cPanel or vDeck: Which is the Better Web Hosting Control Panel

When looking for a web hosting provider, the control panel offered by the web host is one of main factors needed to be taken into account. After all, only with a user friendly control panel, can you easily manage email accounts and domains, install software, backup your website data, manage website file, and much more.

In fact, there are many different kinds of control panels available, among which the cPanel and vDeck are the most widely used two. But which one is better? In this article, our editors have compared the 2 objectively, with a view to helping our readers get more familiar with cPanel and vDeck.

cPanel

cPanel is the most popular control panel trusted by a large number of leading web hosting providers as well as webmasters. It is Unix based with lots of animation tools included in an easy to understand graphical interface. It was originally designed by J. Nicholas Koston, with 3 tier structure for administrators, resellers, and end-user webmasters to control a variety of aspects of the websites and server administration. Here, we have listed some key features of cPanel in the following.

• Popularity – cPanel was released in 1996, and has become a dominant force in the market that the majority of webmasters are not aware of the existence of any other control panels like vDeck. There is no doubt that cPanel is a great control panel, and people prefer it for they know this control panel is of top quality.
• Usability – The design of cPanel is completely simple and effective with an icon-based interface, so even the newbies can learn their way around cPanel very quickly. One example of cPanel’s simplicity is redirecting your web pages. You only need to login to your cPanel and click the Redirects icon in the Domains section, then cPanel will offer detailed steps and all you do is to fill out the blacks accordingly. It’s pretty simple and done in 5 minutes.
• Add-ons – cPanel also has add-ons to enhance the functionality of the control panel. And one of the most useful add-ons is Fantastico, which is a 1-click auto installer free to anyone who has cPanel control panel. With this add-on, you can install almost all the famous scripts online instantly with a few simple clicks, such as WordPress, b2evolution, Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, and more.

However, just like every coin has two parts, cPanel also has some shortcomings. Due to the simple interface of cPanel, some experts may feel it is not professional enough to meet their complex needs. Besides, cPanel is only available in Linux platforms, so cannot be used by customers with Windows- or Mac-based platforms.

vDeck

As the popularity of cPanel tends to keep people away from any other control panel, vDeck, however, cause a stir in the web hosting industry. According to its official site, vDeck is “More than just a control panel, vDeck is the next generation in Web site management. With vDeck, creating, managing and promoting your Web site is as easy as 1-2-3!” And at present, VDeck is already in its 4th edition.

• Popularity – In fact, vDeck is relatively new to the web hosting control panels market as compared with cPanel, so most webmasters have no idea how it operates, and some people even haven’t heard about it. But the situation changes with its latest version – 4.0, which has been a big hit in the industry.
• Usability – To be frank, vDeck is not as user friendly as cPanel. Its interface is a little bit complicated, and the way of the functions being categorized is, to some extent, disordered, especially vDeck 2.0. But things are totally different with vDeck 3.0, which is very similar to cPanel’s interface.
• Add-ons – Rather than Fantastico, vDeck has Install-Central, which is absolutely comparable to Fantastico in terms of quality. Besides, it includes multiple categories like Content Management System (CMS), Blogs, Galleries, Forums, Shopping Cart and Misc. And with vDeck 4.0 version, there are nearly as many scripts available as with cPanel.

Summary – cPanel is the Better Web Hosting Control Panel

Undoubtedly, both cPanel and vDeck are powerful and popular, but cPanel has definitely won this match in terms of popularity, usability, and add-ons – the most important factors when evaluating the quality of control panel. Therefore, if you are looking to set up a personal blog or website, we highly recommend you selecting a web host offering cPanel control panel.