: Ditch cPanel / WHM in favour of manual setup We currently use cPanel / WHM on a reseller account but are looking at getting a dedicated server. My first thought was to duplicate this set

@Twilah146

In my opinion, cPanel has exactly two advantages:


Its ubiquity. If I need a cPanel server in a hurry, I can get one provisioned in about ten seconds -- literally -- at any of a bazillion hosting companies. That makes it really easy to migrate in a hurry if I need to. It also makes it easy for me to migrate new clients onto my service. They're probably on cPanel already, so it's just a couple of clicks to pull them over.
My clients like it. The more recent interface themes are attractive and intuitive. But I never got any complaints about even the old, ugly ones. A cPanel license is cheap when divvied up amongst the clients on a server, so if they like it, they get it.


cPanel also comes with some disadvantages, mainly consisting of the time spent figuring out how to modify settings and configurations in ways that cPanel won't overwrite the next time it updates itself. But that's a fairly infrequent thing.

Personally, on machines that only I access, I don't bother with cPanel. For servers that clients access, I do. I think it's worth the cost for the convenience and to keep the clients happy.

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@Lee4591628

[Disclaimer: I work for one of the companies in the list below]

Since your host is going to provide DNS management, it sounds like your needs are:


setting up Apache virtual hosts,
managing SFTP accounts, and
creating MySQL databases and users.


Does that sound right?

You can definitely set up your sites manually, but life may be easier (and consequently may be happier) by using a free cPanel alternative.

Matthew Brown maintains an Editor's Picks list:


ZPanel - A very impressive looking offering. I would be quite happy to
short list ZPanel as it looks very polished.

ServerPilot both the free and paid versions of this caught my
attention as being a new approach to server control. I can see
migration being very easy with Server Pilot.

Direct Admin ticks all my boxes in terms of appearing to offer what is
needed for even the most complex business solutions to selling
hosting. It does not appear to offer integrated billing and payment
out of the box but this should be fairly trivial (I imagine) to have
the IT team set up for you.

Froxlor - again this greatly impressed me and sold me on the idea of
short lsiting it for my own use.

The Webmin family of Free CPanel alternatives also deserve a
mention. While the UI looks pretty darn dire compared to some of the
modern systems it is still a solid and dependable Control Panel for
whatever you need it to control. It might not be an elegant looking
web hosting Control Panel but it is a comprehensive Server Control
Panel with good support and the perfect price (nothing at all).

Kloxo - a really solid looking offering that seems to offer more than
the paid solutions. Another one for the short list.


Source: Lord Matt



I work for ServerPilot and it sounds like you could get away with everything you need under our free plan.

Installation only takes a couple minutes – we configure an optimized stack of Nginx, Apache, MySQL and up-to-date versions of PHP.

Apache Virtual Hosts

This is pretty straightforward - simply create an app for each of your sites. For every app, you get modular vhost configs for Nginx and Apache, and each get an isolated directory root.

Our vhost templates use sane defaults that should work for most users out of the box. When it comes time to add something specific to your vhost, customization is easy.

SFTP and SSH Access

This is fairly straightforward as well. We set up a default SFTP/SSH user just for your web apps and you can use this account to deploy updates to your apps.

Additionally, you can create and manage new SFTP/SSH users. Effectively, this lets you have multiple apps on the same server that are managed by separate SFTP users.

MySQL Databases

Each app can have MySQL databases associated with it and creating db users is effortless.

For example, in a short screencast I put together, you can see how quickly I create a database and user for a new Drupal 7 site:

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@Ogunnowo487

Keep in mind that managing your own VPS or cloud server is much more involved than using a managed hosting. You most likely do not need cPanel if you are managing the server.

I haven't used WHM, or Apache for that matter, but I know that most admins set their sites up through command line via SSH sessions. Any decent VPS/cloud hosting company will offer a DNS manager as part of the service - be sure to check. The entries you make at your domain's registrar will be based on the service provider you choose, usually it is two entries something like ds1.example.com and ds2.example.com.

As far as your service provider's DNS manager, yes, typically you put in the IP address of the server they have given you. This should all be covered in their documentation.

FTP access is not required nor desired. You should use SFTP. You should limit access to the server to only those who absolutely require it, which for most websites is only one person

You should be able to use phpMyAdmin to manage all aspects of MySQL, so, in your case, both users and databases.

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