CPs - W2K3 Server - Plesk 7.6.1 or Helm 4

LeaUK · 27th November 2006

Hi all

So, finally after selecting appropriate hardware I'm onto the next issue. Yep, CPs.

Hardware - 1 x 1U Dell 860

As I'm very familiar with Win flavours and have zero experience with Linux (well a little with embedded Linux) looks like I have two options, Plesk 7.6.1 or Helm 4.

I've had Plesk running for 3 days (ok that's pretty limited I understand) and I was quite pleased with its ease of use and flexibility. But as the demo only supports one domain and client I thought I'd write to sales asking for a 30 day 5-10 domain license. However no reply a whole day latter - and that's from Sales!

This prompted a look around their forum and unfortunately it's pretty dead with plenty of unanswered posts, and plenty saying it's shamefully slow. Seemed to run 'ok' on my machine but considering there was only myself on the panel It didn't strike me as particularly fast, with most operations taking anywhere between 3 and 10 seconds to complete - but this is my first CP so nothing to compare with.

So off to Helm (4), forum's busy with plenty of posts and replies (although no sign of forum support for version 4! - rather worrying) and an email within 5 minutes (probably automated) offering support. So I sent a huge list of questions to them to see how accurate and quickly they return with real answers.

Anyway, less of the waffle and onto the obvious: I've read the CP poll (which worryingly doesn't include Helm 3 or 4) and the huge thread on the expected release date of 4 (I did enjoy the Helm Geek video

), but how does it compete with Plesk 7.6.1?

That's the question?

Your kind assistance is most appreciated as usual.
Lea

nitrohosting · 27th November 2006

Take a look at www.dotnetpanel.com as well, which may be a strong competitor to HELM very shortly.

LeaUK · 27th November 2006

Cheers will do, seems nicely priced

Having experimented with the online Helm 4 demo I'm not sure if I like it... however looks aren't everything....I know. The way the graphics vanish only to follow with a blinding white between every change of menu is rather annoying.

From someone with no CP previous experience or hang-ups Plesk certainly wins there - from my point of view anyway.

Lea

Jon-NC · 27th November 2006

We've been using plesk for a couple of years. For a single server environment I like it, more over helm which is far too clicky. Helm 5 looks good though.

We've had a few problems when it comes to linking it nicely with other servers which would be its only downside.

LeaUK · 27th November 2006

There's me thinking 4 has only just been released? When is 5 out?

How do you find their support? I can't believe sales haven't even returned my email! Are there any alternative forums other than their own (which to me doesn't look busy enough) offering good support?

Cheers
Lea

Jon-NC · 28th November 2006

Helm 4 is the latest version, not used that one. I was referring to helm 3 previously.

LeaUK · 28th November 2006

Hi Jon

4 looks clicky to me...

...

andyb28 · 28th November 2006

THIS USER HAS BEEN GAGGED BY THE FORUM HOSTS FOR SPAM OR BREAKING THE RULES...
User will be ungaged in around 78 hours from this post.

LeaUK · 28th November 2006

Hi Andy

Trouble is most people with any savy are demanding CPs these days, not only that the manual configuration is a headache even for just 10 'clients'. IIS is no problem, but then people want FPSE, then mySQL, then phpBB etc.etc.. the overhead soon becomes the dominating factor.

And of course to be able to offer people the 'lastest' and modern CP with the bells and whistles which are also being demanded, swings it for me - even with the potential downside of perhaps speed and reliability.

My biggest concern is the lack of support. I've sent sales at SWsoft 2 emails, one to their UK office and one to their main email and nothing, not anything! That's worrying.

What was the support like when you had an account? Perhaps they're on their way out?

Lea

Jon-NC · 28th November 2006

Lea, are you still doing this for family and friends?

SWSoft support is ok but you'll have to pay for proper support, i've found the forums usually have the answeres I need. Although I've *touch wood* only ever had a couple of problems with Plesk that have required a bit of head scratching.

andyb28 · 28th November 2006

THIS USER HAS BEEN GAGGED BY THE FORUM HOSTS FOR SPAM OR BREAKING THE RULES...
User will be ungaged in around 78 hours from this post.

LeaUK · 28th November 2006

Well spotted Jon

I have several web designer colleagues who it has become recently apparent are also looking for competitive alternatives to their hosters and are keen to offer and pass on new services to their customers.

I see it as my family and friends get good quality hosting (naturelmont ;-) ) with the added bonus of a CP - beats me having to keep configuring 'this that and the other', and the cost isn't prohibitive assuming it can be recovered.

Start small and get a feel.....

Quote:

I tried to contact them, heard nothing

I've never come across a company whom fail to respond to sales enquiries - unless they don't exist! This is a MAJOR concern of mine, however after receiving what looked like a promising initial flurry of 'well timed' emails from Helm, they haven't replied either - this is indeed POOR support in my book.

Lea

Jon-NC · 28th November 2006

If you have got along with the demos Ok then I think you'll be ok. Its what I did and 2 odd years later everything is running nicely.Sometimes you have to take a risk. I chose plesk, it worked, still works and dispite its multi server niggles i'm happy with it.

Its equally important to give plesk a good platform to work off via windows. As well as looking at your control panel ensure that windows is running nicely.

AdamC · 28th November 2006

We used to use Plesk 7.5 (then upgraded to 7.6 which broke things - another story though!). After 7.6 broke things we decided to go down the managing things manually rather than "bothering" with a control panel.

As you say, the SWSoft forums arn't very good at all - hardly get any good (if any at all) replies to threads.

Speed was another factor - we found it to be very slow to use sometimes although the 7.6 upgrade did make it *slightly* faster but still slow.

Error messages - IIRC they didn't make any sense.

Having said all that, Plesk is one of the nicer looking CPs around at the moment. As an example, personally, I hate the interfaces for cpanel/WHM - all looks a bit rushed/not cared about as long as the functionality works - which is fine (when it does work!), but I like the aesthetics

).

LeaUK · 28th November 2006

Thanks for the advice Jon, most welcome.

Glad to hear that your Plesk is fine, albeit a little problematic across multiple servers.

Plesk is currently running on my ATX twin Xeon on top of a fresh install of Win2K3 RC2 and Windows is fine, and to be honest so is Plesk. The longest delays are during domain creation or changing things like application pool settings - that took nearly 23 seconds earlier, how does that compare in your experience?

Out of interest, (I know this answer is a little rather 'how long is a ball of string') on 'average' how many domains running at satisfactory speeds can you achieve from a 'typical' server? I see on Plesk they say around a 1000 but ooooh, lets hope everyone doesn't want to carry out a backup at once!

Dual Intel 3050
2GB DDR2
1TB storage

??

Cheers
Lea