Short answer: Choose Plesk if you need Windows Server and IIS, a single interface for the server owner and site owners, or flat per-server pricing. Plesk Web Host is $62.99 a month on a VPS with unlimited domains. Choose cPanel if your customers or resellers expect cPanel and WHM, or you want the Exim-based stack most Linux shared hosts run. Budget for its per-account pricing: Premier is $69.99 for 100 accounts plus $0.49 for each extra account. Both include WP Toolkit, run on AlmaLinux 8 to 10 and Ubuntu 24.04, and have their own tools for migrating in either direction.
cPanel details were checked on our lab server (cPanel & WHM 11.138 on AlmaLinux 9.8, lab1) on 7 October 2026. Plesk details come from the Plesk pricing page, system requirements and documentation (linked below), checked the same day. We have not run Plesk on our lab servers.
Table of Contents
Price and licensing editions
Prices last checked: 7 October 2026, on cPanel pricing and Plesk pricing. Both list prices exclude VAT. Plesk shows US dollars to US visitors and euros in the eurozone, and hosting providers sell both panels at their own prices.
| Licence | Limit | Monthly | Billed annually (per month) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cPanel Solo | 1 account | $29.99 | $27.46 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Admin | 5 accounts | $35.99 | $32.96 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Pro | 30 accounts | $53.99 | $49.46 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Premier | 100 accounts, then $0.49 each | $69.99 | Monthly only | VPS or dedicated |
| Plesk Web Admin | 10 domains | $16.99 | $15.57 | No customer account management |
| Plesk Web Pro | 30 domains | $29.99 | $27.49 | Accounts and subscriptions, no resellers |
| Plesk Web Host | Unlimited domains | $62.99 VPS / $69.99 dedicated | $57.74 / $64.16 | Resellers included |
The models are different. cPanel bills by cPanel accounts, and reseller accounts count too. Plesk bills each server by edition, and each edition has a domain limit. Plesk’s licensing FAQ says VPS and dedicated licences have the same features. Only Web Host is priced higher on dedicated servers.
At 500 accounts on one server, cPanel costs $69.99 + 400 × $0.49 = $265.99 a month, and Plesk Web Host still costs $62.99 on a VPS. At 20 sites, cPanel Pro ($53.99) and Plesk Web Pro ($29.99) are much closer. Our cPanel licensing guide explains how cPanel counts billable accounts.
The Plesk edition matters more than the domain count. According to the pricing page comparison:
- Web Admin has the “power user” view and WP Toolkit SE (a limited edition), but no account or subscription management, so you cannot sell hosting to customers with it. DNSSEC and the PostgreSQL and MSSQL management modules are paid add-ons on this edition.
- Web Pro adds full WP Toolkit, subscription and account management, the Service Provider view, Restricted Mode and the Cgroups resource manager.
- Web Host adds reseller management and removes the domain limit.
- In every edition, the Developer Pack, Premium Email by Kolab, Plesk Email Security, email antivirus and WP Guardian are paid add-ons.
Windows and IIS: Plesk only
cPanel runs only on Linux. Plesk has a Windows edition, and according to Plesk’s system requirements it supports Windows Server 2025, 2022, 2019 and 2016 (Standard, Datacenter and Essentials, including Server Core). On Windows, Plesk manages:
- IIS as the web server, with the IIS URL Rewrite module and several PHP versions.
- Microsoft SQL Server alongside MariaDB and MySQL. The installer can install SQL Server for you if it is not already present.
- MailEnable (Standard 10.59 is supplied) or SmarterMail for email.
- Microsoft DNS Server for DNS.
The Windows edition has limits. It must be installed on NTFS, needs a static IP configured first and cannot run on a domain controller. Plesk’s requirements also note that on Windows Server 2025, Microsoft DNS cannot load HTTPS and CAA records, so Plesk cannot create them there. The pricing page does not list a separate Windows price, so ask Plesk or your provider which licence covers a Windows server.
If you host MSSQL-backed or other Windows applications next to PHP sites, Plesk is the only one of the two that manages them in the same panel.
WordPress: WP Toolkit on both, with an edition catch
Plesk develops WP Toolkit, and cPanel ships it too. The cPanel pricing page lists WP Toolkit among the features in every plan, from Solo to Premier. On Plesk, Web Pro and Web Host include the full WP Toolkit, and Web Admin gets only WP Toolkit SE, a limited edition.
In practice, an agency moving a handful of WordPress sites onto a VPS should compare cPanel Admin or Pro with Plesk Web Pro, not Web Admin, if it relies on WP Toolkit features beyond the basics. cPanel also sells WP Squared, a separate WordPress-only product at $84.99 a month for 10 sites plus $0.40 for each additional site.
Feature-by-feature comparison (Linux)
| Area | cPanel & WHM | Plesk Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Interfaces | WHM for root and resellers, cPanel for each account, Webmail | One panel with views: Power User, Service Provider (Web Pro and Web Host) and Restricted Mode |
| Linux OS support | AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | AlmaLinux 8 to 10, Rocky 8, RHEL 8 and 9, CloudLinux 7 to 9, Debian 10 to 13, Ubuntu 18.04 to 26.04 (older releases only under paid ELS or until listed end dates) |
| Web server | Apache 2.4 (EasyApache 4). NGINX with Reverse Proxy as an option. LiteSpeed through LiteSpeed’s plugin | nginx (supplied by Plesk) with Apache 2.4 |
| Exim and Dovecot, Roundcube, SpamAssassin | Postfix (most OSes) or qmail, Roundcube, SpamAssassin | |
| DNS | PowerDNS (default) or BIND. BIND is not available on Ubuntu | BIND |
| Databases | MariaDB or MySQL, PostgreSQL | MariaDB or MySQL. PostgreSQL management module in Web Pro and Web Host |
| Backups | Local, Amazon S3, S3-compatible, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, FTP, SFTP, Rsync, WebDAV. Incremental option | Backup Manager with incremental backups. Remote storage on FTP, Amazon S3, S3-compatible, Google Drive or OneDrive |
| Resellers | Yes, in every tier, and they count as accounts | Web Host only |
| API and CLI | UAPI and WHM API 1. whmapi1 and uapi on the CLI | REST and XML APIs. plesk bin utilities on the CLI |
| Minimum RAM | 2 GB (4 GB recommended, 3 GB or more with ClamAV) | 1 GB plus 1 GB swap on Linux, 2 GB on Windows |
The cPanel column was checked against lab1. There, /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupnameserver --current returned Current nameserver type: powerdns, and Exim 4.100.1, Dovecot 2.4.5, Apache 2.4.69 and MariaDB 10.11 were the running versions. Plesk’s remote backup targets come from its remote storage documentation. Plesk allows only one S3-compatible storage at a time.
Day-to-day administration
cPanel separates roles strictly. Root and resellers work in WHM, and each customer works in their own cPanel. That suits shared and reseller hosting, where customers have learned cPanel elsewhere and support teams can follow published cPanel documentation.
Plesk puts server management and site management in one panel and changes what you see by view and permissions. Agencies and developers who manage their own sites often find that simpler. Hosting companies use the Service Provider view to sell plans and subscriptions.
Both panels are WebPros products, and both support CloudLinux as an operating system. Before you switch, check that each add-on you rely on (security, backups, LiteSpeed) has a version for the other panel. Whichever you choose, harden it. See hardening a shared cPanel server, and on Plesk, the outbound mail relay steps in MailBaby on Plesk.
Migrating between cPanel and Plesk
Plesk to cPanel: WHM’s Transfer Tool connects to the Plesk server as root over SSH and pulls its accounts across. On our 11.138 lab, Plesk is one of the Transfer Tool’s remote server types. Its packaging scripts dump the Plesk databases and users along with the files and mail.
cPanel to Plesk: install the Plesk Migrator extension on the new Plesk server. The Plesk migration guide lists cPanel 11.5 and later as a supported source. Plesk’s release-note requirements list cPanel 64 and later.
Neither tool moves everything. Server-wide mail settings, custom Apache or nginx includes, cron jobs that rely on panel-specific paths and DNS templates usually need to be redone by hand. The step-by-step version, with exclusions and checks, is in Migrate Plesk to cPanel (and cPanel to Plesk). Before a move off cPanel, run the cPanel migration preflight check to list what each account uses.
Which one to choose
- Plesk: Windows/IIS or MSSQL hosting; agencies managing their own client sites; a WordPress workflow built on full WP Toolkit; Debian servers; or more than 30 sites per server, where Plesk Web Host’s flat $62.99 on a VPS undercuts cPanel Premier’s $69.99, and the gap grows by $0.49 for every account above 100.
- cPanel: shared or reseller hosting where customers expect cPanel; an Exim and PowerDNS stack that matches your existing servers; small VPS servers where Solo or Admin is enough; or a team already trained on WHM.
- If neither the Windows features nor the cPanel brand matter, also look at DirectAdmin, whose Standard licence is $29 a month with no account limit.
Official documentation: Plesk pricing · Plesk system requirements · cPanel pricing · Plesk migration guide
Related: Migrate Plesk to cPanel (and cPanel to Plesk): Tools and Limits · Plesk AlmaLinux 10: Supported Version and What Is Missing · cPanel Pricing 2026: Licensing Explained Without Mistakes · Ubuntu vs AlmaLinux cPanel 2026: Best OS for a New Server · cPanel Migration Preflight Check
See also: Hosting Control Panel Pricing 2026: cPanel vs DirectAdmin vs Plesk · cPanel vs DirectAdmin (2026): Price, Features and Migration · DirectAdmin vs Plesk (2026): Cost, Features, Migration · Best cPanel Alternatives in 2026: Free and Paid Panels Compared
Frequently asked questions
Is Plesk cheaper than cPanel?
For servers with many accounts, yes. Plesk Web Host is $62.99 a month on a VPS with unlimited domains. cPanel Premier is $69.99 for 100 accounts plus $0.49 for each extra account. For a few sites the gap is smaller: Plesk Web Pro is $29.99 and cPanel Admin is $35.99.
Does cPanel run on Windows?
No. cPanel and WHM run only on Linux (AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux and Ubuntu 24.04). For Windows Server and IIS, Plesk is the option.
Which Plesk edition do I need for hosting customers?
Web Pro at least, because Web Admin has no account or subscription management. Web Host is needed for resellers or more than 30 domains.
Do both panels include WP Toolkit?
Yes. cPanel lists WP Toolkit in every plan. On Plesk, Web Pro and Web Host include the full WP Toolkit and Web Admin gets the limited SE edition.
Can I move sites from Plesk to cPanel automatically?
Yes. WHM’s Transfer Tool supports Plesk as a remote source and needs root SSH access to the Plesk server. Custom server settings still need to be recreated by hand.
Are cPanel and Plesk the same company?
Both are part of WebPros, but they remain separate products with separate licences, codebases and documentation.