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Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

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Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#1

Post by obihill »

'Asking because I'm considering building one.

I used to run a small Web hosting business and still manage a few client accounts. I moved these accounts [from a Web hosting reseller] to DigitalOcean about a year ago and installed CPanel because that's what my clients are familiar with.

However, I'm paying more for the control panel license than for the actual servers; Cpanel makes up 60% of the total cost, and the server is 40%. This makes no economic sense to me. I guess I've been shielded from this because [before the transition] I used a hosting provider that required a flat monthly fee.

I've done some research on this and below are four (4) reasons why I see an opportunity:

1. The cheapest CPanel option is \$16 a month. The cheapest DigitalOcean droplet is \$4 a month; a gap that only a few users would tolerate. In addition, most of the negative feedback for CPanel on G2 and Capterra seems to be focused on pricing. 2. The minimum installation requirements for CPanel are 1Gb RAM and 20Gb HDD; recommended are 4Gb RAM and 40Gb HDD. So it's not going to play nicely on entry-level, affordable cloud servers e.g. 512K RAM and 10Gb HDD. 3. The UI/UX could be so much better than it currently is, especially for mobile and keyboard users. My apologies for not being more specific on account of time; if you have used CPanel you should have an intuitive sense of what I mean. To be fair, it has improved significantly over the years. 4. There's an API and CLI, but it doesn't appear to be a workable alternative to the GUI. From the docs, it seems like you have to use the CLI after you login to the server via SSH. The same goes for the API when using PHP/Perl; the module to include in your API call script resides on the server. It all seems a tad unwieldy in this day and age.

All the tools I'm considering for building this are mature, free and open-source (React, Node.js, etc.). My timeline estimate is 7 to 10 months. My objective is not to build a CPanel clone; it's to build a free to affordable GUI for cloud servers with a developer-friendly API and CLI.

It seems like a good opportunity, but I'm biased. Ergo, I'd like to get some perspective.

What say you?

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#3

Post by spcebar »

I've actually spent the last few days looking for a good free/affordable cpanel alternative. I've tried four different options, none of which were very good. I think there's definitely a place for what you're describing, though I'd start your process by doing a lot of research into what users are specifically looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#4

Post by metaloha »

WallyFunk wrote: post #2

I like Hostinger's[0] (proprietary) hPanel[1] which is like cPanel but essentially free and bundled with the cost of one of their plans. [0] https://www.hostinger.com/ [1] https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/video/hpanel-overview

I had a bad Hostinger experience. Within a couple hours of registering a pair of domain names through them in 2017, I started receiving spam emails and phone calls on that specific email address and phone line. Within a few weeks, I was getting upwards of 50 emails and a dozen or more calls every day. It took months to calm down, and even now 5 years later, I still get 10-15 emails and maybe 5 phone calls a month regarding one or the other of those two domains.

I have domains registered back to 2008 (and older ones I've let expire) and newer ones that are in their first year, and as far as I can tell *NONE* of them generate any kind of spam (or it's so infrequent that I literally miss it completely).

This only ever happened with Hostinger. And for the first couple of years, every email and phone call would explicitly reference one of the two domains I registered.

So I can recommend their hosting I guess, never had any problems with it, but I would never, ever register a domain with them again.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#5

Post by obihill »

WallyFunk wrote: post #2

I like Hostinger's[0] (proprietary) hPanel[1] which is like cPanel but essentially free and bundled with the cost of one of their plans. [0] https://www.hostinger.com/ [1] https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/video/hpanel-overview

Thanks. It looks like I have to buy into a Hostinger plan to use the panel? If so, then that's what I'm trying to avoid.

Also, the problem with this is that it's going to be a massive hassle when you want to move to another hosting provider.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#6

Post by obihill »

metaloha wrote: post #4
WallyFunk wrote: post #2

I like Hostinger's[0] (proprietary) hPanel[1] which is like cPanel but essentially free and bundled with the cost of one of their plans. [0] https://www.hostinger.com/ [1] https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/video/hpanel-overview

I had a bad Hostinger experience. Within a couple hours of registering a pair of domain names through them in 2017, I started receiving spam emails and phone calls on that specific email address and phone line. Within a few weeks, I was getting upwards of 50 emails and a dozen or more calls every day. It took months to calm down, and even now 5 years later, I still get 10-15 emails and maybe 5 phone calls a month reg…

Thanks for the feedback. 'Had this same problem [not with Hostinger]. It stopped when I started registering domains with privacy. Looks like spammers pull the email address from WHOIS.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#7

Post by obihill »

spcebar wrote: post #3

I've actually spent the last few days looking for a good free/affordable cpanel alternative. I've tried four different options, none of which were very good. I think there's definitely a place for what you're describing, though I'd start your process by doing a lot of research into what users are specifically looking for.

Thanks for the feedback.

Could you share what it was in the four you looked at that didn't meet your expectations? What were you looking for specifically?

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#8

Post by metaloha »

obihill wrote: post #6
metaloha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a bad Hostinger experience. Within a couple hours of registering a pair of domain names through them in 2017, I started receiving spam emails and phone calls on that specific email address and phone line. Within a few weeks, I was getting upwards of 50 emails and a dozen or more calls every day. It took months to calm down, and even now 5 years later, I still get 10-15 emails and maybe 5 phone calls a month reg…

Thanks for the feedback. 'Had this same problem [not with Hostinger]. It stopped when I started registering domains with privacy. Looks like spammers pull the email address from WHOIS.

That's what Hostinger said when I contacted their support, but I literally did not have this problem with 100+ domains registered with other registrars (GoDaddy, Gandi, TUCOWS, Namecheap, Amazon, etc.) - it was just Hostinger. My suspicion is that they sell your information when you register a domain; I have no other explanation for the phenomenon.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#9

Post by metaloha »

My advice is get out of the hosting business, it's not worth the trouble at a small scale ;)

There is always room for another hosting administration system, though 7 to 10 months sounds pretty optimistic when considering the feature list you'll need to even be seen as competitive with cPanel.

Webmin/Virtualmin seems like it has the ability to manage multiple VPSes, so that might be a more realistic target for comparison.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still an opportunity for an affordable CPanel alternative?

#10

Post by obihill »

metaloha wrote: post #9

My advice is get out of the hosting business, it's not worth the trouble at a small scale ;) There is always room for another hosting administration system, though 7 to 10 months sounds pretty optimistic when considering the feature list you'll need to even be seen as competitive with cPanel. Webmin/Virtualmin seems like it has the ability to manage multiple VPSes, so that might be a more realistic target for compari…

Note that I mentioned that I used to be in the business; just have a few clients I'm working with now.

7 to 10 months seems doable for an MVP, but we'll see. I'm looking to have something that a CPanel/Plesk client would be comfortable using.

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