Comparison

DirectAdmin Web Control Panel vs cPanel

DirectAdmin Web Control Panel and cPanel both land on Depends.

DirectAdmin Web Control Panel

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy DirectAdmin if you run your own VPS or a hosting business and want a cheaper, lighter cPanel alternative.

Depends

Confidence: High

Hosting resellers and agencies managing many accounts still get real value from cPanel's mature, familiar automation.

DirectAdmin Web Control Panel versus cPanel
Compare	DirectAdmin Web Control Panel	cPanel
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	VPS and dedicated-server admins	Hosting providers and resellers
Who it's not for	Non-technical site owners . your host chooses the panel, buying it yourself is pointless	Solo devs with one site . bundled hosting panels already include this
Privacy	Mixed: solid hardening features on paper, but a public exploit, a 2025 CVE, and user breach reports exist; no vendor security page found.^⁵	A critical authentication bypass (CVE-2026-41940) was actively exploited in 2026; patching is mandatory.
Support quality	No support-quality evidence in sources	Markets top-tier support; Trustpilot reviewers disagree
Public sentiment	First-hand user reviews are scarce in these sources; the clearest user voice reports a compromise despite enabling 2FA.^⁷	Users praise its ease of use but complain about price hikes, a stagnant feel, and the Jupiter redesign.¹³
Biggest gotcha	Security is largely your job: one admin reported compromise despite 2FA^⁷	Licensing hikes keep coming; budget for annual price increases

Non-technical site owners . your host chooses the panel, buying it yourself is pointless
Teams wanting cPanel's ecosystem, plugins, and documentation
Buyers expecting transparent public pricing up front
Orgs needing vendor-published security disclosures