Hestia Control Panel

When you sign up for a website, what you get depends on the type of plan. Shared hosting refers to hosting that is shared on the server amongst unknown numbers of other customers. A disadvantage is that you (commonly you the developer) have limited control in customizations. It is common for providers to over pack their servers for economic reasons. There is also virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated server hosting. Dedicated means that for a premium price you get the whole enchilada. VPS is a nice blend because the server gets split up into individual entities and the resources, RAM, etc, are not shared. Thus:

• Shared
• VPS
• Dedicated

If you opt for VPS you will need to make a number of decisions when signing up. Managed means that the hosting provider manages the server for you. Many or most will require that you use a licensed control panel like cPanel or Plesk at a monthly cost. You can also sign up for unmanaged which means that you own installing a control panel. You means either you or a technical person who works for you.

There are a number of open source (free) control panels that you can install. They may not be as robust as the commercial ones but they will get the job done. We are currently running with Hestia CP.  It handles everything we need and is slim and user-friendly. We will install it for our customers. For others we provide server installations requirements to aid you.