# A visual comparison of provider's and their custom control panels. Lots of screenshots!



## MannDude (Dec 28, 2014)

This thread will be a work in progress. First let me say: WARNING! Lots of images below!

I wanted to show off some of the custom panels that a few providers that frequent vpsBoard have created. I'm a customer of each provider and have taken the time to go through and take a lot of screenshots of each company's control panel for you to review. All of them work great and without error or issues.


*AnyNode*: (www.anynode.net)

This is the VM list view. Very basic and simple. It does exactly as you'd expect it to do. (Note: The KVM with it's disk maxed is being migrated to a larger VM elsewhere. I'll continue to use the AnyNode one for other backups)




Here you'll see the control panel for AnyNode's *OpenVZ* container management. Very straight forward and simple. It has all the basic settings you would need and gives you some basic container stats.


Need to reinstall your VM? Here's the page to do it. Couldn't get a screenshot with the options displayed, the OS choices are quite limited. CentOS 5 x86, Debian 6.0 x86, CentOS 6.4 x86, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86, Debian 7.1 x86 and CentOS 6.4 x86_64 are your choices.


This is the *OpenVZ* settings page. Once again, straight forward and easy to use. No room for confusion.



KVM is similar, but appears slightly differently. For sake of being somewhat thorough I'll display the screenshots for KVM as well below:





You'll note that OpenVZ lists 'Reinstall' and KVM lists 'Format Disk'. Both pages are pretty straight forward. For sake of keeping this limited to the basics of each panel, I won't include screenshots of them (unless requested to do so).


*Thoughts*: AnyNode is a great company and I wish they got more coverage. Their panel is pretty basic, which isn't a bad thing. It's very easy to use and straight forward. No complaints here! @scv should be proud and I hope he introduces more stock soon.


*Backupsy*: (www.backupsy.com)

Backupsy's panel is intergrated directly into WHMCS and is very visually pleasing. Let's take a look at it.


The above is actually WHMCS, but it was too good looking to not include. Click on "Active Services" to get to your service list. Nothing special on that page, just a list of active services. The VM management page however is shown below:



Very clean page that shows off some billing related functions (due dates, billing cycle) as well as the basic VPS information such as graphs, and the ability to manage the VM state.


Reinstalling the VPS is straight forward as you can imagine. I like that they generate a secure password for you, which prevents some of the stupid passwords people are sometimes known to use. (r00t, admin123, etc). Still worth disabling password auth after logging in and using ssh-keys instead.

*Thoughts*: A very clean and simple to use basic panel. I'm unsure if it's 100% custom or based off of something existing, however I think it's wonderful and simple to use. Traffic usage appears to perhaps wrongly calculated or only updated in 24 hour intervals, as I am actively in the process of rsyncing data from my AnyNode VM (100GB) to my Backupsy VPS at this time so I know there is traffic. I'll check back in later to see if the 'traffic usage' stat has updated. Out of all the panels I'll be displaying, the Backupsy one is by far the most visually pleasing. @serverian runs a good company as made apparent by his consistent high rankings in LET's old quarterly 'top provider' polling.


*BuyVM*: (www.buyvm.net)

You may already be familiar with BuyVM's "Stallion" control panel, either because you've used it as a customer or have seen their promotion thread here: . @Francisco and @Aldryic C'boas are both active members here who you may have seen posting around the forum. Let's take a look at their creation below.



I'm only including this as BuyVM's stallion is not integrated with their billing panel.



List of active VMs!



This is what the OpenVZ VPS management page looks like.



Need to use the console? Here she is.


OpenVZ VPS settings page.


OpenVZ IPv4 settings page. (IPv6 page is the same, just with IPv6 addresses. No need to share that too)




Here is the OpenVZ backups page.



If you need to re-install your VPS, you've got a lot of OS images to choose from. I didn't want to take a screenshot of each category available, but you've got plenty of options for OS reloads. Lots and lots of options to choose from.

*BuyVM KVM screenshots below.*

Much of the below is similar to what is shown above for the OpenVZ VM's, however for sake of reference I'll show some of the KVM specific features below.


More or less the same as the OpenVZ display page but with some different stats/management options.



KVM settings.



Some of the KVM templates available.



Here is a ton more KVM OS options, including Networking and PBX specific distros. I included this particular screenshot for the humor.


*Thoughts:* Very thorough with a ton of features. Integration with billing would be ideal to have a single login, but that's more of a personal preference than a complaint.


*SecureDragon: *(www.securedragon.net)

SecureDragon's VPS control panel is intergrated in with WHMCS as well, and despite it's simplicity it's actually probably my favorite out of those listed above. No fuss, everything you need is right where you want it.



Take a moment to check out the options available on this page. Lot of features all on one page, easily accessible. Despite it's simplicity in appearence, Wyvern packs some great and unique features that the other panels lack.



This is a DEV VPS, so I don't mind messing with it. Here I am randomizing the SSH port. Sure, I could do this via SSH easily, but it can also be done from the client area!




The red arrows were added by me. After changing the SSH port I got confirmation it was updated, and the new port number is shown highlighted in yellow under your VPS information/billing details. When you disable password authentication, you can expect the same process. A popup to confirm you want to proceed, and the confirmation displayed as it does when you change your ssh port.



Let's add 10 IPv6 to my dev VPS... Clicking 'Add 10 IPv6' has no confirmation popup, it just literally assigns 10 IPv6 addresses to your VM. As with the other options, the confirmation of success is shown above highlighted in green, and highlighted in yellow in the Wyvern integration to WHMCS.







*Thoughts*: Wonderfully simple. Excellent features. @KuJoe deserves more recognition for Wyvern as it's simply great.


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## MannDude (Dec 28, 2014)

I was going to include DigitalOcean, however they're not an active member here. If someone would like to go through and do this for Vultr's control panel, that'd be appreciated as I understand Dave posts here occasionally.

Any other provider that I should check out?


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## Francisco (Dec 28, 2014)

> Thoughts: Very thorough with a ton of features. Integration with billing would be ideal to have a single login, but that's more of a personal preference than a complaint.


This year? 

Awesome on the other guys! Kujoe's is very feature complete.

Francisco


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## MannDude (Dec 28, 2014)

Francisco said:


> This year?


Are you saying it's going to happen this year? You got 3 days!

Not a big deal, but little things like seeing my due date and VPS cost in the VPS management panel are nice, though I can see how having all the other features of billing/support available there too.


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## Francisco (Dec 28, 2014)

.

Well played.

Is Anynodes billing integrated?

Francisco


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## MannDude (Dec 28, 2014)

Francisco said:


> .
> 
> 
> Well played.
> ...



Nope, it's separated. Only Backupsy, DigitalOcean and SecureDragon all have it merged into one login from what I am aware of. I'm sure there are others but I've only reviewed the ones I use. I think Vultr is all one panel as well, but can't confirm. Unsure about Wable and all the other cloud stuff that has popped up in the past year or two.


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## Dylan (Dec 28, 2014)

Of other providers I've used that have at least some sort of presence here: Cloud.net, OpenITC, Vultr, and Wable all use integrated, completely custom panels. Bandwagon has a custom panel for VPS management but uses nonintegrated WHMCS for billing.


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## KuJoe (Dec 28, 2014)

Very awesome write up @MannDude! I noticed a typo in one of your screenshots so I fixed it in our dev install for the next update which will also have a new WHMCS theme and some minor cosmetic changes. 

After seeing the Backupsy panel, I might reconsider my initial design and break out of the tables I'm so fond of.

We've had some good and bad feedback with our control panel but in reality there is no winner or loser when it comes to unique panels because if the provider takes the time, money, and/or energy to build something special for their clients it only benefits the clients. All of these panels (and any custom ones that aren't displayed here) symbolize a dedication to their clients. I like that this thread is a showcase thread versus a "who's got the better control panel".

Yay for the clients!

(Note: I am not saying that providers who don't have a custom panel aren't as good as those who do or don't like their clients as much as those who do, I'm simply stating that these unique control panels are just one of many ways to display how we put the clients first. Don't just do something because everybody else does it, shine your own light and be special in your own way.)


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## raindog308 (Dec 28, 2014)

Are you looking for more?

6sync has a custom control panel (biscuit) which is quite nice, though it seems frozen in time...I don't think it's changed in 5 years.  Everything works except a couple features that have been "coming soon" for a long time. But it's nice.

Linode has a custom panel.

I think the Azure panel is very pretty, though I don't like lack of console.  Could say the same about EC2.

None of these are lowend providers, though...

Oh, there's one more: tinyvz.com's text-based panel.  I hate their panel because it doesn't let you change hostnames - that requires a ticket.


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## Nett (Dec 28, 2014)

@MannDude Mind putting the images in spoilers?


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## Jade (Dec 28, 2014)

We have a custom in-house control panel, but it is currently only for our KVM services.

You can find some screenshots below:


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## DomainBop (Dec 28, 2014)

MannDude said:


> I was going to include DigitalOcean, however they're not an active member here.


@accident = Bryan DO networking team


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## perennate (Dec 28, 2014)

Our lndynamic panel (OpenStack front-end for KVM management, and also integrated billing) -- https://www.lunanode.com/downloads/image_panel/


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## wlanboy (Dec 29, 2014)

@MannDude nice writeup!

I like the idea to compare custom panels and that both creators and customers are able to compare things that are behind closed doors.

You can use the screenshots in my reviews too to add some additional custom panels:


OpenITC: 

Bandwagon Host:


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## Kayaba Akihiko (Dec 29, 2014)

How long did this take you to write up?


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## OpticServers (Dec 29, 2014)

We have a Fully custom in house billing and VPS Control panel, if you wish to check it out just register and submit a ticket and i'll be sure to give you a free trial to check out our control panel.


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## AnthonySmith (Jan 2, 2015)

Nice one, I really like the approach KuJoe has taken as everything is in 1 place.


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## RTGHM (Jan 4, 2015)

Hands-down favorite of those ones is BuyVM's.


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## winnervps (Jan 7, 2015)

Well.... Stallion is still the best til now  Will you sell this control panel like solusvm do? ...just curious  another business model maybe.


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## Hxxx (Jan 7, 2015)

winnervps said:


> Well.... Stallion is still the best til now  Will you sell this control panel like solusvm do? ...just curious  another business model maybe.


If so I'm first in the queue


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## VPN.SH (Jan 7, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Any other provider that I should check out?


I quite like what KgoVPS have got going on over there.


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## Aurimas (Jan 8, 2015)

Wow, how long did this take you to add up? Really interesting. I hope more coming up!


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