Control panels are a tax on competence

Hey folks

Hot take dropping on a saturday: control panels are a tax on competence

Been running InterServer on ssh + docker compose since 2019. Zero panel fees. Zero bloat. If you cannot write a compose file you should not be charging people for hosting, gonna be real with you

CPanel wants $45/month for nothing I cannot script in twenty minutes. Plesk? Webmin? All just pretty buttons for chmod and systemctl. You are paying $500+/year to avoid learning bash.

Super stoked about this actually. Fired our last "panel-required" client in 2022. Margins went from 12% to 34%. Support tickets dropped 60% because clients who self-select for no-panel are actually competent.

Fight me

Caramba, marcus, nossa senhora... kkkkk

I am not gonna say you are wrong, but I am not gonna say you are right neither, you know? I tried the no-panel life with my little reselling thing here in sao paulo, mas... the clients, they want the pretty buttons, brother. They want to feel they are driving the car even when they do not know where the engine is, caramba!

But your margin story, that got me thinking... maybe I am not charging enough for the hand-holding? Kkkkk

Numbers are numbers. But you are not counting the labor cost of your own time, or you are billing it at zero.

I run 200 nodes across two facilities. Supermicro h12ssl-I with epyc 7313p, 1.2kW per 42u, pallet shipping from san jose runs me $380 per rack. I have tried no-panel. Ticket volume shifted from "how do I park domain" to "why is my container not resolving" — same volume, harder problems, longer resolution.

Panel is not for you. Panel is for scaling bodies.

Bro....

Marcus gan, you are very brave... but my clients are cheap, gan.... they want panel, they do not want ssh....

I tried no panel before, 2021 maybe.... support chat explode.... wife angry.... "why you always on phone".... kkkkk....

But your margin.... got me thinking.... maybe I bill extra for special....