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cPanel price hikes saved low-end hosting

Reviews by jane_ffm 6 replies 541 views
jane_ffm

Member OP

#1

I know, I know — please hear me out before the torches come out.

When cPanel shifted to account-based licensing in 2019, the outcry was immediate. Our phones rang for weeks. But looking back at 2024-2025, something unexpected happened.

  • DirectAdmin went from "that other panel" to genuinely competitive
  • Custom panels (KnownHost's in-house, Hetzner's fork) became viable differentiators
  • Providers finally invested in UX instead of $11/cPanel license arbitrage

The forced exodus hurt. I will not minimize that. We migrated 800 customers in 90 days and I did not sleep well.

But our post-migration support ticket volume? Down 34%. DirectAdmin's API, once you adapt, is cleaner for automation. Our custom integration with OVHcloud's billing stack took two weeks, not two months.

The "cPanel standard" was comfortable. It was also stagnant.

I am curious whether others who made the jump have similar data — or if I am rationalizing trauma. Happy to share our migration runbook via DM.

— Jane @ Contabo

Single mode till I die 💀
minhdock

Member

#2
jane_ffm said:
Forced exodus hurt

I wemember the lice shock very much

1. We pay 4x now for what? No past tense issue
2. DirectAdmin lice is simple, I give you that
3. My friend in vn now wun 2000 account on DA, no pwoblem

The change make me cwy but now I smile. Very much

GeorgeNmp

Member

AS64512

#3
jane_ffm said:
Post-migration support ticket volume? Down 34%

Correlation without control for confounding variables. Did you account for:

  • Customer churn (self-selection: technical users stayed, casuals left)
  • Panel-specific support paths (cPanel's ticket deflection vs. DA's documentation)
  • Seasonal baseline — Q2-Q3 2019 vs. 2024 traffic patterns

Your BGP communities to OVHcloud's anycast still route through the same transit, Jane. The panel did not fix your RPKI invalids, which I note you had in March — https://status.ovhcloud.com.

That said, IRR filtering on your new ASN is cleaner. I checked.

iBGP, eBGP, don't care, just peer
nate_pad

Member

4 #4

Is DirectAdmin harder than cpanel? I just got my first vps from Vultr and it has something called "custom panel" and im lost. Sorry if dumb question

lee_mcr

Member

#5
nate_pad said:
Something called "custom panel"

It Is Not The Directadmin.

The Vps Panel Can Be Very Confusing. I Am Thinking You Should Ask For The Tutorial.

The Custom Panel Has No Softaculous. Very Sad.

Honey badger don't care... about downtime
netop_mares

Member

#6

Saved low-end hosting, Jane? Or just shifted costs to users.

FyreJun

Member

#7

Which DirectAdmin version handles those 2000 accounts?

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