM | | Now if that's not a leading question, then I don't know what is. Do you expect to get a fair polling result by providing such skewed information?
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| Posted by andren, 02-01-2006, 12:17 PM | | Could you please tell me where that is skewed? May be I missed the billing + support system on our cpanel boxes?
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