Cpanel vs Directadmin

[Omniscient]

I prefer Directadmin (DA) over Cpanel for a number of reasons. For starters you can get a DA lifetime license for about $300 versus a $1065.00 cpanel license only good for 3 years. I have already had my DA license 5 years now.

Cpanel seems to have some security issues creep up every now and then too. It does have great addons but for most it's overly complex and many features aren't even used. For reselling it's probably better choice but for single owner servers without resale DA beats Cpanel every day of the week.

http://www.directadmin.com

http://www.cpanel.com

[Darkside92]

yes ive seen a few cpanel exploits here and there pop up and havent seen a directadmin one yet

[Gaijin]

I never used DA, well it was/is to expensive for my needs.
Just was looking at the demo and it looks really nice... can you tel me more about.

CP is where I've gave up.... it does not only seem to have security issues, I've was only 3 days on Cpanel and was hacked more then ever.
But that could also be cause of the hosting site, since I didn't had it on my server.

[Omniscient]

I have seen Lifetime DA licenses sell 3rd party for as little as $180 at places like WebhostingTalk.com. One thing for sure is that many hosts offer DA cheaper as part of a rental package of a dedicated server.

I have also used webmin but I'll save that convo for another thread.

[Gaijin]

I have found some cheap hosting sites with DirectAdmin, but they don't sell licenses..
So is it better to go big and buy a license or would simply hosting be ok.

[Alex]

I loved DA when I was on it. It's just a great easy to use control panel. And, as you mentioned a lot cheaper than cPanel.

[Omniscient]

I have found some cheap hosting sites with DirectAdmin, but they don't sell licenses..
So is it better to go big and buy a license or would simply hosting be ok.

Depends. Some hosts offer free control panels. I prefer to save the hosting money and buy the license. If you think you can save $15 a month by installing your own DA then it's imho worth it. The DA license will pay for itself in less than 2 years. Now this assumes you are going to be able to run a server for that long. Many go out of business in months and then of course it's a losing deal. I had my own server for years running Plesk before I decided to switch to DA.

Plesk is another control panel that's imho better than Cpanel but it's expensive. It used to be cheap but the company was bought out and the pricing structure changed.

[Gaijin]

The 2 years of running are no problem.
I'm reading and looking more about DA and I'm getting to like it... $15 a month isn't much so I'm going to look a bit more about and then I'll post my expirience with it.

[Omniscient]

$15 a month was an estimate of savings. You may save more or less depending on the host and how you utilize the license.

[Skawke]

I like CPanel, because it's the one I used the most. Love the search function, where you can type things like, File manager, and it'll appear right there.

Reminds me of Win7's search.