Froxlor as a control panel for server management

Effective solutions for server administration are becoming increasingly important. Systems with a graphical user interface allow administrators to largely avoid console commands and thus enable intuitive server management. In addition to well-known control panels such as cPanel and Plesk, the free software Froxlor is increasingly gaining market share.

What is Froxlor?

Froxlor is a control panel for web hosting providers that enables the management of e-mails, domains, FTP access and more via a graphical user interface. The software is open-source and available free of charge under the GNU GLP 2.0 licence.

The project was founded in 2010 by an experienced development team from the SysCP project. At the time, SysCP was a server management programme which was abandoned in May 2010. However, the experience the developers gained there was able to flow into the work on Froxlor.

The developers' aim has always been to provide powerful software for server management that is compatible with various systems and, moreover, freely available.

Alternatively, the Control Panel can also be used on a Froxlor VPS hosting or a Froxlor Dedicated Server.

What can Froxlor do?

The Control Panel is driven by a team of dedicated IT specialists, continuously improved and extended with new features. As a result, the software's capabilities keep growing. The core elements are summarised below.

Multilevel user system

Froxlor allows you to create different user profiles with varying permissions. The following profiles are available:

• Administrator
• Reseller
• Customer

Users can define limits for email accounts, subdomains, FTP accounts or MySQL databases per customer. Resellers can customise the graphical user interface to match the packages they have purchased. This way, individual resources and features can be enabled for each customer.

In addition, additional FTP accounts and a ticket support system can be created.

Encryption and security

Besides the option to install free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt, customers can store certificates per domain. Encryption of data transmission is enabled by default but can be disabled if required. It is also possible to specify the SSL ports. Using single-domain SSL certificates, each address can be encrypted separately.

PHP configurations

Since version 2.0, Froxlor supports the scripting language PHP 8 by default. In addition, various configurations are possible that can be set separately for each domain.

True multi-stack

Froxlor allows you to manage multiple domains. For each reachable internet address it can be defined whether it should be assigned to an IPv4 or IPv6 address. Furthermore, the ports used to access the addresses can be specified.

System requirements and software support

The control panel is designed for Debian-based Linux distributions. Consequently, it runs optimally on operating systems such as Ubuntu, Debian or Gentoo Linux. The program can be installed either directly via the package manager of the respective distribution, by downloading the .tar file (tarball) or via GitHub.

Froxlor provides comprehensive documentation that explains installation in the various options in detail.

In order for the control panel to function, several additional software installations are required in parallel. Froxlor initially needs a web server. The application supports the best-known systems such as the Apache 2 HTTP Webserver, Nginx or the Lighttpd server. A current PHP installation as well as a MySQL/MariaDB server are also essential for server management.

In addition, Froxlor supports many other software modules that allow administrators to extend the range of functions.
A nameserver such as PowerDNS enables the mapping of domain names to IP addresses. FTP servers such as ProFTPD can be integrated just as easily as mail delivery agents (MDA) or mail transport agents (MTA). Froxlor also supports statistics tools such as Webalizer, which is particularly relevant for administrators and resellers.

Use cases for Froxlor

As the control panel can be downloaded for free from the developer's website, the software is easy to access. Due to its extensive feature set, however, it is primarily suited to professional web hosting providers, who are looking for a powerful solution to manage many customer accounts.

The control panel can also be used in the private sector to manage smaller server networks. However, applications with a smaller feature set are often more suitable here.

The main advantage of Froxlor is that it can be obtained completely free of charge. This means fewer investments in the area of server management for companies are required, which is particularly interesting for start-ups. Purchase costs for suitable software are eliminated.

But the system is not only a stopgap solution for the beginning; it can certainly compete with commercial alternatives. This enables the software to allow hosting providers to offer consistently low prices for web hosting packages or servers.

Who is Froxlor suitable for?

Experienced server administrators will be comfortable with the control panel. Beginners may require some time to familiarise themselves. However, the program's documentation is comprehensive and answers most questions.

If you encounter problems, the community forum is available, where users can get varying levels of assistance. Before using Froxlor, however, users should bear in mind that there is no professional support. If problems or issues arise, they must be able to resolve them themselves if necessary.

In addition, solid knowledge and skills in the areas of server administration and Linux operating system administration are a prerequisite for the setup and use of the free control panel. The Windows-compatible Microsoft IIS web server is not supported.

Use our Web hosting control panel comparison to find out which admin tool is best suited to your individual requirements.

Our article is based on our own experience and research as well as information from external sources.

Quellenangaben & weiterführende Links zum Thema:
https://froxlor.org/ (offizielle Webseite von Froxlor)