I am going to share some of my recent experiences with everyone here.. I just spent two days kicking the tires on cPanel, softacoulus and a few others. If you go to their forum you see its totally dead.. not because their software work so great, but before that..
I never lose my passwords. For decades, over 20 years I keep one text file where I keep a set of passwords I rotate everywhere, and I copy and paste.. I rest password frequently, I always test password reset functions every time I sign up somewhere.. oh, I have tons of email accounts but I never had a facebook, twitter, instagram and other garbage accounts so my only way to reset passwords is via cell phones and email.
I always complain when I sign up somewhere and there is no way to cancel orders, remove credit card accounts, remove personal information - again, I never signed up with facebook, myspace and others during the early 2000 BECAUSE I saw what a parasitic, aggressive entities they are. As a result I challenge your to find just one packaged software or online service that has the NULL button - meaning "make me never-existed". Replace my posts with "written my anonymous" and delete all dictionaries and data rows about me.
cPanel failed my 2-day test miserably. cPanel is at least if not more proprietary than Proxmox, and when I tried to enable mbstring via their EasyApache it bombed.. sure, lets fill out a ticket. Could not log in to their web - really? Again, I NEVER-EVER lose a password, or mistype a password. OK, lets reset.. I filled out the "reset password" form about a 100 times in a 12-hours period - not a single reset password email to the SAME account where they kept sending me signup thank yous and such - so you know the email was working.. OK, lets head to the forum - signup using the same email - and the reply came in less than 5 seconds. I posted a HELP ME - nothing for over 6 hours.
Add this to the fact that Softaculous allows you to create an unlimited number of "invioces" - but there is no way to remove any.. I created about two dozen for the SAME IP - no problem. They have a link to "save credit card" but it does not work, the only way to pay is via Paypal.. To be fair, sales answer e-mails super-fast and they are honest about the lack of the web functions. Weird, they package software for the web right? You WOULD think their own web is fully functional.
My only positive experience was with Installatron, works as advertised, allows deleting licenses and credit card info, refunds partial creadit. But I am not going to use cPanel in the near future so i have no use for them.
The sum of all this is a heap of garbage, and speaks volumes about the viability of free software. I spent over 5,000 USD over the last 12 months learning to select, install, test, support ALL software that is a candidate for my purpose. I spend generously - but I do not tolerate garbage software and service. You see what "free as beer" gets you? People and entities who provide superb software and services deserve to be rewarded generously, and the rest should be tortured for their sins.
This is my OPINION based on my personal experiences. Now, I appreciate Virtualmin even more, kudos to you guys please keep up the good work! I maintain a few licenses I do not use - just my way to thank you and donate some resources. If I was a UNIX admin or a coder I would donate some of my time as well.