Shock waves went through the web hosting industry this month when cPanel Inc. (the authors of Web Host Manager and cPanel) announced a change in their license pricing structure. Not only are prices increasing dramatically, but cPanel Inc. gave very little notice of the price change.
Previously, cPanel licenses were priced per server. Moving forward, we will be paying an additional license fee per hosting account as well. In simple terms, we will be paying a license fee that is three to four times as much as before. This hurts our wallet, and the way cPanel Inc. went about this hurts our feelings.
We are not the only ones that are not pleased with this development — the hosting industry is fuming, and many hosting providers are talking of abandoning cPanel for other systems. We will stick with cPanel, however. We recognise it is the best control panel available (there is a reason why it is so popular) and we (and by implication you as well) will have to live with the prices increase. If you can’t beat them, then join them…
How does this affect you?
Our additional cPanel license cost amounts to US$ 0.10 per hosting account. This does not seem like much, but when you multiple it by a couple thousand, the cost becomes substantial. We have no choice but pass on some of this cost to our clients:
- Shared hosting plans (Basic, Advanced and Premium): We choose to not raise prices, but rather offset the additional cost by adding new business. We always appreciate it when you refer a friend to Anno!
- Reseller hosting plans: With immediate effect, are increasing the price of our service to you by US$ 5.00 / R 50.00 per Reseller Layer. This will cover most (but not all) of our new expenses. We are now also imposing a limit of 50 hosting accounts per Reseller Layer (previously no limit). This may mean that our resellers you may have to invest in additional Reseller Layers sooner than planned, sorry.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this matter.