cPanel price hike made me learn DirectAdmin

So cPanel decided my wallet needed a diet. $480/year now for a solo license? No thanks. I spent last weekend migrating everything to DirectAdmin on a fresh KnownHost VPS. Figured I'd document the pain for anyone else facing the same sticker shock.

The good stuff:

• Interface is snappier than I expected, loads in under a second
• Backup restoration actually worked without the usual cPanel dance
• Softaculous still there, so my WordPress clients didn't riot

The gaps:

• No built-in Git deployment (had to script it myself)
• Email filtering UI feels like 2008
• DNS cluster sync is manual

I was ready to hate it honestly. Two weeks in and I'm not rushing back. Saved $400/year even after paying KnownHost's managed fee.

Screenshots attached: DA dashboard vs my old cPanel invoice. The invoice hurts more.

Anyone else made the jump? What broke?

Git deployment gap is why I stayed on Hestia for Django.