Softaculous Vs. Fantastico

What is Softaculous?

Softaculous refers to a one-click and auto-installation platform that integrates with control panels like Plesk and cPanel. Softaculous enables users to review a list of apps and scripts through a useful online directory instead of having to access the server manually using File Transfer Protocol and then uploading files for the script like MySQL databases. Click ‘Install’ and fill in the required information if you wish to install an app or script. You can choose from a selection of scripts to install, whether you require project management apps or Content Management Systems (CMS), such as Drupal and WordPress, among others.

Main Features:

• User-friendly interface and single-click installation
• More than 300 scripts updated on a regular basis (in comparison, Fantastico offers only 50)
• Frequent updates of open-source scripts
• Backup and restoration tools
• Ability to demo scripts prior to installation on servers
• Efficient technical support team and helpful community forums

Most downloaded apps and scripts on this include the following:

• WordPress
• Drupal
• Open Cart
• Magento
• SMF
• WHMCS (useful for resellers)

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico, a server-side software like Softaculous, permits users to install applications with just one click although its interface is very simple compared to Softaculous. In addition, Fantastico only offers about 50 scripts, compared to Softaculous that offers 54 free software and 310 paid apps. Another important thing to note is that Fantastico does not provide technical support. It will be difficult to find a solution in case you run into a problem with a software.

Conclusion

We recommend Softaculous over Fantastico for its great features. In fact, we offer it for free with our web hosting and reseller packages For the VPS or dedicated servers, we offer Softaculous for as low as £3 extra monthly. We have a technical team that will install the software free of charge. Softaculous maintains a comparison page at this website: www.softaculous.com/softaculous/compare.

In addition, a majority of cPanel users (87%) also recommend Softaculous over Fantastico, as evidenced by the results of a forum poll, pictured below:

You can find a free demo of Softaculous at http://demo.softaculous.com/.

Sources:

http://forums.cpanel.net/f34/softaculous-vs-fantastico-153405.html
http://www.softaculous.com/softaculous/compare