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DirectAdmin internal (legacy) license — still worth migrating to, or jump ship?
Hi all,
Currently running a VPS with a fairly reputable provider — stability has been solid so far, and one of the main reasons I went with them was the free internal DirectAdmin license bundled in.
Server is still on RHEL/CentOS 7 (yeah… I know 😅), so I’m planning to spin up a new VPS and do a fresh migration to RHEL 9 / AlmaLinux 9 instead of using ELEVATE, since I’ve seen quite a few people report issues with it (especially with DirectAdmin setups).
Here’s where I’m stuck:
DirectAdmin has now classified these internal licenses as “legacy”, and I’ve been reading that MariaDB 10.6 hits end of life on July 6, 2026. On top of that, it seems legacy licenses are blocked from upgrading to MariaDB 10.11+ via CustomBuild, which makes me a bit concerned about long-term viability.
So I’m wondering:
Is it still worth migrating to a new instance using this legacy DirectAdmin license?
Or is this a good time to move away from DirectAdmin entirely since I’m rebuilding anyway?
Some context:
Currently on OpenLiteSpeed + DirectAdmin
Quite comfortable with DA, but not tied to it
Mainly looking for something secure, stable, low-maintenance, and free/cost-efficient
Thanks in advance 🙏
Comments
If you're concerned about potential vulnerabilities, install DA on Alma 9 or Debian 12 and go with MariaDB from the system repo – you'll should receive backport upgrades for the next few years. Of course, it may turn out that some of the scripts, like latest Joomla versions will not work because devs will come up with the idea that they need MariaDB 99.9 to work but that's different matter.
Personally I will not buy any new DirectAdmin licenses because of how they treated users who have lifetime deals.
Hestia and Virtualmin are very nice (and free) panels and less buggy than what DirectAdmin has been releasing lately.
I have too many of those to let go off easily
After using HestiaCP in test environment I'd say it's a solid choice. Yes, they had some issues like recent hacks, but it's growing pains every panel experienced.
Anyways there are plenty alternatives nowadays
Sooner or later, you will need to upgrade to a updated panel and OS due to various reasons. It is better to act now rather than wait. Or you can simply leave things as they are until it becomes difficult to continue.
If you are not reselling, you can also consider trying other options like HestiaCP.
We have some of these internal licenses too, however since they tagged them as "legacy" we decided to look at alternatives since we have to upgrade anyway. EnhanceCP came up, and we moved some of our nodes to it already. So far, so good
directadmin legacy license with each update a problem.a suggestion see Enhance CP or CloudPanel . these free licenses
If you owned the legacy DirectAdmin license, you can convert it to the Standard license at $15 monthly inside the DA site. If the license owned by your provider on the old license usually their won't convert it.
Could always vibe one (please don't probably a bad idea) /s this is a joke
I ts a solid option posible
My favorite vive coder is DeepSeek
Aye yes with its backdoors wide open
Eyes wide shut
And
Doors wide open
Perfect combo
DirectAdmin is totally worth it still. a new license, real, with them directly. according to your amount of domains.
Jump ship. I was in the same situation. I pay $5 for the minimum license, it's definitely worth it.
There are free options out there (ISPConfig, Virtualmin), but you are not going to get anything near the level of automation that Directadmin gives you. I honestly do not touch Directadmin, it does not need any maintenance.
I m using hestia in production but I skinned it heavily like a modern control panel and developed few plugins like malware scanner, outgoing spam detection, user file system lock, resource manager to cap cpu Ram disk io , wordpress manager , wordpress guard and now it's working better than any panel in the market it took me 4 months to code everything and now I m license free
Offer it to the market.