Once you move off shared hosting onto a VPS, you need some way to manage the server without SSHing in for every routine task. There are several solid open source options, and the right one depends on what you're actually running.
Webmin / Virtualmin
Webmin is one of the longest-running open source server admin tools, and Virtualmin extends it into a full hosting control panel — domains, email, databases, and user accounts. It's a good fit if you need traditional shared-hosting-style multi-domain management with a mature, well-documented tool.
Cockpit
Cockpit is a lighter-weight, modern system administration tool focused on the server itself rather than hosting multiple domains — services, storage, containers, logs, and system updates through a clean web interface. It's a strong choice if you're managing a single application server (including Docker containers) rather than running a multi-tenant hosting setup.
CloudPanel
CloudPanel is built around a modern Nginx-based stack and is a good fit for teams running PHP, Node.js, Python, or static sites who want a lean, fast panel without the overhead of a full traditional hosting control panel.
HestiaCP
HestiaCP is a fork of the older Vesta project, actively maintained, offering a similar shared-hosting-style feature set (domains, DNS, mail, databases) with a more current codebase. It's a solid middle ground between Webmin/Virtualmin's maturity and CloudPanel's leaner approach.
ISPConfig
ISPConfig is built specifically for multi-server, multi-client hosting management — if you're managing hosting for multiple clients across multiple servers from one interface, it has the most mature feature set for that specific use case.
Choosing between them
There's no single right answer — it depends on whether you're hosting one application or many domains, whether multi-client billing matters, and how comfortable your team is with each tool's interface. We typically walk through your actual requirements before recommending one, rather than defaulting to whichever is easiest for us to set up.