Comparison
KoaPanel vs cPanel
In short: cPanel is the long-standing standard, complete but expensive and billed per account. KoaPanel covers the features people actually use, is optimised for WordPress and costs a flat price per server, from 7.90 € a month.
$ curl -fsSL https://get.koapanel.app | sudo bashOn a freshly created Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04, AlmaLinux 9 or Rocky Linux 9 server: ready in 5-10 minutes, free up to 3 sites. Or try the online demo, nothing to install.
Pricing
What each server costs.
Savings calculated with one account per site.
| Sites on the server | cPanel | KoaPanel | Yearly saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 site | Solo, $29.99 | Free (personal use) or Starter 7.90 € | up to about 313 € |
| 5 sites | Admin, $35.99 | Starter, 7.90 € | about 281 € |
| 15 sites | Pro, $53.99 | Pro, 14.90 € | about 385 € |
| 30 sites | Pro, $53.99 | Pro, 14.90 € | about 385 € |
| 100 sites | Premier, $69.99 | Agency, 24.90 € | about 432 € |
| 200 sites | Premier, $118.99 | Agency, 24.90 € | about 943 € |
Monthly prices, VAT excluded. cPanel: 2026 list price in US dollars (source), converted at €1 = $1.15. Licences bought through providers may cost differently.
Features
Feature by feature.
| Aspect | KoaPanel | cPanel |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per server, flat price by site tier | Per account, with yearly increases |
| Operating system | Ubuntu 24.04 / 26.04 LTS, AlmaLinux 9, Rocky Linux 9 | AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux, Ubuntu |
| Web server | nginx, with Apache for sites that use .htaccess | Apache (nginx and LiteSpeed as options) |
| PHP | PHP 7.4–8.5, chosen per site | Multiple versions |
| WordPress | Built into every plan: 3 cache layers (nginx, private Redis, OPcache), updates with automatic rollback, staging, one-click wp-admin login | WP Toolkit |
| Applications | Over 40 one-click apps (WordPress, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Joomla, Drupal, Nextcloud, Moodle…), Node.js, Python and .NET with Git deploy, PHP sites too | Third-party installers (Softaculous, Installatron) and Application Manager |
| Database | MariaDB with phpMyAdmin and remote access per IP, PostgreSQL with Adminer | MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL, phpMyAdmin and phpPgAdmin |
| Sign-in | Passkeys, authenticator app and recovery codes; two-step sign-in mandatory per role; team members with their own sign-in | Two-factor authentication (app) |
| HTTPS | Automatic Let's Encrypt with "Renew now", wildcard with DNS validation, certificates bought elsewhere uploaded by hand | AutoSSL and manual certificate installation |
| Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, DKIM, SnappyMail and Roundcube webmail, outgoing IP per domain, queue managed message by message and delivery log for the customer, also on a separate mail server (optional module) | Exim, Dovecot, webmail | |
| DNS | DNS on the server (PowerDNS) with DNSSEC and your own nameservers, or Cloudflare and 1PrimeCDN | Built-in DNS server |
| Antimalware | Built-in scanner + ClamAV, real-time protection, WordPress database check, reversible quarantine, original files put back from wordpress.org | ImunifyAV, ClamAV |
| Application firewall | ModSecurity with the OWASP Core Rule Set, per server and per site, included | ModSecurity with OWASP or third-party rules |
| Server firewall | Complete firewall included: ports by service, lists with expiry, countries, flood, malicious lists, alerts, score and test mode | CSF (ConfigServer closed in 2025, cPanel maintains it for security fixes only) and cPHulk |
| Access levels | Administrator, reseller, user, with packages (limits, files, monthly traffic and included functions), real disk quotas, custom reseller permissions and reseller branding | WHM, reseller, cPanel |
| Migration | From cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin and Linux, from the backup or over SSH, mail included | Transfer Tool |
| Files | File manager with code editor, SFTP, FTP and FTPS (with an "FTPS only" option) | File manager, FTP, SFTP |
| Language | Italian, English and French | Multilingual |
cPanel and WHM are trademarks of their respective owners, cited for comparison only. Information as of September 2026, based on public price lists and documentation.
Measured
What it actually weighs.
These are not marketing numbers: they were measured on a 1 vCPU, 2 GB VPS running Ubuntu 24.04 with three live sites, with nginx, MariaDB and PHP-FPM running.
For comparison, Plesk's documentation asks for at least 1 GB of RAM plus 1 GB of swap and cPanel's for 2 GB (4 recommended): those are full-stack requirements, not the weight of the panel alone. Figures and the commands to reproduce them are in the UptimeMag review.
Where KoaPanel wins
- Price: one per server, no surprises as you add sites.
- WordPress: cache, safe updates and staging ready to go, no paid add-ons.
- Simplicity: fewer menus, only the features people use, phone included.
- Transparent updates: see the phase and time left, with automatic rollback if anything fails.
- Support straight from the panel, from the team that builds it, in English and Italian.
Where cPanel wins
- Operating systems beyond Ubuntu, AlmaLinux and Rocky, LiteSpeed and Ruby applications.
- WordPress multisite.
- A huge ecosystem of plugins, billing integrations and sysadmins who know it.
Verdict
If you host PHP and WordPress sites on Linux, KoaPanel saves you hundreds of euros a year per server.
If you depend on LiteSpeed or WordPress multisite, stay on cPanel for now. Otherwise migration moves sites, databases and mail in an afternoon.
Try KoaPanel alongside cPanel.
Free up to 3 websites for personal use. When you grow, pick the right plan: every feature is included in every plan.