You may or may not have heard the news regarding the surprise price hike introduced by cPanel – this has come as a shock to the entire industry, so we wanted to contact you to make you aware of our current position, views and aims moving forward as a business with full transparency.
You may, or may not be aware that some months ago cPanel was acquired by a Venture Capitalist group called Oakley Capital. It was clear for us and many others in the industry that we were to expect an increase in pricing following the announcement in order to help them recuperate the money spent acquiring cPanel.
The surprising result was that cPanel has now chosen to introduce ‘per user’ based pricing models throughout, for both VPS and dedicated solutions. This change has hit the entire industry to an incredible extent, causing a huge number of hosting businesses to essentially ‘shut down’ with immediate effect.
We understand many of you are already aware of the news – many of you have reached out to see how this would impact us as a business, and of course the service we provide to you as our clients. If you haven’t yet read anything in relation to the increase, the following articles make for a great read…
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1770316
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40cpanel&src=typd
How did cPanel licensing work up until now?
Previously, cPanel licences were incredibly simple. They offered VPS licencing at $20 per month and Dedicated licencing for $45 per month. From a licencing perspective, there were no limitations on the number of accounts that could be hosted on those machines.
So, what’s changed? Why all the hype?
cPanel itself is an impeccable product which has been taken for granted by many – it was at the forefront of our business, and we would have been happy absorbing a small increase.
However, the changes made by cPanel were to introduce a ‘per user’ pricing model, clashes with our and many hosting company’s business models to an incredible extent.
The bottom line for many hosting companies using cPanel is that costs have just increased exponentially by thousands of pounds per year.
Did we see this coming?
Absolutely not. No-one in the global web hosting industry saw this one coming. As mentioned here, we expected to see a price increase as part of the acquisition but not nearly to this extent. The expectation was that we would see an approximate 20% increase, but had planned to take a hit for around 40 – 60% without any need for ‘restructuring’.
We have been proudly recommending the cPanel product and solutions to our clients and partners for years and can honestly say its come as a shock to not only ourselves but to the entire industry. This is evidently clear when viewing any industry forums or blogs at present.
What can I do? What should I do?
Nothing, to be completely honest. cPanel are the industry leader and seemingly have used this to their advantage whilst making this decision.
What you can do however, is voice any concerns you have in regards to cPanel overall to them directly via Twitter (@cPanel).
So, will our web hosting be closing?
Absolutely not. Whilst it’s an incredibly intimidating time for all affected by the situation we have absolutely no plans to close the business, or to cease trading.
I absolutely want to continue using cPanel!
We completely understand that cPanel is now the control panel of preference for the majority. It’s a product we have been proud to work with over the years, and have ourselves developed an extensive level of knowledge in their platforms. A lot of our infrastructure in our billing and automated platforms are built to communicate with cPanel. Our website builders / and other plugins are all built using cPanel APIs.
I am open to using a cPanel alternative!
For our clients, we completely understand cost is a major implication in the decision-making process when purchasing a hosting account. It is to be expected that, cPanel providers across the board will be increasing their pricing in line with the changes, which is why we have decided to switch to using Plesk for our hosting for the time being.
This announcement is simply our way of being fully transparent with our customers. We do not wish to spook or scare anyone into any knee-jerk reactions. That is not necessary. We have this fully in hand and will let you know our plans in the coming days. Thank you for your continued support.