XFCE Panel vs Plank
When comparing XFCE Panel vs Plank, the Slant community recommends Plank for most people. In the question“What is the best panel/dock for Linux?” Plank is ranked 1st while XFCE Panel is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Plank is:
Plank is a good choice for those looking for something simple that just does its job well. There is no UI for options built in to the dock as to change anything those options will have to be accessed through a text file.
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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 Simple and minimal
Plank is a good choice for those looking for something simple that just does its job well. There is no UI for options built in to the dock as to change anything those options will have to be accessed through a text file.
Pro Solid and lightweight
Pro Third party themer available
An additional third party app has been developed that allows theming the dock without the use of any extra resources. This is great for those that are not using elementary OS and the elementary tweaks extra.
Cons
Con No right click menu for some apps outside of elementary OS
Other file explorers and terminals (those not found in the default elementary OS) do not have any right click menus for the dock meaning it is impossible to launch multiple windows for certain file explorers or terminals.
Con Poor workplace awareness (cycling windows)
When configured to only show apps on current workspace, cycling an app open on multiple workspaces will switch workspace focus, update the dock and often leave you to cycle another app.