If you’ve managed a website before, chances are you are familiar with cPanel. It’s been the most popular panel for years. Reliable, familiar, and packed with features.

Then there’s RunCloud a newer player built for modern cloud servers. It’s lighter, faster, and built with developers in mind.

We work with both every day. Some clients stick with cPanel because it’s what their hosting provider offers. Others move to RunCloud for more flexibility and better performance in the cloud. Since we’ve spent time deep in both systems, here’s our honest comparison.

Installation: Heavier vs. Lighter

cPanel is a bit heavier. It needs AlmaLinux, CloudLinux, Ubuntu LTS, or CentOS, with at least 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB disk.

RunCloud, on the other hand, feels lighter. It only supports Ubuntu LTS (20/22/24), needs 512 MB RAM minimum, and of course, a public IPv4.

In short, cPanel works best on traditional hosting environments, while RunCloud plays nicely with VPS and cloud servers.

Web Server Support

cPanel = Apache. That’s it.

RunCloud = choice. Nginx, OpenLiteSpeed, or even Docker stacks.

If you want freedom in server stacks, RunCloud gives you more room to play.

Docker Support

Yes, you can get Docker running on a cPanel server. But it’s clunky.

With RunCloud, Docker is built in. Select it, deploy it, manage it. Done.

Caching and Speed

RunCloud shines here. It has a caching hub with Redis full-page caching and FastCGI/Proxy caching. Perfect for WordPress or high-traffic apps.

cPanel doesn’t have a built-in cache. You will be dependent on the add-ons and plugins given by the Hosting provider.

Security

Security features are strong for both RunCloud and cPanel, but the implementation is different.

• cPanel has 2FA, ModSecurity, cPHulk brute-force protection, IP deny lists.
• RunCloud provides 2FA, IP whitelisting, SSH key authentication, WAF, advanced firewalls, open_basedir per app.

If you’re more dev-focused and want SSH-level control, RunCloud feels stronger.

App Installations

• cPanel: Uses Softaculous for one-click installs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.).
• RunCloud: Direct one-click WordPress installs and smoother Laravel deployments.

Backups

• cPanel: Usually paired with JetBackup. Solid, reliable.
• RunCloud: Flexible. Back up to AWS, pCloud, or external storage like S3. Restore to the same or even a different app.

We’ve built custom backup strategies for clients on both platforms. RunCloud’s integrations give it a bit more flexibility for cloud setups.

What Makes RunCloud Stand Out

This is where RunCloud stretches ahead of cPanel:

• Manage multiple servers from one dashboard.
• Create staging sites to test changes before pushing live.
• App clones can be performed with much ease.
• Atomic deployments facilitates Code deployments and updates with zero downtime. 
• Built-in Cloudflare integration for SSL and DNS.
• Detailed monitoring (resource usage, slow queries, top processes, suspicious IP hits).

These features save developers and sysadmins hours of work.

So, Which Should You Choose?

It depends. If you’re comfortable with something tried-and-true, cPanel is still a safe bet. It’s been around forever, almost every hosting company supports it, and most admins know their way around it without a learning curve.

On the other hand, if your setup is more cloud-based and you’d like extra flexibility—things like Docker support, staging sites, or advanced caching—RunCloud will probably feel like a better fit.

And here’s the thing, our team are hardcore cPanel specialists, handling migrations, fixing broken setups, and squeezing out extra performance. And also offer help with RunCloud, setting up containers, building staging workflows, and monitoring servers.

So whichever way you’re leaning sticking with cPanel or moving to RunCloud, you won’t be on your own. We’ll help you set it up, keep it secure, and make sure it runs smoothly.

Want a hand with either platform? Just reach out and we’re always happy to jump in.