My dedicated server is up and running. It’s time to install a hosting manager now. But which one? Plesk or perhaps Cpanel? This is what you need to know first.
Now that my dedicated server is running like a well-oiled machine (with the latest Ubuntu), there is another choice to make…
The main purpose of this server is to store websites and apps (mine and of my clients).
So I needed something to make my life easier…
How about a UI that allows me to add a new website in a drag-and-drop style?
(And, of course, it must be bullet-proof secure, and lightweight/fast.)
This is called the hosting control panel.
It’s software you install on top of your dedicated server, and then you can access it directly from your browser.
Once up and running, you can start adding websites to host there and fully manage your server from a single interface.
Hosting Control Panel Alternatives: Plesk Or cPanel
As you probably remember from the earlier posts, I’ve owned dedicated servers since 2013…
Over 10+ years, I’ve tried pretty much any hosting control panel alternative you can think of…
And what did I find?
Well, the choice really boils down to these two.
Plesk or cPanel.
Both are paid-license software (but very cheap). (And yes, there are some open-source providers, but I usually keep away from it.)
Why I am not even considering free software is the security…
The hosting control panel keeps your server and websites/apps safe from online attacks. It’s basically your response to the threats every website is facing in The Internet Jungle…
So, I wanted to ensure my projects were relatively safe and very hard to compromise. (Note: you can never reduce the risk to 0%.)
Whatever your server provider is, there should be a straightforward way to install Pleks.
At Hetzner, you can install Plesk right from the Robot (Hetzner’s user interface).
Just go to the server overview, pick the server where you want to install Plesk, and select the “Plesk” tab as below.
Overview of different Plesk licenses
This is, at the same time, the order form where you select the license type.
Note: The server provider will charge you monthly for the Plesk license, together with the dedicated server costs (so you finish everything in one spot and get one unified invoice).
Plesk licenses are bound to the number of domain names you can store on the server. For my needs, the pack of 30 websites was just enough (and yes, I pay just around $10 a month).
Once you are ready, you can place the order, and the installation process will start automatically.
After approximately 10 minutes it will be all done, and you’ll get a URL of the Plesk hosting manager to log in for the first time.
(More steps on how to secure Plesk will come later.)
Just note that the server is not yet ready and secure enough at this point to serve any publicly-facing website/app.
Bear with me here as I will cover best security practices in the next chapters.
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