back to article cPanel unleashes price hikes on its most dense customers

cPanel has dropped a bombshell on its customers with a price hike for its services that has left some running for the door marked exit. The company, which specialises in interfaces aimed at simplifying website and server management, announced the increases (PDF) without warning, with licences purchased or renewed from now hit …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Explanation

    Greed?

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: Explanation

      “The company, founded in 1997 and snapped up by Oakley Capital last year”

      The “snapped up by Oakley Capital” bit is the explanation.

      1. Chuckitpro

        Re: Explanation

        Yes, but since an investment company "snapped them up" one would expect said investment company to understand price sensitivity - not unleash 300 - 800% increases!! It's a huge gamble, more likely a strategy to kill off cPanel in favour of their other company Plesk?

  2. vFidel

    bruh, seriously?

    "We have contacted cPanel to get its reasons for the hike but have yet to hear back"

    Cuz they're too busy planning on how to count all those fat stacks of filthy lucre they're about to get.

  3. myhandler

    Is there no monopolies commission in Oakley Capital's country of origin?

    Owning Plesk as well, however horrible it is, is cornering the market.

    1. Claverhouse

      There was up to 1999, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission; which was replaced by the Competition Commission; which was replaced by the Competition and Markets Authority; which will be replaced by...

      To answer your question, these substitutions by the British Government serve exactly the same role as do Rebrandings in private companies: driven by Marketing and a loss of nerve into a whimpering acknowledgement of present utter uselessness and a feeble embrace of welcome death.

      So, no.

  4. fredesmite
    Mushroom

    Remember - The CLOUD

    IS USING SOMEONE ELSE"S COMPUTER

    That others are using at the same time

    1. ibmalone

      Re: Remember - The CLOUD

      A while since I've used cPanel, but my understanding was it is traditional software run by the hosting company to provide their customers control over their accounts. They in turn license from cPanel. Not "cloudy" in that sense.

      1. quxinot

        Re: Remember - The CLOUD

        Easy conflation there.

        cPanel is crap, and cloud is crap. So easy to get them mixed around.

    2. Dabooka
      Happy

      Re: Remember - The CLOUD

      Downvoted by those who haven't checked the Reddit link mething...

  5. Claverhouse
    Mushroom

    At Some Point Consumers Will Rise Up And Destroy Private Equity Firms...

    To some extent prices rises are bound to happen, not merely from inflation or Brexit; but these seem a bit steep.

    Very old people may remember that when vBulletin was taken over by Internet Brands, coincidentally prices and tariffs then rose. Oddly enough Internet Brands is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts --- 'Barbarians at the Gates'

  6. Jove Bronze badge

    Take it as a warning to the wise ...

    That services providers of all kinds will look to increase their margins by raising prices once the pricing-cutting options have been exhausted, and/or once they have achieved a measure of market domination.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    It also refers to its employees as "cpeeps".

    For this alone, they deserve to be bombed from orbit.

    Repeatedly.

  8. Twanky
    Coat

    It also refers to its employees as "cpeeps".

    Did anyone else read that as CP-Eeps? See: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Wild_Eep. Can't get the bloody sound out of my head now - so I thought I ought to share the pain.

    Ok, ok, no need to push -->

    1. Claverhouse

      Re: It also refers to its employees as "cpeeps".

      I see a delightful Disney musical, filled with squeaky animatronic singing white robot/mouse-like creatures dancing and turning somersaults as immigrants in Ancient Rome or the American Old West, 50% gay, 20% Chinese and 10% black, with the boys as seamstresses and the girls as warrior princesses.

    2. The Original Steve

      Re: It also refers to its employees as "cpeeps".

      I read it as creeps!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It looks they might have Antitrust Law issues as well:

    http://chng.it/Q6jVTQ8p

    1. DTS-NET

      over 200,000 already signed restore cpanel's old pricing

      https://t.co/n3Y23CYdPZ

  10. DTS-NET

    Our company has decided to boycott cpanel do massive price increase to cpanel users and software partners DTS-NET feels these are very unfair trade practices We have partnered with other software makers to accommodate customers to keep cost low for our customers with better tech!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The geek shall inherit the world

    And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why businesses should use open source tools wherever possible.

  12. HostXNow

    cPanel, drop the Per Account Billing

    It is ok for them to increase their prices slightly, but they should have done gradual price changes over the years. Instead, nothing for 20 years and then a complete change of the licenses plus charge $0.20 per cPanel account is just greed. Per Account Billing can be difficult to do too.

    They would have been best off leaving the VPS and Dedicated Server licenses and increasing the cost of those instead. Per Account Billing is a hassle.

  13. zylstra
    Alert

    cPanel claims benefits for "customers with a lower cPanel account density"

    "While the company claims benefits for "customers with a lower cPanel account density"... "

    Where did they claim that?

  14. Bashy

    Some or most, are forgetting, Plesk did this also a couple of years back........

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