The recent hike in cPanel pricing has dropped a bombshell on all its direct customers and partners. A few of them are even looking for cPanel alternatives.
cPanel latest license cost is based on the number of accounts as compared to their previous per-server pricing model.
Say no to annual licenses and discounts. Your annual accounts will be converted to monthly billing as they come up for renewal. The cPanel pricing change will be applicable from September 1, 2019.
Gone are the days, when you could host unlimited domains on 1 cPanel licensed server.
Who will be affected by the cPanel price update?
New cPanel pricing will be applicable to all the cPanel partners, store customers and distributors. cPanel’s pricing and licensing structure will now be the same for all the customers and will include multiple Tiers.
cPanel Pricing Earlier Vs cPanel Pricing Now
cPanel Pricing Earlier
- $15/month for VPS/Cloud- Unlimited Users & Domains.
- $35/month for Dedicated- Unlimited Users & Domains.
- Discounted annual billing option for VPS and Dedicated servers.
- cPanel solo option was available for both cloud and dedicated hosting.
cPanel Pricing Now
- If you have 1000 domains hosted on VPS/Cloud earlier, you were billed just 20$ per month. But now you will be billed $225. That is 10X more. It is Insane!
- No discounted annual billing option for VPS and Dedicated servers.
- cPanel solo, admin and pro options are available for only cloud hosting.
- If your website is hosted on dedicated servers, you can only go for premier hosting.
cPanel Pricing Vs ServerGuy Pricing
We know that cPanel price increase has hit you hard. But it will hurt less if you decide to cPanel license from us as we are their official partners.
If you buy directly from cPanel website
| Cpanel Account Tiers | Accounts | Pricing per month |
| Solo | 1 Account | $15 |
| Admin | Up to 5 Accounts | $25 |
| Pro | Up to 30 Accounts | $30 |
| Premiere | Up to 100 Accounts | $45 |
| Premiere | Every additional account after 100 | $0.20 |
If you buy cPanel from ServerGuy
| Cpanel Account Tiers | Accounts | Pricing per month |
| Solo | 1 Account | $14.7 |
| Admin | Up to 5 Accounts | $12.50 |
| Pro | Up to 30 Accounts | $17.50 |
| Premiere | Up to 100 Accounts | $32 |
| Premiere | Every additional account after 100 | $0.10 |
Impact of cPanel Price Change on Partners & Direct Customers
If you are on Twitter, search for cPanel and you will see massive backlash cPanel is facing due to its change in pricing and licensing structure. If you also want to become a part of the discussion and share your opinion or experience, then you can visit Web Hosting Talk and Reddit.
One of the main reasons behind the increase in cPanel pricing is that it has been acquired by a group led by Oakley Capital. To understand how this price change will affect you, let’s find out below:-
cPanel Partners
- Account-based pricing will require additional effort. Therefore, cPanel will be offering implementation support to its partners.
- WHMCS currently doesn’t support the new pricing model of cPanel.
- Partners will have to take care of cPanel license billing every month as the option of annual payment will no longer be available.
- If you are not a WHMCS customer, then cPanel will provide you up to 12 months of no-cost WHMCS license to implement a new cPanel & WHM hosting pricing model.
- In case a customer fails to pay for their cPanel license, Partners will be able to request a service credit for up to 1 month.
- Introduction of fixed price cPanel Premier Packages starting with 100 account licenses.
Direct Customers
- cPanel solo licenses for direct customers will be available at $15/month on cloud-only.
- Dedicated server users can’t buy solo licenses.
- we will no longer convert existing cPanel Solo licenses to the Admin package.
- cPanel is planning to make the partner application process simple for its direct customers.
- cPanel partner requirements for developing economies are going to decline.
How to deal with cPanel Price Rise?
Migrate to cPanel Alternatives
If you don’t want to continue with cPanel due to the change in pricing and licensing model, then you can migrate to its alternatives such as Plesk, DirectAdmin, and Interworx or any other Open Source Control Panel.
It depends on various factors such as:-
- Type & number of applications running on the server
- Nature & size of accounts
- Features & User interface
- Technical & Billing support
- Operating systems
- Backups & Security
Now, the main question is Which control panel is best for you?
Plesk
- Plesk is compatible with both Linux and Window servers; while cPanel functions only with Linux servers.
- It has a user interface similar to WordPress.
- You can download Plesk App and access it via smartphone.
- Automated healing and recovery functionality to resolve technical issues without needing skilled support.
- You can call or chat with them 24*7 without paying any fee (cPanel Charges $65 for the same).
- Automated Backups
Learn more about Plesk Vs cPanel here
DirectAdmin
- You can host unlimited domains on DirectAdmin.
- You can choose from monthly and yearly pricing.
- Light-weight control panel.
- It is not considered a suitable option for Windows hosting.
- You cannot install third-party applications like WordPress, Joomla, etc. via 1-click.
Interworx
- A simple platform for both basic and advanced users.
- Similar to the cPanel and WHM interface, Interworx also has 2 interfaces, Nodeworx and Siteworx.
- You can choose from monthly and yearly pricing.
Deleting Unused Accounts
Earlier, there was no restriction on using the number of cPanel accounts on a single server, so you could afford to keep unused accounts.
But now, you have to pay on the basis of the number of accounts, you have to let them go to save on your cPanel licensing cost.
