When comparing XFCE Panel vs DockbarX, the Slant community recommends DockbarX for most people. In the question“What is the best panel/dock for Linux?” DockbarX is ranked 4th while XFCE Panel is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose DockbarX is:
DockbarX has an available plugin called "DockBarX Xfce4 Panel plugin" that allows DockbarX to blend in seamlessly with the XFCE4 panel, which is great for XFCE users due to the limited options of the default panel.
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Pros
Pro Highly customizable
You can create as many panels as you want at any place you want and it even suports plugins
Pro No need to configure colors manually
XFCE panel looks according to the currently selected GTK theme, so there is no need to configure its colors manually.
Pro Great plugin to help blend in to XFCE4 panel
DockbarX has an available plugin called "DockBarX Xfce4 Panel plugin" that allows DockbarX to blend in seamlessly with the XFCE4 panel, which is great for XFCE users due to the limited options of the default panel.
Pro Easily customized
DockbarX has inbuilt settings that allow the user to easily customize the look of the dock, from changing the text color to the background color.
Pro Easily the best Win 7 taskbar functionality
If you want a combined launcher/manager, a la Win 7, this is it.
Cons
Con Not actively updated
Less than a dozen updates since 2014: https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx/commits/master