server adminstration

Manage your server using a free control panel

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Not everyone who purchases a virtual private server (VPS) or a dedicated server will be completely comfortable with setting them up to provide web hosting, an email service and DNS services.

Perhaps some people might just want an easy way to access and administer their server without having to use the command line all the time.

With that in mind here are three free control panels that can be installed on your system. These will set everything up for you and will give you a nice web - based GUI to administer your server.

ISPConfig

This is well worth installing and can be used for controlling multiple servers or a variety of different flavours of Linux (including Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS).

It has options for administrators, clients and email, can install either Apache or NGinx and provides access to web hosting, databases, FTP, cron jobs etc).

It is easily installed on a, preferably, clean system. Take a look at https://www.ispconfig.org/ and https://www.howtoforge.com/ispconfig-autoinstall-debian-ubuntu/ for instructions on how to do so.

HestiaCP

Another excellent free control panel that can be used with Debian and Ubuntu.

It is simple to install using the instructions that can be found at https://www.hestiacp.com/.

There is plenty of documentation on how to administer, use and setup this system and is well worth a look at.

Virtualmin

The third option I have chosen to include here is Virtualmin. This is a very comprehensive system although that does involve a bit more of a learning curve.

It is well worth a look at but you will find some options are only available in the pro version which you have to pay for.

One other benefit of this control panel is that the company also have a product called Webmin which focuses more on the server itself rather than web hosting.

Conclusion

There are a number of free options to choose from if you wish to use a GUI to set up hosting options on a server. The three above aren't the only ones either.

If you wish to know which works best for you then I would suggest installing each of them in turn and using them for a short while to see if they fit with your needs.