Tears, hope, indifference – emotions about cPanel

Personal thoughts and emotions.

I’ve been working as system administrator for 20+ years now. Started back in 1999, when you had to compile most of the software and learned to configure servers with text editor. This was time, when you had to have dedicated IP in order to use SSL certificate.

In 2005 I started working in hosting company and they were already using cPanel. For that time it was a superb and the best control panel. To be honest there were not so many alternatives and definitely cPanel beat them all. If I remember right – besides cPanel we had DirectAdmin and Plesk, but the whole concept of cPanel in terms of user management, UI and feature set – it was the best. And then there was a huge community – cPanel forums were super busy, active and it was an amazing place for getting advice. Indeed it was a community, where developers and system administrators were together, where your thoughts would be heard or at least publicly discussed – and keep in mind – we’re talking about commercial product that still did feel like a community.

Many years have passed. There were mistakes, there were bugs, that caused a lot of pain, but overall things were stable until 2019, when cPanel suddenly (well, at least for us it was unexpected) switched their licensing model. Up to that moment you were paying flat 10 USD per server and you could host as many sites as you wanted or your server allowed you to. Even though hardware was getting better and better – we did not bother to have huge servers – our hosting model was to use lower-end server, but we had like 30 or 50 servers back then. Many separate accounts let us spread users over different physical and VPS servers, isolate users quite efficiently and have predictable prices. Number of cPanel licenses was growing every years.

Account based licensing has brought us a lot of pain. And that was not just us – I remember cPanel forum was crying and shouting.. That decision was a huge cornerstone for many. We have greatly reduced number of servers, packed hundreds of accounts on single VPS, reviewed licensing and pricing for end users. Our control panel costs went up 3 or 4 times and we were now dependent on number of accounts.

It felt, that cPanel suddenly had their hand in our pocket.

That was a bitter pill we had to swallow. But we had a hope – cPanel’s explanation for pricing model change was growing expenses for development. They were promising changes and effort.

Seven years have passed. I can’t say there were no development – we’ve got newer UI, which is not perfect, we’re getting security patches and upgrades, we’re still getting annoying bugs… Anything revolutionary? I don’t think so.

cPanel forum is now being moderated, it’s not a community friendly anymore, feature request form and discussions are dead and moderated as well.

The only thing cPanel was consistent for these years is annual license cost increase.

My personal most annoying “feature” is this – you can convert domain from “addon domain” to a “separate account”. But you can not merge from “separate account” to “addon” or move addon or parked domain from one account to another. You can’t. You have to backup DNS zone, delete domain, add it, restore DNS records. For 20+ years of development – does this simple feature still sounds like “not needed” or “too complicated to make”?

Yes, many hosting companies have left and stopped using cPanel. This decision is not easy – customers are used to cPanel, their websites and emails are up and working and you can’t just switch them. We, as hosting company, are stuck. Stuck and helpless – that’s how I often feel about it. But who cares? Honestly – I’ve been offering alternative control panel to all our new customers. Some still wanted cPanel, some went for Enhance and are quite happy with it. At least there is a steady development, list of interesting features, modern look and sensible fixed pricing (yes, still per account, but it is not based on number of accounts per server – just a total count per cluster), it is natively clustered.

People blame greedy cPanel inverstors.. Who knows, who cares – the fact is – product has lost its vibe of the market’s powerhorse and will eventually loose its leaders position. They have caused anger, tears and raised disbelief. Once growing and succesful product decided to go for quick income and fast profit – loosing on a longer run. It is sad… I know many of us wanted cPanel to stay on the top and be part of it. But it feels like too late..

3 years ago I had online call with some analysts and developers – I tried to explain, what cPanel is missing, what we, as hosting company need. I told them to try and run a small hosting company and see, what is good and what is bad, see the struggle and develop a solution. I had a list of things we needed.. It was a nice call, but that did not many any difference.