The first complete version of DirectAdmin was released on Mar 1, 2003.  Reviews of some of its earliest versions circa 2005-6 weren’t so hot.  Lately, however, it’s been gaining traction, as evidenced by the active user support forum for it, and the increasing number of hosts offering it alongside of cPanel.  In fact,  vpsLink, HostPC and SiteValley includes this control panel among their standard hosting options.

So what is the main drawing point for DirectAdmin?

Simple: It’s simple.

DirectAdmin’s main draw is how light it is as a software package.  “Light” means a lot of good things for the user.

First, it means that it is fast to operate, not having cPanel’s heavy overhead.  This is especially critical on shared hosting services, since it might be several dozen users at once using these.  That kind of processing can add up fast if not done right.  Second, it means that it is easy to use and navigate through.  Its interface is also very similar to cPanel, so users crossing over won’t spend a lot of time re-educating themselves.

Third, being a lightweight package means that it is far more reliable and doesn’t crash nearly as much.  When it does crash, the recovery is comparatively pretty quick and clean.  Finally, being a smaller package means that it’s also a cheaper package, resulting in lower price passed on to you, the end user.  A number of free web hosts use DirectAdmin for this reason.

Simple isn’t all good … is it?

The downside of this easier approach means that DirectAdmin doesn’t quite have the full rainbow of options that cPanel has.

Or does it?  In multiple reviews online comparing cPanel to DirectAdmin I found users talking about the advanced administrator tasks that you can only do in cPanel.  However, when pressed to name what those tasks were, I did not see a single specific one listed.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.  With a package as established and worked over as cPanel, its probably a sure thing that there are some cPanel wizard tricks that you cannot do, or do easily with DirectAdmin.  On top of that, even if there isn’t that much in direct functionality that’s different, cPanel has a larger set of tutorials, FAQs, and current users ready to share their knowledge of the product.

Less popular because it’s less popular?

One web site suggests that the preference towards cPanel in the hosting world might be little more than momentum.  If that’s true, then considering the fact that DirectAdmin is also largely considered to be the more secure of the two control panels (again, for reasons of programming simplicity), this might not be the case forever.

Whatever the reason, DirectAdmin is clearly rising in the web hosting world as a respected control panel package.  If your host offers this, you might consider looking into it.

Related posts:

• September 14, 2009 – VPS Web Hosting – Do Your Really Need a Control Panel?
• January 6, 2012 – Control Panel: Advantages & Disadvantages
• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• September 17, 2011 – CloudLinux 6.1 Launches
• September 13, 2011 – Choosing Between cPanel and Plesk
• September 7, 2011 – The Control Panel B Team – A World Beyond cPanel
• January 12, 2011 – Simple cPanel Tutorial – Backing up your Website
• December 1, 2010 – Choosing Control Panels: cPanel or Plesk
• November 23, 2010 – A Review of JustHost
• November 17, 2010 – cPanel’s Expansion below the Equator

Obvious pieces of information aside, what is CloudLinux 6.1 and why the bloody hell should I care? Well, for starters, the operating system is designed for web hosts, and is built upon the 2.6.32 kernel, which provides updated security, stability, and compatibility. On the subject of compatibility, CloudLinux is fully ready to roll with Red Hat and CentOS, as well as almost every control panel you can name. This includes cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, and a choice few others.

If you’re concerned (or even just interested) in making the swap to CloudLinux, the company promises it can be done in under ten minutes without any damage to your existing systems. Not only that, but until October 15, the company will even provide you with free installation or conversion.

But still, what’s so great about CloudLinux? Well, not only is it the sole commercially-supported (think better tech-support) Linux OS made specifically for shared hosting, but it also comes with a unique feature set. The service brands each user account with a dedicated Lightweight Virtual Environment (that’s an LVE for those with the savoir faire). Each virtual environment allows the superuser—that’d be you, web hosters—to limit the CPU, memory, and concurrent connections allowed for each tenant.

Essentially, this eliminates any negative feelings between neighbors, or bad vibes between you and your tenants. Never again will one of your delinquent users suck up all the bandwidth, or use more than their fair share of the server’s CPU. With total control over your consumers, you might actually start to feel like the virtual slumlord you are.

Not to mention that CloudLinux offers MySQL Governor for further control over available database resources. The developer will also soon release the first virtualized file system available for shared hosters. This system, titled CageFS, will take some large steps towards ensuring your consumers’ files can only be accessed by them, or their associates.

All in all, CloudLinux is shaping up to be quite the Linux-based operating system. If you’re looking to swap, now is the time, what with the free installation and conversion. If you’d like more information, feel free to shoot the developer a message here. They’ll answer your questions, and of course, try to hook you even harder than we just did.

Related posts:

• September 13, 2011 – Choosing Between cPanel and Plesk
• September 14, 2009 – VPS Web Hosting – Do Your Really Need a Control Panel?
• February 13, 2009 – cPanel Then and Now
• October 5, 2011 – Understanding The Root User And How to Obtain It
• September 29, 2011 – The Ins and Outs of DirectAdmin
• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• September 7, 2011 – The Control Panel B Team – A World Beyond cPanel
• December 1, 2010 – Choosing Control Panels: cPanel or Plesk
• November 29, 2010 – Dedicated Hosting – A Brief Introduction and Overview
• October 13, 2010 – Hybrid Servers: Helping the Environment One Byte at a Time

Potential Issues

In terms of performance and security, industry leading control panels such as cPanel and Plesk are not always what they are cracked up to be.  These powerful applications consume a great deal of resources and often force customers to upgrade their packages to continuously thrive in a VPS hosting environment.  This consumption is due to HTTPD processes ran by web servers like Apache that make a VPS more susceptible to performance issues and less able to handle exploits such as DOS (Denial of Service) attacks.  Though very useful, cPanel and Plesk are both resource hogs that are more likely to reduce the overall responsiveness and performance of web applications, leading customers to upgrade to more costly packages they do not necessarily need.  In addition to this, even simple tasks such as creating email account and managing databases are slow and lagging processes that generally take too long to complete.

Alternative VPS Control Panels

cPanel and Plesk are ideal for shared and dedicated hosting arrangements but could result in more problems then you bargained for when using them with a virtual private server.  Two more efficient control panels you may want to consider for your VPS hosting solution are DirectAdmin and LxAdmin as both are incredibly lightweight and consume notably less system resources than cPanel and Plesk.  This essentially means they are far more responsive, faster and likely to give you a better performance than the leading products.  A number of tests are increasingly showing that they are also more stable and secure than the competition.

Many observers are stepping out to the make the claim that cPanel’s days as a VPS control panel are numbered, attributing this to the fact that is the most resource leeching solution.  Due to its mass popularity and widespread use, it is also among the highly targeted by hackers, which presents numerous potential security risks to your hosting environment and sensitive data.  For this reason, you may want to carefully consider utilizing this control panel with your virtual private server.  Unless you have a robust VPS plan with a lot of RAM or absolutely require automation, it might be worth the risk to install a glamorous commercial product.

Conclusion

We are not telling you to refrain from using cPanel or Plesk as both are on top of the control panel market for obvious reasons.  However, in many situations, going with a lighter product or performing command line administration will allow you to get the job done in a faster, more efficient and secure manner.  Fortunately, there are several control panel applications specifically designed for the VPS environment, better assuring the optimal performance and adequate security you need to thrive with your web presence.

Related posts:

• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• September 7, 2011 – The Control Panel B Team – A World Beyond cPanel
• June 15, 2009 – Move Over cPanel: Make Room for Kloxo
• February 4, 2009 – VPS Control Panel Options
• September 29, 2011 – The Ins and Outs of DirectAdmin
• September 17, 2011 – CloudLinux 6.1 Launches
• September 13, 2011 – Choosing Between cPanel and Plesk
• December 1, 2010 – Choosing Control Panels: cPanel or Plesk
• October 13, 2010 – Hybrid Servers: Helping the Environment One Byte at a Time
• April 16, 2010 – Control Panel Industry Overview – 4 Top Competitors