SPanel Review: Features, Pricing, and Cons

Note: Our testing environment includes ScalaHosting VPS. We have installed SPanel on our test website for this review.

What is SPanel?

SPanel is an all-in-one cloud management platform. It’s a standalone service that gives businesses complete freedom in managing their site(s) spread across a single or multiple data centers. 

With SPanel, you get a clean and easy-to-use interface with the ability to manage emails, domains, databases, files, backups, etc. Admins can also manage users or perform 1-click installs for over 400 web applications (via Softaculous), including WordPress, Joomla, and Prestoshop.

As it is a standalone service, it works with popular cloud hosting providers, including AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean, or on web servers powered by Nginx, LiteSpeed, and others.

SPanel stands out as a viable alternative to cPanel. It is cheap and has a comparatively intuitive design. It also offers drag-and-drop functionality, which lets you customize the layout yourself, and features like SWordPress Manager, SShield, and 24/7 support.

The platform is developed and managed by Scala Hosting, a popular hosting provider. It is a proprietary solution, which means you need to own an SPanel license (fully managed or self-managed) to use it. You can also opt for SPanel-licensed VPS, which offers Spanel free of cost.

SPanel Features

SPanel offers multiple features to manage your site and servers. We’ve listed 11 of its key features below.

• 1-click installs: SPanel allows admins to one-click install more than 400 web apps including WordPress, PrestaShop, and Joomla. This is done via Softaculous.
• Account management: SPanel offers comprehensive account management. Using it, you can manage accounts, create new accounts, list suspend accounts, and terminate accounts. Each action comes with its own wizard, ensuring ease of use.

• SWordPress Manager: A dedicated WordPress-focused tool that lets you install/uninstall and auto-update. The team behind SPanel is working towards upcoming new features such as cloning, staging, and backup/restore.
• Daily Backups: SPanel offers daily backups and restoring backups at no extra charge. It supports remote servers, and you don’t have to leave the SPanel to browse or restore backups.
• Automated SShield Security: SShield is SPanel’s top-tier AI-powered security tool that mitigates most web attacks. It utilizes machine learning to tackle new threats. If the shield doesn’t work, it notifies the user about affected data via a detailed report and how to sanitize it.
• Ease-of-use: SPanel offers an easy-to-use interface for admins and users. The admin interface lists administrative tasks such as managing domains, quotas, packages, etc. The user interface helps end users (guests) manage specific accounts. Through it, users can make account-level website management changes, such as managing domains, databases, emails, and files.

• Excellent Performance: SPanel supports LiteSpeed, OpenLiteSpeed, and Nginx web servers in addition to traditional Apache, enabling it to serve its users at lightning speed. Moreover, it is lightweight and requires fewer server resources than cPanel. In addition, you also get caching plugins for most apps, such as WordPress, improving overall server performance. Currently, you can use LiteSpeed free for 1 website (minimum 2 GB RAM VPS), whereas users can utilize OpenLiteSpeed free for unlimited sites.
• Top-notch Documentation: SPanel provides technical documentation to help users with issues and daily maintenance. It also lets you manage services and websites, install software, and cover API functions.

• 24/7 support: SPanel offers 24/7 technical human support via live chat for end users. Users can access it directly from the dashboard. As a provider, you can benefit from fewer technical support queries as SPanel handles them. They also offer phone and email support.
• SSL certificates: SPanel provides free SSL certificates to all your sites via Let’s Encrypt. These certificates help your site stay authenticated and ensure encrypted data exchange between the user’s browser and the site. 
• Security and Firewall: It also offers decent security settings for SPanel accounts, including login captcha and two-factor authentication (not enabled by default). Additionally, it allows admins and users to utilize 2FA, adding another level of security to SPanel.

Apart from these, some other notable SPanel features include:

• SPanel is free (when using SPanel VPS services)
• WHMCS integration
• PHP 7.3 support  

Note: SPanel is cPanel compatible. This means you can easily import your sites and their corresponding settings to the SPanel server.

SPanel Pricing

SPanel offers free and paid options. In the paid option, you can choose from 3 self-managed and 3 fully managed pricing plans, starting from $9.95 monthly and $19.95 monthly, respectively. All the plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. They also offer free demo requests if you’re not interested in using your credit card.

The table below lists SPanel’s full server management plans, along with their monthly pricing and offerings.

For self-managed plans on SPanel, the monthly pricing and offerings are shown in the table below

So, which plan should you choose?

Entry plans work for new businesses with fewer websites (requiring fewer than 5 accounts). Similarly, you can choose higher plans based on your requirements.

Additionally, you can opt for self-managed plans if you are technically capable of handling it yourself or have time to manage servers. If not, fully managed plans are decent as they save you time by mitigating the server management tasks to SPanel.

Note: SPanel is free if you opt for SPanel-powered VPS. For example, if you choose ScalaHosting VPS, you get SPanel for free.

SPanel Drawback

SPanel is a promising cloud management tool. However, it is not free from drawbacks. For example, it depends on Softaculous to install software. So, the accessibility of one-click installs for popular platforms such as WordPress and Joomla depends on it, rather than in control of SPanel. This limits the apps you can install. 

Moreover, it is not available with every web hosting provider. When it was released in May 2018, it was only available for Vivacom and ScaleHosting. However, in recent years, SPanel support has expanded to more hosting providers, including DigitalOcean, AWS, Azure, Vultr, and Linode.

SPanel also has a steep learning curve, which limits its utilization by beginners. In comparison, cPanel is more accessible for beginners and novices.

SPanel Customer Support

SPanel offers comprehensive customer support to its users. If you need help, you can start with its detailed technical documentation and videos. These provide detailed explanations of technical topics and step-by-step guides on resolving or carrying out specific tasks.

For human support, you can contact them via 24/7 live chat (directly from the dashboard), phone, or email. Their support staff is knowledgeable and can provide technical solutions to your problems.

As a reseller, you’ll find SPanel customer support helpful, considering that it offers technical support to end users. This means your clients can get direct support via the SPanel dashboard, making handling customers more feasible.

As for charges, SPanel customer support is included in its plan. In comparison, cPanel charges for every incidence.

From a community perspective, SPanel runs its “Cloud Democracy Project”, where users can suggest features and vote on their most wanted/required features.

Who Should Use SPanel?

SPanel is ideal for individual users such as website owners or developers. However, hosting companies, businesses with multiple domains, e-commerce stores, and web studios can also fully utilize it.

Comparing SPanel, cPanel, and Plesk

The table below compares SPanel, cPanel, and Plesk, based on factors such as operating systems, web servers, migration processes, and admin panels, among other crucial elements.

SPanel Review Verdict

SPanel is an excellent all-in-one cloud management solution. Its intuitive and modern design appeals to individuals, especially web developers and website owners. The dashboard is feature-focused, with access to important functionalities such as restarting service/server, managing accounts, branding, and 24/7 customer support.

The platform is also accessible due to its freemium model. It comes bundled free with ScalaHosting or other SPanel-powered VPS such as DigitalOcean. Technical audiences can choose from its 3 self-managed plans starting at $9.95 monthly. You can also opt for one of its 3 available SPanel full server management plans, which saves time and reduces the need to know every technical aspect of server management.

Overall, I found SPanel a decent choice, considering its versatility and lower price than cPanel (which recently started charging per user, skyrocketing its pricing).

SPanel receives the Geekflare Innovation Award for offering easy-to-use and intuitive cloud management at a cheaper price than competitors. Its feature-interface balance is perfect for beginners while welcoming users with eCommerce sites, web studios, and big businesses, which require managing multiple domains.