A KVM VPS comes with a blank operating system, and it is up to you whether you manage it via a graphical control panel or the command line. The control panel allows you to manage the web server, databases, emails, DNS and domains via a browser-based interface. The summary below will help you decide.

cPanel and WHM

cPanel is one of the most widely used control panels amongst web hosting providers; server-level settings are managed by WHM, whilst individual hosting accounts are managed by cPanel. Numerous guides and add-ons have been developed for it, and the cPanel category in our knowledge base also covers this interface.

• Advantages: well-established, comprehensive (web, email, DNS, backups), and familiar to many developers and customers.
• Disadvantages: it involves a monthly licence fee, which depends on the number of hosting accounts, and requires more resources. For smooth operation, you should allow for at least 2 GB of RAM and 40 GB of storage space.
• Operating system: AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux or Ubuntu LTS.

A separate article discusses the differences between cPanel and WHM.

Plesk

Plesk is cPanel’s main competitor and runs on both Linux and Windows Server. Its interface is more modern, and it offers stronger integration with WordPress and Docker. It is also licence-based, with costs varying according to the number of domains managed.

Free control panels

There are also licence-free alternatives, such as HestiaCP, KeyHelp, CyberPanel and Virtualmin. These are suitable for smaller projects, but their feature sets and documentation are more limited, and you will need to take care of updates and security yourself. Before installation, check which operating systems and versions they support.

Without a control panel

Without a control panel, the server is managed via SSH from the command line. This is the solution with the lowest resource requirements and the greatest flexibility, and there are no licence fees; however, you are responsible for configuring and maintaining the web server, database, firewall and email. This is the most common approach for application servers, Docker-based projects and development environments.

Which one should you choose?

If you…	Recommended
You have lots of websites and email accounts, and would like a familiar interface	cPanel or Plesk
They have applications running on Windows Server	Plesk
runs only a few pages and would like to save on licence fees	free control panel
runs applications or Docker containers and is familiar with Linux	without a control panel

If you do not wish to run a server

If you want the convenience of cPanel but do not wish to deal with server maintenance, we offer a dedicated cPanel server – a VPS with a cPanel licence operated by us. For a bespoke software environment, we recommend our managed VPS service, where we handle the server operations. The differences between these two approaches are summarised in an article comparing managed and unmanaged VPS.