Let's Talk About the Problem
Hosting control panels haven’t changed much in the last two decades. After years of remaining stagnant, it’s time to bring some fresh blood to the game.
Awkward...
The current contenters, cPanel and Plesk, have a plethora of shortcomings (beyond usability).
Minimum Requirements
cPanel and Plesk have minimum disk space requirements of 20GB and 10GB respectively. Much of this is eaten up in the excessive graphics which hamper performance and proprietary backend software. A more modern, streamlined approach can negate this issue.
Extensibility
While both panels support plugins, they are rudimentary at best and provide minimal documentation. Building on the proven (and extensible) WordPress codebase allows us to offer an unprecedented level of flexibility in a language that many developers are already familiar with.
Sustainability
In the hosting world, security and continuing development are crucial. Other control panels require a significant amount of work to keep up to date with the latest issues. Through leveraging the WordPress codebase, we are decreasing our development effort.
Brandability
Neither of the major contenders for top control panel was built with rebranding in mind. Overly-complicated template systems make the process time-consuming and expensive. HostPress is being built to be rebrandable by design. In fact, reworking the interface can be easily done with only a few lines of code!
So Who am I?
I am an independent software developer with a focus on WordPress application development. Throughout the years I have been a Core Developer for Arch Linux and Easy Digital Downloads and the co-founder of Redux Framework. I am an active member of the WordPress community as a speaker for the local user group and head organizer for WordCamp Omaha and have released over thirty public plugins.
And What is HostPress?
Simply put, HostPress is the future of web hosting control panels.
Extensible
With HostPress, there is no need to rely on a specific language to write your own plugins. Between native extensibility, a fullscale API, and direct command-line access, you have the power to write plugins as you see fit! Beyond the ability to write your own plugins, at release we will have a robust archive of plugins available to the public covering the most popular server software.
Beautiful
A clean, streamlined design makes using HostPress a breeze. No graphics to slow you down and no bulky UI elements to cause screen resolution-dependency issues. From mobile devices through retina displays, icon fonts and clean lines make HostPress beautiful and functional no matter how you use it!
Powerful
WordPress powers a quarter of the Internet! By building on one of the most widely-used platforms in use today, we are working with proven code. Beyond the well-known scalability and flexibility of the WordPress core, it is the software behind some major players on the Internet. If it’s good enough for companies like Sony and Samsung, it’s good enough for us!
Some Stats...
Here's a few numbers on the market today...
Individual Users
There are 4,101,891 individual servers running active, licensed cPanel and Plesk installations (according to BuiltWith).
Product Value
That’s $82,037,820.00 per month spent on control panels (assuming a $20 per month price tag… cPanel runs $45 per month for dedicated servers). And that doesn’t include the money spent on support and plugins!
User Base
While nobody knows the exact number of websites online at any given time, Internet Live Stats has estimated that as of September, 2014, the Internet has surpassed one billion websites… with nearly a million being created daily!
What I Need
While I am a WordPress developer, I'm not a network architect. I can write the majority of what makes HostPress awesome by myself (and I'd LOVE to be able to make this a labor of love), but I need to hire a server guru to make this a reality. As such, I'm hoping to raise $175,000 to support myself and my son, and cover the server fees and salary of a server guru for one year.
What You Get
If funded, the goal is to release a beta version in June 2016 with the following properties:
- A modern, open-source, extensible server control panel
- An intuitive (and responsive) interface
- A fully-localized platform (HostPress speaks your language!)
- A platform developers can build on, including the ability to simply rebrand the panel without complex template languages.
Following the initial beta, we will spend another six months fixing the inevitable bugs (patches are welcome!), responding to user feedback, and working to provide translations for languages other than English before the first stable version is released.
If we are not fully funded, the project will go on... but at a slower pace. Putting food on the table and paying bills is too important to give up completely, to say nothing of the expenses inherent in hiring a server guru!
The HostPress Impact
At the very least, this project will result in a very cool piece of open-source technology being released. That said, our goal is to provide the Internet with an alternative to the clutter and complexity of server management. Even if we don't become a major contender in this space, the support we do get will put pressure on the existing solutions to up their game. Basically... catch up with the times, or die.
Other Ways You Can Help
Even if you can't help us financially, there's still plenty you can do! Share this campaign with your friends and colleagues. If you're bilingual, familiarize yourself with Transifex so you can help translate the beta.
Updates
Screenshot!
Since you asked so nicely, here's a very early screenshot of our current progress. The Account Details widget is about two-thirds live data (bandwidth, email, and FTP aren't pulling from anywhere yet), and the News widget pulls from our blog, though the blog isn't live yet :(
User management, a very primitive domain manager, and the file manager work to at least some extent. Extensions connects to our (currently empty) extension database and Support is currently just a simple email form that opens a support ticket (eventually, it will be fully integrated and have a built-in FAQ/tutorial section). As of now, everything else links to blank pages... But it's a start!
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iPhone Screenshot!
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