DirectAdmin VS cPanel – The Better Control Panel for WordPress
DirectAdmin and cPanel are two giants in the field, managing for millions of websites worldwide. However, when people make a choice between the two, they are confused for the commons and differences between two control panels and don’t know which one is exactly better for their websites.
To eliminate readers’ confusion, we come out this comparison of DirectAdmin VS cPanel, contrasting them in detail, including features, ease of use, affordability, expandability, and more. After reading about the content, you can have a clear understanding about each control panel and know which one is your right choice.
DirectAdmin VS cPanel – Overall Rating
Before contrasting DirectAdmin with cPanel, we have first made an overall rating table in the below, which shows that cPanel is highlighted for the ease of use, features, and affordability while DirectAdmin keeps a balance between price and simplify.
| Features | DirectAdmin | cPanel |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation |  |
 |
| Requirements | |
 |
| Pricing | |
|
| Features |  |
|
| Management | |
 |
DirectAdmin is a paid web hosting control panel that comes with a graphical interface. Designed to help webmasters manage their websites easier, it includes useful basic features, such as FTP management, File manager, Site statistics, Email management, and advanced features.
cPanel is one of the most famous web hosting control panel that is widely used by countless of web hosting providers, webmasters, data centers, system admins and developers. It is simple and power, along with an intuitive interface that includes management options for preferences, mail, files, logs, security, domains, software and other advanced features.
In the following content, we compare them in every aspect and help you understand their advantages and disadvantages.
Requirements
Just like trees need fertile soil to thrive, control panels work well on the proper environment. The below table lists the minimum requirements of DirectAdmin and cPanel. So you can make sure that your system is properly configured before ordering any control panel.
| Features | DirectAdmin | cPanel |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 2 GB | 512 MB |
| CPU | 512 MHz | 256 MHz |
| Disk Space | 2 GB (After Linux installed) | 20 GB |
| Supported OS | RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, FreeBSD, and Debian | CentOS 5.x &6.x, Red Had Enterprise Linux version 5 & 6, CloudLinux v5 and v6 |
DirectAdmin is fully compatible with RedHat Enterprise, CentOS, FreeBSD, and Debian. It high recommends a processor of a least 500 MHz, a minimum 1 GB of memory with a least 2 GB swap memory and 2 GB free space. Besides, for customers who expect high traffic levels, then they need more memory, processor power and disk space. As well, your server must has 1 IP address; especially, you will need a least 2 IP addresses for DNS control.
cPanel also has its unique requirement. It needs a minimum 266 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, and 20 GB hard disk. It supports various operating systems, such as CentOS 5.x &6.x, Red Had Enterprise Linux version 5 & 6, Cloud Linux v5 and v6. As for software, it is completely compatible with KVM, Linux-VServer 2008 hyper-V, OpenVZ, Oracle VM VitualBox, Virtuozzo, VMware Server, Xen, Xen Express, and XenServer.
Pricing
Pricing is the top concern when people purchase a control panel. Directadmin is affordable, starting at $29/mo for the monthly billing. For people who have full budget, they may consider the longer billing time as yearly billing for $200 per year or $299 for a lifetime license.
cPanel comes with 1-year, 2-year and 3-year billing system, pricing for $200 annually for VPS cost and $425 annually for Dedicated Cost. However, customers can purchase the license from a distributor that always charges for $15 to $20 annually.
In addition, many web hosting companies offer with free cPanel, such as BlueHost, InMotion Hosting, and HostGator. They all provide cPanel within the hosting package but never charges for extra money. In this case, although cPanel is more expensive than DirectAdmin, customers can still get cPanel more affordably.
Ease of Use
As using for website and server management, the usability of DirectAdmin and cPanel are awarded by many users. In fact, both control panels are easy to use, coming with graphic and easy to understand interface.
DirectAdmin gives users 3 menu options: Email Management, Advanced Features, and Your Account. As it presents all entries with text, users are always confused to find what you are looking for within the admin area.
However, cPanel displays the icons and names of all services. It comes out 9 sections, like Mail, Logs, Files, Domains, Security, Preferences, Advanced, Software/Servers and Databases. With reasonable classification, you can easily find what you need on cPanel. Besides, you can customize the style, set full graphics, hide icons, reset all interface settings, reveal all boxes, and reset box order, and so on.
Features
As feature decides the power of the control panel, many people hope to learn about the core features of DirectAdmin and cPanel. For both control panels, they include the basic features for site management, such as Email menu, FTP menu, File manager, Statistics menu, site backup, MySQL database, directory password protection, and so on. Besides, both support a lot of administrator features and reseller features.
In details, cPanel is still richer featured than DirectAdmin. It includes a lot of services and advanced features, such as CGI Center, Perl Module, Site Software, PHP peak packages, PHP configuration, Apache Handlers, Image Manager, Network Tools, and so on. Besides, users are allowed to add plugins and modules with easy methods but without any additional cost. By contrast, the cost of DirectAdmin expandability is very high.
Conclusion – cPanel is Recommended!
By contrasting all details between DirectAdmin and cPanel, we personally prefer cPanel. It is the most popular control panel over the world, coming with rich features and easy management to help you handle with your website account, server and other systems.
For customers who are expecting to choose cPanel to management their web hosting account, we recommend them choosing professional cPanel web hosting in the below. They all offer free cPanel with stunning web hosting features and excellent performance.
| Rank | Company | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  BlueHost |
To learn more, visit http://www.bluehost.com
|
$3.95/mo |
| 2 |  InMotion Hosting |
To learn more, visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com
|
$3.49/mo |
| 3 |  HostGator |
To learn more, visit http://www.hostgator.com
|
$3.71/mo |
