cPanel Price Increase?

[Jim McClain]

Last week I got an email from KnownHost about some changes to be made:

I am writing this email to you today to bring your attention to a few changes that have happened in the web hosting industry as well as to disclose to you the path and future that KnownHost has embraced. As many of you may be aware, on June 27th, 2019 cPanel announced a massive shift in how license prices were calculated and how cPanel licenses were sold swapping to an 'account based license'. During this process, cPanel also initiated a provision in our contract that allowed them to invalidate the previous pricing agreement which was negotiated to lock in prices until September 2023. It would be an understatement to say this change has created quite a shock across the web hosting community in general. Since this announcement we have worked tirelessly with cPanel in an attempt to either reverse or mitigate the impact on our customers as much as possible. Sadly, cPanel, now owned by a venture capital investment firm, has made few changes and little concessions when it comes to the pricing of their product.

Due to these changes, KnownHost will experience close to a three hundred percent increase in license fees associated with cPanel. Due to the way licenses are now being provisioned, this also means some individual licenses could experience an increase of 600 percent or more. Quite frankly, KnownHost does not agree with the drastic pricing increase initiated by cPanel and has chosen to absorb the majority of the change for all existing customers. While we would like to tell you that your prices will not change at all, sadly we cannot do so. To survive as a viable company we must pass on some of the increased charges we have received, and we have done our best to keep these changes as modest and straightforward as possible. So the pricing changes will be as follows.

• On your next invoice renewal after November 1st, 2019 all cPanel VPS customers will experience a $6 per month increase in your cPanel license fee. If cPanel is included with your VPS, as some of our offerings have, a new $6 charge will be added.

• On your next invoice renewal after November 1st, 2019 all cPanel Dedicated server customers will experience a $12 per month increase in your cPanel license fee.

At this time we will not impose any restrictions on how you use cPanel or how many accounts you create on your server, however, we will adjust your VPS or Dedicated server to the closest practical account limit license. Should you need a higher limit license activated on your VPS, simply send a message to our sales and billing team and we will increase the license level free of charge for all existing customers.

We also want to make everyone aware that we have current, and future options to help you avoid these additional charges. We have always supported DirectAdmin as a managed alternative to cPanel. We are now offering free of charge migrations to any customer who wishes to take advantage of swapping to DirectAdmin. Due to the the expected demand for migrations to be so large, we will waive the cPanel price increase for anyone who wishes to migrate to the DirectAdmin control panel as long as your migration is completed prior to January 2020. In preparation for this we have been expanding our public knowledge base to provide more in depth information about DirectAdmin. Please check out our new article comparing DirectAdmin to cPanel here: https://www.knownhost.com/wiki/control-panels/comparison/directadmin-vs-cpanel-comparison . One great thing to note about DirectAdmin is it fully supports some of the great software products that you're already familiar with using on cPanel. It has full Softaculous integration as well as LiteSpeed and CloudLinux integrations!

What happens if you want to keep cPanel and keep your price the same? Well, believe it or not, we are exploring options for you as well. Based on the feedback we receive from this email we may release a high-end semi-dedicated platform. This platform would be based on some new technology we are implementing at the end of this year and would be defined as a semi-dedicated hosting platform at a price point similar to our current Managed VPS lineup. We can also offer enhanced features to you on this platform such as LiteSpeed, CloudLinux, Immunify360, Jetbackup and more for a substantial discount over VPS and Dedicated server pricing as well.

Have any of you, whether from KnownHost or some other hosting provider, received a notification like this?

I have a dedicated server with 4 accounts, each with their own cPanel. Not sure if I should be shopping, or stick with KnownHost. I have only ever used cPanel, so no experience with DirectAdmin or any other control panel.

 

[MagicalAzareal]

I usually use SSH for getting things done, although it does lack some convieniences.

 

[Paul M]

I usually use SSH for getting things done, although it does lack some convieniences.

Ditto.
Sounds like cpanel are pricing themselves out of the market.
I've not used a control panel since the late 2000's (when I used Plesk).

 

[Jim McClain]

Not using a control panel is out of the question. I don't have the knowledge or experience to manage my server without a CP. Please don't let this discussion devolve into CP vs. no-CP. Thank you.

 

[Kevin]

Last week I got an email from KnownHost about some changes to be made:

Have any of you, whether from KnownHost or some other hosting provider, received a notification like this?

My VPS is with KnownHost and I got the same email notice.

I have a dedicated server with 4 accounts, each with their own cPanel. Not sure if I should be shopping, or stick with KnownHost. I have only ever used cPanel, so no experience with DirectAdmin or any other control panel.

From reading their blog post comparing cPanel and DirectAdmin I think that short term I'll eat the cost of the extra charge but then eventually switch to DirectAdmin. I prepay for the server annually instead of monthly and it's coming up for renewal this month so I don't want to be changing control panels without much time to really dig into it.

KnownHost has been pretty solid for me in terms of reliability & support so this alone isn't enough for me to consider switching to somebody else.

 

[LeadCrow]

cPanel raising costs by 300% will be a boon for Plesk.

 

[zappaDPJ]

cPanel raising costs by 300% will be a boon for Plesk.

Unfortunately cPanel and Plesk are both owned by the same private equity investor, Oakley Capital. They have also acquired through Plesk, SolusVM a provider of VPS management software.

 

[LeadCrow]

I was aware both shared ownership but initially assumed the plan was to run them with different steategies suiting premium and budget users alike.
Funny how in late 2017 Plesk also raised its prices as high as this summer with cPanel

 

[JonathanW]

Jim McClain for transparency, I work at KnownHost.

We tried to keep the increase as reasonable as possible. Over the years we've ate several increases from cPanel without passing them on to customers but this one is simply too much to bear and this can be seen across the hosting industry.

Plesk is indeed owned by the same VC conglomerate which is why we're now recommending DirectAdmin, and actively moving people to DA. I'd say 95% of people who have migrated have been quite pleased with it and about 5% have opted to go back/stay with cPanel after their migration.

PS - keep yours ears open for the impending email with further updates about the new datacenter and dedicated servers. You're going to get some hefty upgrade offers at no cost to you with an entirely new management system for them with tons of new bells and whistles

 

[zappaDPJ]

Welcome to TAZ JonathanW

 

[JonathanW]

Welcome to TAZ JonathanW

Thanks! Daniel has had an account here for a while I believe and I just never got around to making one but I've been lurking for a while Another user of ours actually pointed out this thread to me.

 

[Andro]

Another user of ours actually pointed out this thread to me.

Welcome to TAZ, JonathanW.

 

[overcast]

At this rate, I am sure there will be some sort of open source solution that may soon people will be migrating too. We just need someone to do it.

 

[JonathanW]

At this rate, I am sure there will be some sort of open source solution that may soon people will be migrating too. We just need someone to do it.

I wish, but I kind of doubt it. Attempts at such things are usually riddled with security vulnerabilities and end up abandoned. Too many people want too many different things.

I think cPanel has triggered what will become a vast split up of market share. DirectAdmin is getting a lot right now, but there are also others stepping up and I think over the next few years we'll see cPanel drop as king supreme in market share and I don't know that a single panel will take that crown again honestly, which is good for the industry as a whole but developers will have to work harder to make moving from other platforms to their own easier.

 

[Kevin]

PS - keep yours ears open for the impending email with further updates about the new datacenter and dedicated servers. You're going to get some hefty upgrade offers at no cost to you with an entirely new management system for them with tons of new bells and whistles

Anything that'll tempt me if I'm already on Cloud-3?

 

[JonathanW]

Anything that'll tempt me if I'm already on Cloud-3?

Cloud is getting some beefy upgrades as well. It will be the first product line to move to the new DC actually. The migrations will start ramping up for cloud within the next month. The new storage platform for Cloud is absolutely incredible and translates to huge speed improvements!

What you'll find with our new dedicated offerings is much more affordable hardware upgrades and entry-level servers. When adding on management they'll be similar price points to what we have now, but for better hardware with more reasonable upgrade options and flexibility. Oh yeah, and gigabit ports for all dedis with no upcharge, as well as a private networking port.

EDIT: dedis will also have full access to IPMI, power controls, an HTML5 console, OS reloads, etc.

 

[Jim McClain]

Thanks JonathanW. I'm still not sure what my server costs will be if I stick with cPanel; that wasn't very clear in the email. But I'm an old guy and change is difficult for most people and even more so for old people. One of the reasons I like KnownHost so much is the managed services and support I get. I've been with half a dozen different hosts over the last 15 or 20 years and I KnownHost is the only one I have come back to. Since I rely so much on the management of KH (and I've paid MattW to work his magic before), maybe switching to DirectAdmin wouldn't be the problem for me that I worry it will.

I'll also keep my eyes peeled for the upgrade offers. While I generally like free stuff, I don't if it's just fluff I don't really need.

 

[JonathanW]

Jim McClain it's good stuff, not just fluff. All new and better hardware, etc.

The gist of it is that your price will go up by $12/mo if you stick with cPanel. To pay that or swap to DA is totally up to you. This $12 only partially covers the increase we saw from cPanel

 

[Jim McClain]

The gist of it is that your price will go up by $12/mo if you stick with cPanel. To pay that or swap to DA is totally up to you. This $12 only partially covers the increase we saw from cPanel

But I have 5 accounts, each with their own cPanel and I have 2 more IP addresses that could be used for 2 more accounts. This is why I was confused. Is it a $12 increase for each account that uses a cPanel, or just for the single dedi. If the latter, 12 bucks isn't that big a deal.

 

[JonathanW]

But I have 5 accounts, each with their own cPanel and I have 2 more IP addresses that could be used for 2 more accounts. This is why I was confused. Is it a $12 increase for each account that uses a cPanel, or just for the single dedi. If the latter, 12 bucks isn't that big a deal.

Just $12 for the entire server.