Im not intending on setting up a web host, this information is for a friend of mine.
Basically what I want to know is which control panels are free & which ones you have to pay for (if you have to pay for any at all).
Also if it is possible to give the price that is fantastic!

Depends on what software, and what kind of hosting are you using?

For shared hosting, you usually never have to pay for a control panel.. but when you have a dedicated server, you need your own license Im pretty sure, so cPanel and Plesk Cost money because of the license. If you're talking about a dedicated server, just go to the dedicated server website and see how much what panel will cost, some cost less than others, but usually cPanel is anywhere from 20-30$ A month more.

Thanks RyanL for replying, honestly I thought it would cost more for Cpanel. I think the price is fair so I will probably tell him to go for that. Also it's the most used apparently so have to keep in with the times.

Also checkout DirectAdmin.com , about 29.00/month very stable and secure control panel

Cpanel is what most of our clients use. There are a good number of reliable control panels though. Any of the bigger ones do a good job of keeping updated and secure.

Plesk is a paid control panel, but, they have a free one-email & one-domain version that is default when you install it without a license key. After that, you just add a license key and upgrade your limits (starts at ~$200).

Plesk, cPanel and DirectAdmin are the three worth looking at imo. The pricing for control panels will usually always be cheaper from the server supplier ('internal rates') rather than the 'external retail rates' - e.g. cPanel is $20-30 per month from dedicated server suppliers when purchased with a server, but, if you are buying a license elsewhere, expect to pay around $50/mo

Jade,

The only free control panel on the top of my head is Webmin, but it's a confusnig control panel IMHO.

Great Information, I really did think it would cost more for control panels. But I suppose when you have several clients paying around $6 probably even less, it soon pays it's self off.

Also I was starting to think there wasn't any free ones!

When it comes to control panels, you get what you pay for. Free ones have a hard time keeping up with security and updates in general since they don't generate the revenue to support a coding team like cpanel or some of the other bigger panels have.

I agree with what you have said, I have found this to be the case with many scripts plus other things. I will pass all this information on to my friend as it has been very helpful!

I'm still shocked at how cheap Cpanel is!

There are a couple of choices for free CP's, but they are generally lacking in control features. You can go to www.hotscripts.com and look under PHP>Scripts and Programs>WebHosting Tools, there you'll find a few options for free CP's.
The best CP's however, are the ones you pay for. In my opinion cPanel is the best!

Thats for a perpetual license which seems to represent very poor value for money ($500 to renew support & access to updates per year) when compared to a yearly license ($450 or so). Other options available include a monthly license at $40-50 depending on any offers on, or, the cheapest option is where your datacenter can provide you with a license - generally for $20-40 per month, a significant saving off the published cPanel rates

All depends on what type of hosting your doing. If its Reseller WHM and cPanel you dont pay for. You pay for the hosting package itself.

If your only using one site and is windows you can use helm lite i believe it's called free

you can get a free 30 domain CubePanel from http://www.cubepanel.com/download/index.htm and later update to the full version if needed.