Another Price Hike in the row; WHMCS, cPanel and Plesk Panel increased prices
WHMCS, cPanel and Plesk Panel have increased their license prices for the year 2025; causing continuous distress to the hosting providers.
The wave of frustration in the web hosting industry is constant with the continuous price hike by WHMCS, cPanel and Plesk Panel. The Oakley Capital – Backed owner of WHMCS, a popular web hosting billing system, and cPanel, the industry leading hosting cloud – panel, has announced another price hike for the year 2025.
WHMCS License Costs
| License Plan | 2025 Price | 2-year price Inflation Since 2023 |
| Plus (250 clients) | $ 29.95 | 58% |
| Professional (500 clients) | $ 44.95 | 50% |
| Business (1000 clients) | $ 69.95 | 36% |
| Business (5000 clients) | $ 234.95 | 135% |
| Business (10,000 clients) | $ 389.95 | 123% |
cPanel License Costs
| License Plan | 2025 Price | 2-year price Inflation Since 2023 |
| Solo (1 account) | $ 26.99 | 69% |
| Admin (up to 5 cPanel accounts) | $ 32.99 | 18% |
| Pro (up to 30 cPanel accounts) | $ 46.99 | 18% |
| Premier (up to 100 cPanel accounts) | $ 65.99 | 10% |
| Bulk (over 100 cPanel accounts) | $ 0.45 | 15% |
With this price hike, all the hosting providers are clearly very disappointed. However, the new pricing doesn’t affect account holders with 5 or fewer accounts much. But the prices are significantly higher for those with more accounts cPanel has been increasing their prices for the last five years in a row. Now the hosting providers are looking for another alternative to cPanel hosting.
Additionally, as Tim Wakeling pointed out on the Plesk Forum Desk, where price hikes are also happening, Hosting companies will have to deal with costumer habits, changes in configuration and service interruption, because migration to another panel is not an easy option. Thats why many people are paying the prices anyway.
The price increases have a significant impact on smaller hosting companies and end users. The higher license cost forces hosting providers to shift the cost burden on their customers, affecting the price competitiveness. People have been criticizing cPanel after its new price hike.
Some users like KMyers have expressed their disappointment with the constant price hike and decided to stop using cPanel. KMyers commented, “Well… As of this morning, cPanel has officially lost a customer as I have cancelled my licenses with them. I have been a long-standing customer of theirs for several years and have bit my tongue with all of their price increase over the past few years, but this latest one was just Insane.”
Furf, a user from the Official cPanel Forum, showcased disappointment for this price hike by commenting, “I already thought the $17.50 was too much but this is ridiculous. cPanel costed way more than my webhost and domain name service for my small forum site, but now it’s insane.”
Another user Cameron Worts, from the Official cPanel forum, commented, “I expect cPanel to continue increasing prices yearly. No one likes price increases. As someone mentioned, the prices have risen nearly 300%, but when an investment company took over cPanel, I expected that. None of our clients use Sitejet builder, and I’m not sure why cPanel is pushing it. WordPress is far more advanced, and with the right plugins, such as Elementor or Divi, WordPress can be very easy to use.”
The ongoing cPanel, WHMCS and Plesk Panel price hike are a challenge for hosting providers around the world. Many hosting providers are thinking of switching to other control Panels, but lack of alternatives keeps them strong in the market. People have already started looking for alternatives to cPanel after this price hike. The few alternatives are: SPanel, Ajenti, Webmin, ZPanel, OviPanel.
