After trying out a number of free control panels and checking through all of the reviews, Cpanel is still hands down the better control panel to use.  Problem of course is its huge license fee.

All of the free control panels come with at least a few bugs and inconsistencies, some more than others.  During December 2014 I chose WEBUZO Premium version for myself, which at 25 USD pa had been affordable and well worth the investment for its cpanel feel and 316 Softaculous scripts. However in the end it turned out to be a too big script for a VPS to manage.  I then turned to the super light Vesta Panel with its Nginx Web server that was  just the right size for a small VPS.

1. Vesta Panel in 2016 had a growing user base for VestaCP, outcome of which was a very active Discussion Forum that became an expert source of inquiries and documentation.  The Forum was well supported by VestaCP Admin.  Other great plus of VestaCP over WEBUZO was that it was a completely free panel that was super light to the touch.  It is still a great fit with my Debian 10 OS.

2. Kloxo MR in 2016 I was very excited about.  At the time I had thought it was better and more user-friendly than Vesta Panel, including all of the Vesta Panel features, until I started to check reviews and discovered that it came with some major security concerns.  Mostly because of lack of support after the owner passed away. I then decided to abandon the CP.

3. ZPanel used to be popular at one time as a cPanel look alike free alternative.  However it seems to be a heavy user of resources, which is not that great for a VPS.  Another negative is that it was given to a commercial Website host, Hostwinds, and in the process the majority of the team decided to split off and started a new open-source control panel called Sentora.

4. WEBMIN for Linux Servers.  Is probably one of the better control panels, but intended for your super geek who has plenty of technical server knowledge.  Features are more geared towards the technical management of the server, although one can create user accounts and basically do everything one can with any other control panel.  Does look a bit archaic and maybe more suitable for large dedicated servers than a basic VPS with lower specifications.  When I tried it out, it did drag enough to be distracting.

5. WEBUZO (free version).  Although the Premium Version is OK for me, I wouldn’t recommend the free version of WEBUZO.  Not so much because of lack of scripts, but it just feels clumsy to navigate.