Short answer: On the vendors’ own pricing pages today, cPanel runs from $29.99 a month (1 account) to $69.99 a month for Premier (100 accounts, then $0.49 for each extra account). DirectAdmin costs $5, $15 or $29 a month, and the $29 Standard licence has no account or domain limit. Plesk prices by edition and domain count: $16.99, $29.99 or $62.99 a month on a VPS ($69.99 for Web Host on a dedicated server). At 10 accounts the gap is small: $29 for DirectAdmin, $29.99 for Plesk Web Pro and $53.99 for cPanel Pro. At 1,000 accounts on one server, cPanel costs $510.99 a month, Plesk Web Host $62.99 and DirectAdmin $29.
Prices were read from the cPanel, DirectAdmin and Plesk pricing pages on 7 October 2026 (linked below). We ran the account-count commands on our lab servers on the same day: cPanel & WHM 11.138 on AlmaLinux 9.8 (lab1) and DirectAdmin 1.712 on AlmaLinux 9.8 (da1). Plesk was not run on our labs. All prices are retail list prices in US dollars, excluding VAT.
Table of Contents
List prices at a glance
Prices last checked: 7 October 2026, on cPanel pricing, DirectAdmin pricing and Plesk pricing. Plesk sets the currency from your location. A US visitor sees dollars, and eurozone visitors see euros (Web Host VPS is 52.99€ a month). Hosting providers and distributors set their own prices, which are often lower than these list prices.
| Panel and tier | What the licence allows | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Server type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cPanel Solo | 1 account | $29.99 | $27.46 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Admin | Up to 5 accounts | $35.99 | $32.96 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Pro | Up to 30 accounts | $53.99 | $49.46 | Cloud/VPS only |
| cPanel Premier | 100 accounts, then $0.49 per extra account | $69.99 | Billed monthly | VPS or dedicated |
| DirectAdmin Personal PLUS | 2 accounts, 20 domains | $5 | Not listed | VPS or dedicated |
| DirectAdmin Lite | 10 accounts, 50 domains | $15 | Not listed | VPS or dedicated |
| DirectAdmin Standard | Unlimited accounts and domains | $29 | Not listed | VPS or dedicated |
| Plesk Web Admin | 10 domains | $16.99 | $15.57 | VPS or dedicated, same price |
| Plesk Web Pro | 30 domains | $29.99 | $27.49 | VPS or dedicated, same price |
| Plesk Web Host (VPS) | Unlimited domains | $62.99 | $57.74 | VPS |
| Plesk Web Host (dedicated) | Unlimited domains | $69.99 | $64.16 | Dedicated |
cPanel also sells WP Squared, a WordPress-only product, for $84.99 a month with 10 sites and $0.40 for each extra site. It is not a cPanel & WHM licence, so we leave it out of the totals below.
How cPanel per-account pricing scales
cPanel charges by the number of cPanel accounts on the server. Its pricing FAQ defines an account as a cPanel user that manages websites, files, domains and email, and says WHM reseller accounts count too. Solo, Admin and Pro have fixed caps and are sold only for cloud or VPS servers. On a dedicated (Metal) server, the smallest retail licence is Premier, even if you host only five sites.
Premier includes 100 accounts for $69.99. Each account above 100 adds $0.49 a month, so the bill grows in a straight line once you pass 100:
| Accounts on one server | Arithmetic | Monthly licence | Per account |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $69.99 | $69.99 | $0.70 |
| 200 | $69.99 + 100 × $0.49 | $118.99 | $0.59 |
| 500 | $69.99 + 400 × $0.49 | $265.99 | $0.53 |
| 1,000 | $69.99 + 900 × $0.49 | $510.99 | $0.51 |
Each server has its own $69.99 base, so moving accounts onto fewer servers always cuts the cPanel bill. Five servers with 200 accounts each cost 5 × $118.99 = $594.95 a month. One server with the same 1,000 accounts costs $510.99. The catch is risk: more accounts on one server means more customers hit by a single outage or a root-level bug.
To see the number cPanel bills you for, run this on the server. On our lab1 server it returned the three WordPress test accounts:
whmapi1 get_current_users_count---
data:
users: 3
metadata:
command: get_current_users_count
reason: OK
result: 1
version: 1Our cPanel licensing guide covers distributor licences and auditing billed accounts. The cPanel account inventory script lists every account per server, so you can spot old accounts you are still paying for.
How DirectAdmin and Plesk count
DirectAdmin charges a flat price per server. Only Personal PLUS and Lite have limits, and DirectAdmin’s licensing documentation says the account limit covers every account on the server, including the admin and any resellers. A Lite licence therefore holds the admin plus nine customer accounts. Domain limits count domains and domain pointers, but not stand-alone DNS zones. If a server goes over its limit, DirectAdmin switches to an over-limit mode that disables account creation, email changes, backups and many other functions until you remove items.
Personal PLUS includes installation support only, and other questions go to the community forum. Lite and Standard include unlimited technical support. The pricing page says the automatic 15% bulk discount applies after four Standard licences (or the same value in other licences) and reaches 40% at 35. You must pay from prepaid account balance to get it. The pricing page also states that a licence bought from a reseller without a server breaks DirectAdmin’s terms.
To check what a DirectAdmin server is licensed for, use da license. Our da1 lab still runs an old Personal licence: one account, 10 domains and no Pro Pack. DirectAdmin stopped selling that licence in August 2023, and it now runs on a separate legacy codebase:
da license | grep -E '^(type|nusers|vdomains|pro_pack)='nusers=1
pro_pack=0
type=Personal - $24/year
vdomains=10Plesk licenses each server by edition, and each edition has a domain limit (10, 30 or unlimited). It does not count customer accounts. The edition comparison on the pricing page matters more than the domain limit: Web Admin has no subscription or account management, and only Web Host includes reseller management. In practice, a server with paying customers needs Web Pro or Web Host. Plesk says VPS and dedicated licences have the same features and differ only in where you can install them. Web Admin and Web Pro cost the same on both.
Total licence cost at 10, 100, 500 and 1,000 accounts
Assumptions for this table:
- All accounts are on one server.
- One hosted account means one cPanel account, one DirectAdmin user or one Plesk subscription with one domain.
- Prices are the direct retail list prices above, in US dollars, excluding VAT, with monthly billing on a VPS licence. Partner, distributor and bulk discounts are not included.
- Licence only. Add-ons, hardware and support are extra (see the next section).
| Hosted accounts | cPanel | DirectAdmin | Plesk (VPS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Pro: $53.99/mo ($647.88/yr); or $49.46/mo billed annually ($593.52/yr). On a dedicated server, Premier at $69.99 | Standard: $29/mo ($348/yr). Lite does not fit, because the admin is the 11th account | Web Pro: $29.99/mo ($359.88/yr); or $27.49/mo billed annually |
| 100 | Premier: $69.99/mo ($839.88/yr) | Standard: $29/mo ($348/yr) | Web Host: $62.99/mo ($755.88/yr) |
| 500 | $69.99 + 400 × $0.49 = $265.99/mo ($3,191.88/yr) | Standard: $29/mo ($348/yr) | Web Host: $62.99/mo ($755.88/yr) |
| 1,000 | $69.99 + 900 × $0.49 = $510.99/mo ($6,131.88/yr) | Standard: $29/mo ($348/yr) | Web Host: $62.99/mo ($755.88/yr) |
Annual figures are the monthly price × 12. A Plesk Web Host licence on a dedicated server costs $69.99 a month instead of $62.99. With yearly billing, Web Host costs $57.74 a month on a VPS and $64.16 on a dedicated server.
Most hosts spread 1,000 accounts over several servers. With five servers of 200 accounts each, the monthly licence bill is: cPanel 5 × $118.99 = $594.95, Plesk Web Host 5 × $62.99 = $314.95, DirectAdmin 5 × $29 = $145, before any DirectAdmin bulk discount. The gap stays large: at this size, cPanel costs about four times as much as DirectAdmin.
Add-ons are extra on every panel
None of these prices includes the extras most shared hosting servers run. The cPanel pricing page lists them as add-ons with “starting from” prices. The DirectAdmin pricing page links to the same vendors. Several are priced in tiers by server size or number of users, so check the tier you actually need:
| Add-on | Starting price shown | What it does | Our coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| CloudLinux | From $16.80/mo (cPanel page) | Per-account resource limits (LVE) and CageFS isolation | LVE limits explained |
| Imunify360 | From $45/mo (cPanel page); from $12/mo (DirectAdmin page) | WAF, malware scanning, proactive defence | Imunify360 review |
| LiteSpeed Web Server | From $25/mo (cPanel page) | Drop-in Apache replacement with LSCache | LiteSpeed Enterprise review |
| JetBackup | $8.95/mo (both pages) | Incremental backups with self-service restore | JetBackup 5 review |
| KernelCare | From $3/mo (cPanel page) | Live kernel patching | KernelCare setup |
The two Imunify360 starting prices differ because each pricing page points at a different entry tier. Use the vendor’s own price for your user count. On Plesk, the pricing page marks the Developer Pack, Premium Email by Kolab, Plesk Email Security, email antivirus and WP Guardian as paid add-ons in every edition, and DNSSEC as an add-on for Web Admin.
A typical shared hosting stack (CloudLinux, Imunify360, JetBackup and LiteSpeed) adds at least $95.75 a month to each server at those starting prices. On a 100-account cPanel server, that is more than the cPanel licence itself, so compare the full stack, not just the panel.
Who each pricing model suits
- DirectAdmin suits hosts with many accounts per server, where a flat $29 licence matters most, and admins who are happy managing the web stack through CustomBuild. It runs on Linux only.
- cPanel suits small VPS setups (Solo, Admin, Pro) and hosts whose customers or resellers expect cPanel. It has the largest third-party ecosystem. The cost per account barely falls with scale, so budget roughly $0.50 per account per month above 100.
- Plesk suits Windows/IIS hosting, mixed Linux and Windows fleets, and agencies built around WP Toolkit. Web Host is flat-rate per server, but you need Web Pro or Web Host to sell hosting to customers.
If price is the main reason to switch, run our cPanel and DirectAdmin server check first. A panel change is a migration project, and the licence saving has to cover that work.
How to switch panels without surprises
All three vendors bill monthly (cPanel Premier only monthly), so during a migration you pay for two licences, usually for one billing cycle. The tools differ by direction:
- cPanel to DirectAdmin: DirectAdmin restores cPanel
cpmovearchives. See Migrate cPanel to DirectAdmin. - DirectAdmin to cPanel: WHM’s Transfer Tool supports DirectAdmin as a source. See Migrate DirectAdmin to cPanel.
- Plesk to cPanel: WHM’s Transfer Tool supports Plesk as a source. For cPanel to Plesk, use Plesk Migrator. See Migrate Plesk to cPanel.
- Before moving cPanel accounts, run the cPanel migration preflight check to find accounts and settings that will not convert cleanly.
Move a small batch first. Check mail, DNS and PHP versions, and cancel the old licence only after the last account has been on the new server for a full billing cycle.
Official documentation: cPanel pricing · DirectAdmin pricing · Plesk pricing · DirectAdmin licensing and limits
Related: cPanel Pricing 2026: Licensing Explained Without Mistakes · Migrate cPanel to DirectAdmin: Safe Account Transfer · Migrate Plesk to cPanel (and cPanel to Plesk): Tools and Limits · Best VPS for cPanel and DirectAdmin in 2026: What to Check · cPanel and DirectAdmin Server Check
See also: cPanel vs DirectAdmin (2026): Price, Features and Migration · cPanel vs Plesk (2026): Which Control Panel for Hosting? · DirectAdmin vs Plesk (2026): Cost, Features, Migration · Best cPanel Alternatives in 2026: Free and Paid Panels Compared · cPanel vs CyberPanel (2026): Cost, Features and Security
Frequently asked questions
Is DirectAdmin cheaper than cPanel?
For more than about 10 accounts, yes. DirectAdmin Standard is $29 a month per server with no account limit. cPanel Premier is $69.99 for 100 accounts plus $0.49 for each extra account, so at 500 accounts it costs $265.99 a month.
Do reseller accounts count toward the cPanel licence?
Yes. cPanel’s pricing FAQ says WHM reseller accounts count as accounts, and so does every cPanel user they create.
Does Plesk charge per account?
No. Plesk licenses each server by edition, and each edition has a domain limit: 10 for Web Admin, 30 for Web Pro and unlimited for Web Host. Customer account management is not included in Web Admin.
Why does my hosting provider charge a different price?
Providers buy licences under partner or distributor agreements and set their own retail price, which is often lower than the vendor list price. Those licences are usually tied to a server you rent from that provider.
Are these prices including VAT?
No. cPanel and Plesk state their prices exclude VAT. DirectAdmin lists prices in US dollars and does not mention VAT on its pricing page.
Can I pay yearly to save money?
cPanel Solo, Admin and Pro save 8.4% with annual billing, but Premier is monthly only. Plesk yearly billing saves about 8%. DirectAdmin’s pricing page lists monthly prices only.