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Best web hosting panel for people who know nothing
I seem to have collected a group of friends who are happy to have me host their sites for free. They use almost no bandwidth and it costs me nothing. These freeloaders all want me to do everything but make the sites for them and I am getting sick of playing host. I need an easy to use web panel where they can add their own domains, make their own email accounts and mysql databases. This panel has to be easy to use because none of them would ever consider learning anything new. Is there such a thing for free?
Comments
Look for new friends.
There is VestaCP:
https://vestacp.com/
There is also Virtualmin:
https://www.virtualmin.com/
I have extensive use with Virtualmin and I do think it would work for your use case, but I feel like it may not be as easy to use as VestaCP for your end users.
Those are two good free options. Hope this helps.
try webmin. have used it on several servers. looked at froxlor the otehr day, but not used it. could be useful to try too
I prefer virtualmin over vesta. I prefer cPanel over either, but of course cPanel is $15/mo. You may not want to invest that much energy in your freeloading friends.
Here's another option:
That's what I ultimately did for my friends/family. If it wasn't worth $10/year to them then they can go to Wix or whatever.
It's kind of like your mechanic neighbor who changes your oil. It's not right to expect him to pay for the oil as well.
Of course, depending on your friends, you can split up the $24/mo however you like.
VestaCP looks like it could be easy enough for them. I'm going to try VestaCP and Virtualmin to see how they both stack up. Thank you all for your suggestions.
What about https://i-mscp.net?
i think you should try centos webpanel too.
Id almost suggest Serverpilot, need to have a little bit of linux knowledge to get it all setup, but adding websites is a breeze. Other option is RunCloud but thats probs abit advanced for what you are looking for
Why don't you tell your friend to go to:
https://www.lowendtalk.com/categories/shared-hosting-offers
Pick one. It comes with cPanel.
While VestaCP is a great, secure and reliable control panel its not as user friendly as some other free alternatives. Take a look at CentOS Web Panel its similar to cPanel, quite user friendly and includes plenty of features.
+1 for CentOS Web Panel. Pro is only $10/yr
I tried VstaCP and Virtualmin yesterday and liked VestaCP best out of those two. I will try CentOS Web Panel and see if I like it better.
whenever you give free consulting to anyone think about time you could be spending with your family and loved once... bad damages in long run.
I give away lot of free things (and it is part of sales to give away lot of free stuff) but when it is about time, I take it very seriously.
So far it looks like VestaCP is the clear winner. I normally use Webmin for all my servers and vps, but that would be too complicated for my people.
That one had some serious security issues not too long ago (https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/141728/vestacp-hit-with-zeroday-exploit-may-19-security-update/p1). Your friends would blame you for their mistakes even if you're hosting them free of charge.. been there, done that!
@raindog308 gave you the best advice. If your friends, collectively can't afford $2 a month to host their sites then they shouldn't need a website.
ISPConfig
Cyberpanel is a choice and relatively easy to use with openlitespeed and 1click wordpress and joomla installs.
You could also try webuzo free version with limited apps.
+1
Virtualmin is free but it is not panel for newbie, directadmin is very easy but it is not free, but You can get lifetime license.
i think zPanel is perfect for you.
Plesk.
VestaCP is a done deal. If it gets hacked they can ask for their money back. Hell, I'll give'm 20 x their money back. 0x20 = 0.
If you are looking for a paid version then its always recommended to use cPanel and if you are looking for a free option then CentOS Web Panel as they are also having good documentation and keep updating with new features.
+1 for Vesta CP. It's damn simple. Much more simple than cpanel. But the file manager requires you to pay.
It is rather suggested to pay for the file manager. You do not HAVE to as editing the code is probably entirely legit.
Virtuamin needs a virtualmin-lite UX mode.
Just a minimal subset of options exposed on Web ui, via the virtualmin cli API perhaps.
I'd certainly place more faith in vmin core than Vesta or newcomers.
I see KeyHelp being suggested sporadically in this forum. I haven't installed it myself yet, but based from the demo it seems user-friendly enough.
Honestly, I learned on CPanel. It's not difficult to use, it's so common that it should be easy to find tutorials if you get lost, and it has a single user license now, so on that end it's not prohibitively expensive. *** nevermind, I missed that last sentence about free... ***
To be honest, I don't think it ever costs you nothing to do work for people for free - I would recommend sitting down with them and breaking down your expenses and what it costs YOU to host their sites for FREE (include the cost of your time, if you have been managing everything for them, since that has a value! And even if they're not using bandwidth, consider what you would charge them if they were... and what happens if all of a sudden, they do? Even if they are costing you, what's the likelihood that they'll want to pay?). Ask them to pay something, or give them a specific timeline to move their sites somewhere else - ie. tell them they have a month; if you want to be nice about it, offer to help them find an inexpensive hosting provider and help them transfer their sites over so it's their own problem to keep paying their recurring bills. This also means it's someone else's problem to handle their support needs (freeing up your time).
I used to host a friend's site for free... then it was two friends... then it was three... it eventually gets out of hand and your freeloaders start cutting into space/time you could be using for your real customers. Since you're already calling them freeloaders, you've already gotten to the point where you're sick of them taking advantage of you - if they really are your friends, sit them down and have the conversation. Otherwise, you're going to be increasingly bitter about it, it's going to harm your relationships with them, and they're just going to keep asking you to do more. You've got to put your foot down at some point :S
I think that Cpanel is the ONLY tool for hosting and there is no different types of panel for it. Therefore, you should be familiar with that.
You forgot the /sarc tag.