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cPanel is a good one. I cringe anytime I have to use it, but I understand why it's there... It has a ton of features that the hosting company can advertise. Tha

by dangero 13y ago

cPanel is a good one. I cringe anytime I have to use it, but I understand why it's there... It has a ton of features that the hosting company can advertise. That's probably what would make it hard to disrupt because while a new interface could look cleaner, the hosting company could lose some marketing appeal. I'd be interested to hear you elaboration on how you would create an initial wedge in that market.

rfnslyr 13y ago
Honestly I have never had any problem with cPanel. Does exactly what I need it to do. What problems did you run into with cPanel?
- dangero 13y ago
  For one, I think the cPanel interface is very out of date graphic design wise. Secondly, it's your typical last decade software that has a million features. I think it's also probably too technical for the average shared hosting user. Defeating cPanel probably is a lot like defeating craigslist. I think like callmeed is saying, you're not going to do it by creating a cPanel competitor, but rather making replacements for specific features of cPanel that can stand on their own.
callmeed 13y ago
Well, cPanel and Plesk are mainly centered around Apache, so my first though is make one for nginx. Include a 1-click installer for Nginx + PHP-FPM + WordPress [1] and I think you'd already be onto something. Next, look at some way to do simple, static site/blog hosting (again using nginx). Give them a choice of Jekyll or Middleman (I do Ruby so that's what I know) and let them update via (S)FTP, a rich-text editor, or email. I started something like this with http://www.utterson.me http://www.utterson.me but also check out http://neocities.org http://neocities.org that was posted on HN recently. Basically, slap a nice hosting account on either of those and go from there. Think about all the freelance designers/developers out there. They build a site or a WP theme for a customer. That customer then needs to host it. So give them the ability to make money without all the bloat of Plesk/cPanel's reseller/sub-account BS. Stripe integration could come into play here. [1] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-wordpress-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-12-04 https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-insta...

by dangero 13y ago

rfnslyr 13y ago

Honestly I have never had any problem with cPanel. Does exactly what I need it to do. What problems did you run into with cPanel?

dangero 13y ago
For one, I think the cPanel interface is very out of date graphic design wise. Secondly, it's your typical last decade software that has a million features. I think it's also probably too technical for the average shared hosting user. Defeating cPanel probably is a lot like defeating craigslist. I think like callmeed is saying, you're not going to do it by creating a cPanel competitor, but rather making replacements for specific features of cPanel that can stand on their own.

callmeed 13y ago

Well, cPanel and Plesk are mainly centered around Apache, so my first though is make one for nginx. Include a 1-click installer for Nginx + PHP-FPM + WordPress [1] and I think you'd already be onto something. Next, look at some way to do simple, static site/blog hosting (again using nginx). Give them a choice of Jekyll or Middleman (I do Ruby so that's what I know) and let them update via (S)FTP, a rich-text editor, or email. I started something like this with http://www.utterson.me http://www.utterson.me but also check out http://neocities.org http://neocities.org that was posted on HN recently. Basically, slap a nice hosting account on either of those and go from there. Think about all the freelance designers/developers out there. They build a site or a WP theme for a customer. That customer then needs to host it. So give them the ability to make money without all the bloat of Plesk/cPanel's reseller/sub-account BS. Stripe integration could come into play here. [1] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-wordpress-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-12-04 https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-insta...