cPanel Price Increase 2026: Licence Costs and How to Pay Less
In 2026 a cPanel licence costs from $29.99 a month (Solo, 1 account) to $69.99 (Premier, 100 accounts), plus $0.49 a month for every account above 100. Since the switch to per-account billing in 2019, prices have gone up every single year: Premier went from $45 to $69.99, and a VPS that used to cost $20 a month with unlimited accounts can now cost four to five times as much. Below you'll find the price list, the full history with sources, three worked examples and the realistic ways to spend less.
cPanel pricing in 2026
Monthly prices in US dollars, excluding tax, effective 1 January 2026 (source):
| Licence | Accounts included | 2026 price | Change vs 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | 1 | $29.99 | +$3.00 |
| Admin | 5 | $35.99 | +$3.00 |
| Pro | 30 | $53.99 | +$7.00 |
| Premier | 100 | $69.99 | +$4.00 |
| Premier, each account over 100 | — | $0.49 | +$0.04 |
Two things worth knowing:
- cPanel bills per cPanel account, not per website. One account can hold several addon domains, but in practice most hosts give each customer or each site its own account.
- These are public list prices. If you buy through your hosting provider or a licence partner, you may pay more or less.
Every increase since 2019
Until mid-2019 cPanel was licensed per server with unlimited accounts: roughly $20 a month for a VPS and $45 for a dedicated server (The Register). In June 2019, following its acquisition by Oakley Capital, the private equity firm that also controls Plesk, cPanel moved to per-account pricing: Admin at $20 for up to 5 accounts, Pro at $30 for up to 30, Premier at $45 for up to 100, plus $0.20 for each extra account.
Here's how the tiers have moved since (webhosting.today 2019-2024, 2025, 2026):
| Period | Solo | Admin | Pro | Premier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2019 – Dec 2020 | $15.00 | $20.00 | $30.00 | $45.00 |
| Jan 2021 – Nov 2021 | $15.00 | $22.00 | $32.25 | $48.50 |
| Dec 2021 – Nov 2022 | $15.99 | $24.99 | $35.99 | $53.99 |
| Dec 2022 – Nov 2023 | $15.99 | $27.99 | $39.99 | $59.99 |
| Dec 2023 – Dec 2024 | $17.49 | $29.99 | $42.99 | $60.99 |
| 2025 | $26.99 | $32.99 | $46.99 | $65.99 |
| 2026 | $29.99 | $35.99 | $53.99 | $69.99 |
The per-account overage on Premier climbed too: $0.20 in 2019, $0.40 in 2024, $0.45 in 2025 and $0.49 in 2026.
From June 2019 to 2026 that's Solo +100%, Admin +80%, Pro +80% and Premier +56%. The sharpest single jump was Solo in 2025, up 54% in one year. For the last two years the new price list was announced in October and applied from January, so if you're budgeting for 2027 it's sensible to assume another rise.
Worked examples: a VPS with 15, 50 and 150 accounts
Based on 2026 list prices, one account per site, excluding tax.
15 accounts
More than 5 accounts means the Pro licence: $53.99 a month, $647.88 a year. In 2019 the same licence was $30 a month; before the model change, $20 covered the whole VPS.
50 accounts
Past 30 accounts you need Premier: $69.99 a month, $839.88 a year. Note the step: going from 30 to 31 accounts adds $16 a month.
150 accounts
Premier plus 50 extra accounts: $69.99 + 50 × $0.49 = $94.49 a month, $1,133.88 a year. In 2019 the same server cost $45 + 50 × $0.20 = $55 a month; before June 2019, $20.
| Accounts on the VPS | cPanel licence | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Pro | $53.99 | $647.88 |
| 50 | Premier | $69.99 | $839.88 |
| 150 | Premier + 50 | $94.49 | $1,133.88 |
Multiply by your server count to see the real number: ten VPSs with 50 accounts each come to about $8,400 a year in licences alone.
How to cut your licence costs
1. Consolidate accounts
Because cPanel counts accounts rather than domains, you can move several sites belonging to the same owner into one account as addon domains, and delete accounts nobody uses. Dropping below a threshold (30 or 100) saves money straight away.
The trade-off: sites inside one account run as the same system user, so one compromised site can infect the rest, and backups, restores and handing a site over to a client all get more awkward. Fine for your own sites, less so for customers'.
2. DirectAdmin
DirectAdmin's price list is far lower: Personal Plus at $5 a month (2 accounts, 20 domains), Lite at $15 (10 accounts, 50 domains) and Standard at $29 with unlimited accounts and domains. For a server with lots of accounts it's one of the cheapest commercial options; it's mature, runs on several Linux distributions and supports more than one web server. The interface is plainer than cPanel's and some third-party integrations are less common.
3. Plesk
Plesk bills per server in domain tiers. The 2026 VPS prices are Web Admin $14.29 (10 domains), Web Pro $25.49 (30 domains) and Web Host $52.99 (unlimited). With 15 sites you'd pay for Web Pro; with 50 or 150, Web Host. It's cheaper than cPanel, but Plesk also raised prices for 2026 and dropped price-locked yearly plans. See the full Koapanel vs Plesk comparison.
4. Free panels
HestiaCP, CloudPanel, aaPanel, CyberPanel and Virtualmin all cost nothing to license. In exchange there's no vendor to call, migrating from cPanel ranges from easy to painful depending on the panel, and some features (resellers, a full mail stack, malware scanning) are missing or need wiring up yourself. A good fit if you run the server yourself and have time to maintain it. More in our guide to the best cPanel alternatives in 2026.
5. Koapanel: priced per server
Koapanel is billed per server, in site tiers, at a flat price that doesn't grow with account count (pricing, excluding VAT):
| Plan | Sites | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free (personal use) | 3 | €0 | €0 |
| Starter | 10 | €7.90 | €79 |
| Pro | 30 | €14.90 | €149 |
| Agency | unlimited | €24.90 | €249 |
The yearly plan costs the same as 10 months. Rerunning the three examples (at €1 = $1.15, so Koapanel's yearly prices are about $171 for Pro and $286 for Agency):
| Accounts/sites | cPanel 2026 per year | Koapanel per year | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | $647.88 (Pro) | €149 (Pro, yearly) | about $476 |
| 50 | $839.88 (Premier) | €249 (Agency, yearly) | about $553 |
| 150 | $1,133.88 (Premier + 50) | €249 (Agency, yearly) | about $848 |
Paying monthly, Koapanel comes to €178.80 (Pro) or €298.80 (Agency) a year, so the saving is a little smaller. Koapanel counts sites, not accounts: a cPanel account with three domains running three sites counts as three. Plug in your own numbers with the savings calculator. If you run many servers as a hosting provider, there's wholesale pricing on the providers page.
What to weigh before switching: Koapanel runs only on Ubuntu 24.04 with nginx, so no Apache or .htaccess, no LiteSpeed or CloudLinux, no classic FTP (SFTP instead) and no WordPress multisite. If you rely on any of those, cPanel or DirectAdmin remain the better fit. The detailed breakdown is in Koapanel vs cPanel.
The cost of switching panels
The licence isn't the only cost; migration takes time too. Koapanel imports sites, databases, cron jobs and mailboxes from cPanel by connecting to the old server over SSH or from a cPanel backup file (how migration works). The step-by-step process, including a DNS cutover without downtime, is in our guide to migrating from cPanel. The safe approach is to move two or three sites to a fresh VPS first, then the rest once you're confident.
FAQ
How much does cPanel cost per month in 2026?
From $29.99 (Solo, 1 account) to $69.99 (Premier, 100 accounts), plus $0.49 for each account over 100. List prices, excluding tax.
Does cPanel charge per account or per domain?
Per cPanel account. An account can hold several addon domains at no extra cost, but they share one system user and its resources.
Why does cPanel raise prices every year?
cPanel doesn't explain it in detail; since 2019 per-account billing and yearly increases have become the norm, with new price lists announced in the autumn.
What's the cheapest option for a server with many accounts?
Among commercial panels, DirectAdmin Standard ($29 a month, unlimited) and Koapanel Agency (€24.90 a month, unlimited sites). Free panels cost nothing but come without vendor support.
Can I keep cPanel on one server and try an alternative on another?
Yes, and it's the most careful way to do it: move a few sites, check everything works, then carry on.
Try it without commitment
Work out your saving with the savings calculator, then install Koapanel for free on a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VPS or try the public demo at https://demo.koapanel.app/. For provider volumes, get in touch through the contact page.