Use Cases

[TODO - Add links to CP and LST website]

What Can You Do With CyberPanel?

CyberPanel (CP) is a server management tool. However, with the exception of the CP development team, no one leases a server with the sole intent of running CP but rather to run a high performance website/web service. In the current vernacular, the use cases. So the question we are going to answer here are:

1. Which use cases does CP support "out of the box?"
2. Which LSWS license best supports these use cases?
3. Which use cases should be avoided at this stage of CP's development?
4. We also take this opportunity to tip our hats to the industry leader in control panels, cPanel, and to editorialize a bit about services you may not want to self-host.

Out of the Box

CyberPanel (CP) is designed to control servers running LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) so supports most any PHP application that runs on the LAMP/LEMP stacks. Those stand for Linux, Apache, and PHP/Linux Nginx, MySQL, PHP respectively. CP has a number of popular 1-step installable apps such as WordPress available at the push of a button to get you off to a quick start..

Recommended use cases include: active blogs (with complex editorial workflow), large directory sites, high volume eCommerce sites, and active user communities (e.g. forums). Most anything that would get you kicked off of shared hosting for consuming too many resources.

Here is a List of Services Installed by CP. You can deactivate the ones you do not need and run others you might prefer outside of CP's control.

Which LSWS Supports These Use Cases

CyberPanel (CP) is free. However you have a choice of GPL or enterprise licensing for the LiteSpeed Web Server it installs. There is a free version of the enterprise license so the decision cannot be made on price alone. Let your use case guide you. Large eCommerce and user communities will usully prefer a paid LSWS Enterprise license. Here's why:

CP was initially targeted towards Open LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS OLS) users. However, as OLS lacks private data caching, it is s best suited for read intensive use cases such as blogs and directory sites. Those greatly benefit from public data caching and LSWS is an, perhaps the, industry leader in public data caching. Not just because it is super-fast but also because it is super-easy to configure.

On the other hand, online merchants and communities will paradoxically give their most prized customers the worst service in the absence of private data caching because one should not share their shopping cart, order history, etc. with other users. So as soon as a customer logs-in, they must bypass cache. As the lifeblood of online merchants is returning customers and similarly, online communities live-and-die based on active members private data caching should be considered a must-have.

Small to medium size eCommerce sites will do well with the free LSWS license. As CP stabilizes, it will appeal to serious entrepreneurs who run busy eCommerce shops and online communities that require the junior (paid) LSWS Ent licenses. Until then, serious entrepreneurs are best-off purchasing the junior (VPS) cPanel license. Easily justified for sites processing 100s of orders per hour. The ROI resulting from the increased performance of LSWS may very well pay for both license fees in reduced hosting costs alone. And should you find yourself fortunate enough to be processing 1000s of orders per hour, LSWS Enterprise can handle it on inexpensive dedicated servers without breaking a sweat.

Use Cases To Avoid

This writer strongly recommends against attempting to run a large shared hosting company using CP at this stage of its development. Commercial shared hosting is cPanel's specialty and they do it very well. It would be "penny-wise/pound-foolish" to deploy CP in a large shared hosting environment as the cost of a cPanel license spread over 1000s of users is insignificant. Whereas the cost of fielding support tickets, replacing lost customers, and mitigating damage to one's reputation caused by early-stage control panel growing pains will greatly exceed said license cost. And, frankly derail orderly development of CP with a constant stream of high priority emergency fixes.

Props and Respect to the Competition

Props and respekt to cPanel. They are the industry leader. The one to beat. A feature laden, well-refined, stable product. However a bit pricey for a $10/month VPS or $79/mo dedicated server. This writer affectionately refers to them as cPwnal because they take over your server and will shut it down if you fall behind in your license payment.

Questionable Services to Self-Host

As a related aside, this writer generally recommends against self-hosting email and DNS nameservers regardless of cp, preferring to leave those to free and low-cost specialty providers. That advice goes 10x over when early-stage products such as CP are added to the mix, as one can easily find themselves locked out of their email after a problematic upgrade.