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What's the state of Directadmin?
So, many moons passed since cPanel price hike incident. What's happening in industry regarding cPanel vs Directadmin ratio? Does anyone use normal hosting providers (not lowend crap) which had cPanel, do they switched? If anyone had cPanel and switched to DA - what's your experience?
As I see, industry just absorbed that price increase and happily use cPanel... Does the Directadmin still not come close to cPanel?
Comments
As far as i could see - yes. Large players in most cases use their own solution, and medium- and small-sized hosting companies prefer to use cPanel in the Western-oriented market or ISPmanager, if we are talking about the market of the former USSR. This is not because DirectAdmin has less feature than other panels - just due to marketing. cPanel is old and known software.
DirectAdmin is perfect right now. Grid skin layout + icons. Love it.
As a customer, I love it. I can not for the life of me understand why so many seem to prefer cPanel as I find DA superior in every way.
I use one provider that still uses cPanel and I am currently moving away from them. I will not say that cPanel is the only reason, but getting everything moved to DA is a bonus.
If you compare the current Cpanel theme and Directadmin Icons Grid. DA will be more user-firendly.
Their built in backup solution is garbage compared to cpanel.
Care to elaborate a bit?
I can not say that I have really weighed pros or cons, both seems to do their job to me. Granted, I rarely use the builtin backup, I've just tried it a few times so I'm not saying that you are wrong, just curious what the big difference is.
I think one thing, I noticed as an enduser is that @MikePT DA hosting now (finally) creates own folders for subdomains rather than dump them in the main domain's folder which was a pita before. I'm not sure Mike actively changed that but before the folder structure was like
domains->domain.com->public_html->html files and subdomain folders . Now, subdomain folders are on the same level as domains, which is way better imho (like it was in cpanel, originally).
If you are coming from cpanel dircetadmin is perfect. Nearly every feature except mailman, calendar support and postgres. DA is moving fast though and each release seems to need a few changes (something breaks, some old feature is removed that people use) - so use the stable release. My main complaint is rewrite_confs can be extremely slow and there still is no movement on reducing the amount of ssl certificates packed into dovecot which can cause a long start up.
https://docs.directadmin.com/changelog/version-1.647.html#new-document-root-location-for-sub-domains
https://docs.directadmin.com/changelog/version-1.648.html#creating-a-new-sub-domain-allow-selecting-custom-document-root
That's awesome to hear. It was something that was getting on my nerves. Especially, since Softaculous didn't want to create a staging site in a subdirectory lol.
After getting used to it, I find that I prefer DirectAdmin with the icon grid layout, both as an admin and as a user. I don’t mind cPanel either, but I can’t justify paying more when I can use DirectAdmin just fine.
The main reason I still have a BuyShared account is because he still has Cpanel.
DirectAdmin feels weird to me.
Directadmin is perfect except their awful Backup and filemanager comparison to cPanel.
Thease 2 features are far behind than cpanel and they are shit totally. No matter how many DA fan boy will argue with me. But this is my opinion and I don't like DA's backup and filemanager feature at present stage at all
This opinion is mine totally as a end user and not a host.
I obviously can't speak for everyone - but if they're like us, you can't just turn 20+ years of experience and infrastructure from cPanel to something else on a dime.
If you're a web hosting company with 500 accounts and 1 server, then yea, it's a lot easier to switch from cPanel to something else. But if you're looking at 20 to 50 servers with some accounts that are 20 years old, then that move isn't that easy.
Not to mention that I'm still sorta/kinda on the fence if DirectAdmin is going to come out as the true winner. Once again, size and experience plays a role here. If your whole company is 1 server then choosing poorly (cue Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) isn't as damning as a company with 20+ servers.
I'm keeping a close eye on Webuzo. Right now, I think DirectAdmin is still the clear next-best alternative to cPanel. But I also think Webuzo has some great potential. It just depends on if they are going to sink enough development into it.
I'm not a huge fan of DirectAdmin's decision to combine CustomBuild into the core DirectAdmin control panel product. I think that was a shortsighted decision.
Having said all of that - I think the main thing this whole cPanel increase did was put the limelight on the fact that the control panel interface really doesn't matter that much. Most users just log into their control panel to install WordPress and create email accounts. As long as the control panel interface does that, I don't think end-users really care how "pretty" it looks.
cPanel still has a wealth of API and hooks - something that Webuzo is sorely lacking at this time. One of the best things cPanel created in recent years was the ability to run API commands directly from the command line. As others have alluded to, cPanel's backup system that allows you to compartmentalize your own backup is also nice. While cPanel has one backup system that allows end-users to set it and forget it, they also provide tools to where experience administrators can essentially incorporate their own.
Probably speaks more to cPanel's age and the fact that it's been around the longest (maybe DirectAdmin's been around just as long or longer, but never had the market share that cPanel did), but cPanel seems to provide more "tools" for a server administrator to utilize instead of trying to "be" the server administrator. That's kind of been my thing with control panels. I just want the control panel to provide me the most basic tools that I can then use to mold a system or environment the way I want to. This provides me with more flexibility instead of having to wait for the control panel to release an update or fix an issue.
Not even login these days.
You can get 'advanced' DA/CP integration into WHMCS & Hostbill for a little extra, and it handles 99% of the tasks most users will do.
DA's a great product and the team has always been extremely supportive & receptive. With Namecrane we intend to grow with DA and only keep the cPanel nodes we have, and probably not provision anymore.
Francisco
From an end user point of view, I would choose cPanel for one reason. cPanel offers good email backups, including forwarders. I have many forwarders. DirectAdmin does not offer simple backups and restores for end users with shared hosting account. DirectAdmin backup and restore capabilities appear to be provided only for admins and resellers.
Lack of user-level backup/restoration/migration is a serious DirectAdmin deficiency, in my opinion. Give the users easy access to backup and restore and migrate for any or all aspects of their DirectAdmin account, and DirectAdmin would gain the real potential to outcompete cPanel on quality and value.
I'm using Directadmin from 15 years or so and it has become recently too problematic for me.
Every update in current branch means strange errors fixed (or not) with many hotfixes. There is big changes made without consulting users (total abandonment of BSD and older Linux systems, supporting only evolution theme, integrating custombuild, latest changes in subdomains directories, removing suphp support because they think it's old but latest mod_fcgid is also from 2013 and it's still supported etc).
Not to mention poor documentation and many inaccuracies on the site. You can for example still order 32 bit CentOS 6 or Debian 8 license which are not supported from 2 years or so and DA can't be installed on those OS.
And the license is not that cheap either now.
I'm also thinking of switching to Webuzo or even Virtualmin Pro.
I don’t host a lot of sites, around 80 in total on a VPS, hosting isn’t my main business, but we aren’t for the low end market either.
I switched to DA in the early days and it has grown, for me personally the cost difference under 100 accounts is negligible, whether it is CPanel / DA. Especially since DA is dropping owned licenses. (They won’t get new features) unless you upgrade them.
CPanel theme, Jupiter is so much nicer than DA to me. DA still feels dated. File manager in DA can be a pain, changing PHP settings is buried.
Looking online Webuzo and enhance are looking promising, but they only have CPanel migration. So I recently switched our DA server back to CPanel.
Also when you look at 3rd party support for DA, you need to be prepared to pay more and you really need to know someone who knows what they are doing.
CPanel also has support for more 3rd party apps like MailChannels / SpamExperts. It looks like it will get wp accelerate before other panels from CL.
Also at the moment the bigger players are using CPanel.
I personally think Webuzo will take some of DA’s market share as it seems easier to use and more familiar.
there is also interworx which is part of liquidweb.
https://appendix.interworx.com/current/changelog/index.html
https://www.interworx.com/roadmap-feature-request-feedback-form/
https://forums.interworx.com/
I would agree with all of this.
Having only used DirectAdmin since the cPanel price increase fiasco, I haven't been with it as long as you have. I had heard of DirectAdmin through all of the years leading up to that, but it always seemed that DirectAdmin was a bit of a "hobbyist's" control panel.
I don't mean for that to sound negative towards anyone that was using DirectAdmin in those years. But I don't think there were a lot of major shared hosting service providers really using DirectAdmin in the years leading up to that cPanel fiasco.
And I think DirectAdmin has had a hard time shaking that mentality ever since.
When the cPanel fiasco happened, users flocked to DirectAdmin in droves. And DirectAdmin was put in a difficult spot... make the control panel more appealing to these new cPanel converts but don't alienate the DirectAdmin veteran users.
The hotfixes, changes, and documentation don't give a huge semblance of being a polished product. If you are using DirectAdmin and you're not plugged into their forums then you're going to miss A LOT! Because that's where all of the fixes and changes are discussed (or "discussed"). And the documentation is scattered all over the place and in a lot of the forum posts.
That's why I could see a product like Webuzo - who didn't really have that old guard to risk alienating - could take their development and run with it. Although... I have to admit that I'm not sure I see the Webuzo team really running with this advantage.
I've also suggested a DirectAdmin split - much like Fedora and RHEL years ago when RedHat ceased to being a thing. Have one that's geared more towards hobbyists and one that's geared more towards professionals. But that would also be an avenue for a license increase, so I'm not sure if that's a great idea either.
"but it always seemed that DirectAdmin was a bit of a "hobbyist's" control panel." - hobbyists fits perfectly with lowenders!
One of the issues with all of these control panels is understanding what software stack they used. What web server, MTA, Database, IMAP/POP3 and FTP software do the control panels interface with?
FTP is generally not of a huge importance, and there's really only two Pure-FTPd and ProFTPd.
I think all IMAP/POP3 is now Dovecot. Is Courier still a thing? Again, probably not a huge deal.
Database - MySQL vs. MariaDB. There's also PostgreSQL but I don't think there any control panel that relies on PostgreSQL as it's primary. And MySQL and MariaDB are similar enough that most control panel work with either.
The web server and MTA are the two that have the most potential issues.
For web server, there's Apache, nginx, and Litespeed. I think MOST control panel default to Apache and Litespeed is probably close enough to Apache to be a mostly drop in replacement (outside of the licensing cost).
For me, the main sore point is the MTA. A lot of the newer control panels are using Postfix. Whereas cPanel, DirectAdmin, and Webuzo use Exim. Interworx used... something else I can't even remember what it was, but it was old and I'd never heard of it.
Having been with cPanel for a long, long time (20+ years) I've written a TON of Exim customizations. Those customizations don't translate 1:1 to Postfix or whatever Interworx is using. So for me - which I realize isn't everybody - that means I need or at least prefer to stay with a control panel that still interfaces with Exim as it's MTA.
Has Interworx changed the MTA they use?
If your web host is not low-end, then they have lucrative profits that
cPanel's price increase will not affect them much, and they have no incentive to replace
The replacement will bring a greater t challenge to the customer's habits of use, the loss is not worth the gain!
Same here, never had any big issue during the last 15 years, then they become more money oriented and things started breaking at every update.
We had like 50 servers loosing their license due to some update of their licencing system one night.. It has become clear that enforcing licencing was more important than stability at some point.
Also when the way they handled the discontinuation of internal licence was not optimal. If you have 250 internal licence, you had no proposal to get them in the new model in an interesting way, just pay for new licence and pass the cost to your customer.
(I would have been interested in a reasonable annual fee to swith all my internal licence to a supported model but there is no such option)
We keep using the panel for our shared hosting and existing customers but have clearly more issues than before.
And unlike before we cannot get support anymore trough tickets because this is now reserved to $$$ licences. (we opened like 10 tickets over the 15 years )
Finally the cost of new licence is also a problem, most vps/dedi customer prefer ispconfig3 if hosting is not their main business, so we loose the markup we had on the licence and directadmin makes no business...
Exactly. And I don't quite understand where this pursuit for money really comes from. cPanel is a owned by big corporation and they seems to be very overscaled, support itself is probably several dozen people, but DA is much much smaller.
Current licenses IDs are above 280k so even if 30%, of them are lifetime, 30% are inactive they still should have no less that few dollars per month from each of the remaining 40% of licenses... I think that is still shitload of money.
As an end-user of cpanel shared hosting with a primary usage being email, I've made an effort to try using Direct Admin at several low-end hosts in the past few years out of a recognition that cpanel's pricing is squeezing companies. In the end, I came back to cPanel hosting because their Track Delivery panel does a good job of showing me the fate of outgoing and especially incoming emails, even when being filtered by the host's tools.
Most low-end DA hosting didn't have that tool (just exim logs) because the Track and Trace version of that tool was introduced as part of Pro Pack. The one host I was able to see Track and Trace in action, it wasn't really setup showing incoming filter actions.
Last time when cpanel increased price there was huge turmoil in this forum. People got angry, myself included. Than part of the people shifted towards directadmin. This stimulated directadmin growth, they pumped out features like crazy, upgraded theme few times. And this was done to scoop those who was in emotions to go away from cpanel.
Now, dust setled. Technical debt loomed on directadmin due to such fast dev pace. And here you have bugs.
Money changes people, business and world.
Adding later:
I do not like the new Jupiter theme in cPanel. The design changes seem more about artistic style than usability. The big red block does not help me as a user. It uses a lot of screen space without doing anything useful. For those it actually helps, it could be made small, to give the working features more room on the screen.
Another issue of DirectAdmin is the Certification.
DirectAdmin doesn't offer any certification to people be recognized or specialized like cPanel have.
That doesn't mean nothing, we all know. But to have know-how and start working with DirectAdmin through customers should be reliable to have it available.
We know that things can't run as expected for this reason a certification of training like cPanel offers should be great from the DA side.
Imagine switch to DA and still not knowing all things? Issues with customers and questions that you don't know at all? This can mess with customer and with full reason.
DA should look to have features and good support and look things that cPanel doesn't have or can't offer. Pricing is one of them.
I would say DA is getting better and better but there are still few features to be improved like File Manager and PHP Selection (fixed in new beta version)
The best that DA can do is watching this thread and collect feedback. Otherwise it will be 2x version of cPanel but more cheap and without any difference in the market. Only in the pocket.
I prefer DA overall. However, and this is a big problem, it is very difficult to be a reseller of DA webhosting as not many end users have heard of it, and will only consider Cpanel. End users are very different from your average LET user.