cPanel NOC License Costs Keep Rising: A 2025–2026 Price Comparison for Hosting Providers

cPanel, the popular web hosting control panel, has steadily increased its license prices every year since 2019. This trend began after a significant pricing model change in mid-2019, when cPanel shifted from a flat-rate license to an account-based licensing structure. Since then, annual price adjustments have become routine – as one industry source notes, “cPanel pricing changes every year” as a standardized practice affecting all partners and customers. Below, we provide historical context for these yearly hikes and a detailed comparison of the official 2025 and 2026 cPanel pricing structures (based on cPanel’s PartnerNOC Licensing Guides).

Historical Context: Yearly Price Hikes Since 2019

The 2019 Pricing Restructure: In June 2019, cPanel (under new ownership by Oakley Capital) introduced a drastic new licensing model. Instead of one price for an unlimited-accounts license, pricing became tiered by the number of accounts on the server. This resulted in substantial cost increases for hosting providers. For example, a dedicated server license that used to cost around $45/month (for unlimited accounts) could jump to $245/month under the new model if the server hosted ~1000 accounts. This 500%+ increase sent shockwaves through the hosting industry, especially for providers with many cPanel accounts per server. cPanel justified the change by noting that pricing had been static for ~20 years and by pointing to product improvements, but the web hosting community's reaction was largely adverse.

Annual Increases 2020–2024: After the 2019 overhaul, cPanel committed to reviewing prices annually. Indeed, starting in 2021, cPanel instituted yearly price hikes (2020 saw the new model’s adoption, and regular increases resumed from 2021 onward). Each year, roughly a 10% increase in base license fees became the norm. For instance, going into 2021, cPanel raised prices for licenses to 100 accounts by about 10% and significantly increased “bulk” per-account fees for servers with more than 100 accounts (a 50–75% per-account increase). Similar adjustments followed in late 2021 for 2022, and late 2022 for 2023, keeping with the pattern of annual rises. By early 2024, a cPanel Premier license (for ~100 accounts) costs around $60.99/month, up from roughly $54–55/month in 2021. In parallel, cPanel introduced an Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) surcharge in 2024 for legacy OS users, further adding to costs for some customers. Each increment, while smaller than the 2019 spike, has compounded over time. The result is that hosting companies have had to adjust their budgets yearly to accommodate these rising licensing fees. Many have either absorbed some costs, passed them to end-users, or explored alternatives (e.g., DirectAdmin, InterWorx) due to cPanel’s pricing trajectory.

In summary, cPanel’s license pricing has consistently trended upward every year since 2019. What began as a one-time restructuring has become an expected annual price hike cycle, contributing to a significantly higher cost of ownership for cPanel over the last several years.

Comparing cPanel License Pricing: 2025 vs. 2026

The table below compares cPanel’s official 2025 vs. 2026 license prices for key tiers. These figures are taken from cPanel’s PartnerNOC Licensing Guides for those years (which detail partner pricing for internal licenses with a bundling agreement). Each tier’s monthly base price is listed, along with the number of cPanel accounts included. For the top-tier Premier package, cPanel’s pricing includes up to 100 accounts in the base fee, with an additional “bulk” per-account fee for each account over 100 on a server.

Note: The Premier package base price covers up to 100 accounts on a server (applicable to either a Cloud or Metal license). For any accounts beyond 100, a “bulk” overage fee applies per additional account (shown in the last row). For 2025, this overage rate was $0.30 per account, which increased to $0.35 in 2026. These PartnerNOC prices assume the hosting provider has a bundling agreement with cPanel (qualifying them for internal licensing rates).

Key Differences (2025 vs 2026): Every license tier became more expensive in 2026. The Solo license (for a single account) rose from $16 to $18 monthly (a 12.5% increase). The Admin tier (up to 5 accounts) increased from $19.75 to $21 (~6% increase). The Pro tier (up to 30 accounts) saw a sharper jump, from $27.25 to $32 (around 17% higher) year-over-year. Plus (up to 50 accounts) edged up from $39.25 to $42 (~7% increase). The base Premier license (up to 100 accounts included) went from $47.00 to $49.50 (about a 5% rise). Additionally, cPanel raised the bulk account fee for any accounts over 100, from $0.30 to $0.35 per extra account (about a 17% increase in the overage cost). In short, 2026 pricing continued the upward trend, with increases ranging from modest (~5–7%) on the higher-tier plans to more substantial double-digit jumps on specific lower-tier plans (notably the Pro tier).

Conclusion

cPanel’s licensing costs have climbed each year since the 2019 restructuring, and the pattern persists into 2025 and 2026. Hosting providers and resellers have had to adapt to these yearly increases to maintain margins and pricing for their customers. The official pricing comparisons between 2025 and 2026 show across-the-board increases in monthly fees for all cPanel license tiers. This consistent rise in costs has become a defining factor in web hosting economics over recent years. While cPanel continues to be a leading control panel with a rich feature set, its annual price hikes remain an essential consideration for hosting companies planning their budgets and for customers evaluating long-term hosting costs. The historical trend suggests that annual adjustments are now the norm – a point to keep in mind as businesses assess cPanel’s value relative to its ever-increasing price.

Sources:

Cpanel Partners NOC Licensing Guide 2025

Cpanel Partners NOC Licensing Guide 2026