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I think it's perfectly adequate for shared hosting.
I think the only thing cPanel has that DirectAdmin doesn't have is general brand recognition. People are more likely to have heard of it, and therefore, seek it. But when it comes to function and features, DirectAdmin is directly comparable and as production ready as cPanel.
It’s annoying to use
Hard to navigate
Disturbing fade-in fade-out transitions
Just not that good honestly
I’d much rather get cPanel hosting, or, if I need more resources for a cheap price, VPS + CloudPanel or RunCloud
The main advantage of DirectAdmin is price, but cPanel offers more features. cPanel has many extra plugins to expand its abilities, while DirectAdmin has very few.
So for reselling purposes cPanel would be good fit as it is just more user-friendly and better for clients. If you search for cheaper option you could also consider using Control Web Panel(CWP)
I like it for using on my own projects. But for end users, cPanel hands down.
Simple: cPanel is market leader which dictates control panel standards for shared/reseller hosting. Directadmin just follows and doing this not very well.
Momentum which ignited upon cPanel pricing schema change long gone and DA failed to market its position as solid cPanel competitor.
Just curious to hear, what makes you say that?
I would also add the pricing - cPanel is way much expensive compared to DirectAdmin
My own personal experience. 10 years owning servers with DA and ~13 years with cPanel. Every fkin time I go to custom build I swear loud. I love CLI, but in DA case... Fck that. And cPanel documentation is nice!
Probably support is another elephant in the room. Better support than cPanel is hard to find.
Care to elaborate? I'm genuinely curious what hosting standard plugin is not available on DA?
He means integrations maybe? Whmcs owned by cpanel, so more integrated.
CPanel is faster page loads and moving about. DA is cheaper but feels clunky. I have never used Plesk or interworx but want to compare them both soon.
Directadmin gives me gray hair. Plesk or cpanel preferred. I have Directadmin because my cutstomers want nodejs, but Plesk does this as well. Directadmin, I grow 3 more gray hairs every time I want to add a PHP version and it yells at me because it can only handle 4 versions at once… Also administration is pretty clunky, and 75% of administration is done with CLI with a less than adequate knowledgebase lol.
cPanel has native Node.js support: https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/web-services/how-to-install-a-node.js-application/
As does Plesk: https://www.plesk.com/blog/product-technology/node-js-plesk-onyx/
Is there an implementation issue you've experienced with them?
If the price of something you wanted was the same for both cPanel and DA with no other options, which would you choose?
Obviously cPanel for 99.99% of the people.
I prefer directadmin over cpanel, its just easier to use, especially if you have several domains
Tbh, I would also prefer using cPanel over DA any day. Maybe it's because I've been used to using cPanel for a loong time, but DA just doesn't feel comfortable to use, every time I have to do something with it. I've never really tried Plesk, but I might soon get my first shared hosting powered by Plesk, so will find out soon.
If cPanel had maintained its pricing structure, we might never have heard of DirectAdmin, as people primarily switched to DirectAdmin due to cost considerations in licensing.
In my experience Plesk is much easier and user friendly to use.
We were using Cpanel, but in view of their high prices we opted for Directadmin.
The interface is very similar and easy to use.
All you need to do is learn how to optimize and use it, and your web sites will be fast and reliable.
We're of the same opinion, I wonder what made him say that.
We love Directadmin and have no intention of leaving.
I prefer cPanel over everything, just not the price. However my partner is a fan of Plesk. You win some, you lose some
I think honestly its a matter of preference to your customers. We offer all of it, just depending on what theyre used to. They all have their pros and cons. But administering, I will say cpanel is definitely my favorite.
I can recommend PLESK, but I use directadmin as a sysadmin for 6 years. Complicated shit. Custombuild is great if you not receive any error. Prey for it. Actually, you always have to search in the forums, and for scripts to get it done. Took a lot of time.
I started to use Plesk for 3 month till now, Click-Click-Done. Dont have to login to terminal at all, as everything is working from the panel.
Yes Directadmin costs maybe 15usd/mo with discounts from lifetime license, and plesk costs 22 usd/mo around, but it saves you a LOOOT time. Maybe the same case why everybody loves cPanel, I can beleive it now..
I love Direct Admin once you learn how to use it and unerstand some of the features are still done from Terminal (moving domains between users being one) then your good to do
Migrated to DA after CPanel price hike.
Personally, never worried about admin interface as I mostly use CLI for almost everything always(even when I had CPanel servers).
But, as an end user :
CPanel : 9/10
DirectAdmin : 7/10
Currently the biggest selling point for DirectAdmin seems to be pricing. But, its interesting to see how the market changes after few years with players like webuzo and enhance cp.
I like DA. Never had a problem with it and it does everything I need.
Never really had a problem with CPanel either.
From an end user point of view I don't really think the panel is that important. Most customers install their Wordpress or whatever and then they never log in to the panel again. Most of my customers would not be able to tell you what panel they use if you asked them, they totally do not care.
As sysadmins we see it differently as our tasks are very different. I have installed both panels but I cant really say that I have enough experience to say which one is better from this point of view, both worked for me.
True, however, from a marketing POV, most have heard of 'cPanel' without knowing what it is and ask for it. That's been my experience, even though as you say, they probably can't tell the difference.
I also agree with this. Even though some people may think "cpanel" just means "control panel," there are others who don't even know whether it's a company name or not.
cPanel is likely 9.8/10
Plesk is 9/10
DirectAdmin is highly likely is 4.5/10 - without SSH command line pointless icons for sysadmins
I do remember a conversation on LET that price will stay the same for DirectAdmin and less than 4 years prices went up.
The only way I’d ever consider DirectAdmin (probably still wouldn’t) would be for personal projects if CloudPanel.io didn’t exist.
Even if CloudPanel.io was a paid product, I’d prefer it over DA.
I love how minimal it is, and that every site user basically is an SSH user.
For projects where a lot is done over SSH, it’s like a GUI companion where I can keep the same structure and logic that was in place before I even used a panel.
Tl;dr: I like how it dosen’t take over everything but rather work together with Nginx, MariaDB/MySQL etc. If I wanted a full takeover with email and everything needed in one place, cPanel.
As a developer, DirectAdmin is more than enough to manage hosting. In my opinion the worst thing about DirectAdmin is the file manager navigation, there is no back button, sad. For the DirectAdmin team, please improve the file manager navigation
Better keyhelp file manager, navigation is quite clear
I find DA easy to setup and get hosting. Set the PHP version and modules, build and your done.
The downfall is the interface is still a bit dated and clunky. I much prefer CPanel style.