Selling VPSs at scale needs more than a hypervisor. VPS control panels sit on top of KVM (and sometimes containers) to automate provisioning, IP assignment, OS reinstalls, consoles and billing. This guide explains the concepts and compares three widely used panels: Virtualizor, VirtFusion and SolusVM.
Before you start
- Familiarity with how a VPS works.
- Check each vendor's site for current pricing, supported OSes and features; they change often.
What a VPS panel does
- Master/slave or controller/hypervisor model: one control server manages many hypervisor nodes.
- Plans and resources: CPU, RAM, disk, bandwidth and IP counts per plan.
- IP pools: IPv4 and IPv6 ranges assigned automatically, plus reverse DNS.
- OS templates and ISOs: one-click reinstall, cloud-init, custom ISO boot.
- Customer self-service: start/stop, VNC console, rescue mode, backups, firewall.
- Billing integration: modules for WHMCS and other systems create and suspend VPSs automatically.
Virtualizor
Virtualizor from Softaculous supports KVM plus container technologies such as OpenVZ and LXC, and some Xen variants. It uses a master server with slave nodes and has a long-standing WHMCS module. See install a Virtualizor master and sell VPS with WHMCS and Virtualizor.
VirtFusion
VirtFusion is a newer KVM-focused panel with a modern interface and API, a control server plus hypervisors running an agent, and support for local, LVM, ZFS and other storage. See what VirtFusion is.
SolusVM
SolusVM was one of the earliest VPS panels. SolusVM 1 supported KVM, OpenVZ and Xen; SolusVM 2 is a rewrite focused on KVM and LXC with a new architecture. Providers still running SolusVM 1 should check the vendor's support status and migration path.
Comparison
| Virtualizor | VirtFusion | SolusVM 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main virtualization | KVM, plus containers | KVM | KVM, LXC |
| Architecture | Master + slaves | Control server + hypervisor agents | Management node + compute nodes |
| WHMCS integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
How to choose
- Need container virtualization alongside KVM: look at Virtualizor.
- Pure KVM with a modern UI and API: VirtFusion or SolusVM 2.
- Test each with a trial on a spare server before committing, and check how migrations from your current panel work.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a panel to run VMs?
No. For a few VMs, Proxmox VE or plain libvirt is enough. Panels pay off when you sell VPSs to customers.
Can a panel manage existing VMs?
Usually only VMs it created; importing existing ones is limited and panel-specific.
Does MdmHost use these panels?
MdmHost's plans are cPanel/WHM web, reseller and master reseller hosting. These guides are for readers running their own VPS infrastructure.