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My server count is lower. Three boxes versus Richard's scattered three plans. My support overhead is less. My power bill is less. My headache is less.
But sure, focus on the cash thing. Some of us don't trust PayPal.
Anyone looked at Enhance? New panel, monthly pricing per server not per account. Built for hosting resellers specifically.
Too new for 800 accounts probably. But worth a watch.
Tried the beta. Nice interface, missing basic features like custom PHP versions per site. Maybe in 2026.
Not production for shared hosting yet.
Back to Richard's actual question: is cPanel worth it?
At $380/month for 800 accounts, that's $0.475 per account. Your customers are probably paying you $3-10/month each. The panel is 5-15% of revenue.
If migration costs you even 2% churn, that's 16 customers. At $5/month that's $960 lost annual recurring. Versus $4560 saved on license.
Math says migrate if you can stomach the work.
Optimistic. Hosting migration churn is 5-8% in my experience, even with good communication. People panic when their email stops working for an hour.
Richard's real cost is customer service time, not license fee.
Math also says I spend 6 hours a day for 3 weeks on migration tasks, or I spend that time acquiring customers. Opportunity cost cuts both ways.
I'm not asking if I should migrate. I'm asking if cPanel is still worth it at these prices. The answer seems to be "only if migration is more expensive," which is a hostage situation, like Doug said.
Still reading. Still hoping someone changed my mind.
Following.
Did the DirectAdmin migration. 320 accounts. 6 weeks of prep, 2 weeks of pain, 4% churn. Saved $180/month on license.
Broke even at month 14. Would do again but not with 800. At 800 I'd need staff I don't have.
This is the number Richard needs. 14 months to break even on a 320-account migration. Scale that to 800 and you're looking at 18-24 months with more complexity.
cPanel knows this. That's why they raised prices gradually instead of all at once.
Newbie question: why not just raise prices $0.50/account and pass the cPanel cost through?
Sorry if this was covered.
