10 signs your hosting provider is about to raise its prices

Anyone who resells hosting knows this: the panel's price isn't set by the market, it's set by whoever owns the panel. And from 2017 onwards, the most widely used panels have, for the most part, ended up in the hands of the same private equity fund. Recognising the warning signs before the email with the new price list arrives means you won't discover the increase only when it's already on next month's invoice.

The textbook case: cPanel and Plesk

The pattern is well documented. Oakley Capital, a London-based private equity firm, invested in Plesk in April 2017 and in cPanel in October 2018, consolidating both under the WebPros holding company alongside WHMCS and SolusVM. In 2019, Oakley Capital, a London-based private equity firm, acquired cPanel through a holding company. Almost immediately, the pricing model was completely overhauled. On 27 June 2019, cPanel announced the switch from flat-rate licensing to per-account pricing, effective from 1 September 2019.

By December 2019, Oakley had already sold WebPros on to another fund, CVC Fund VII: Oakley Capital, the group that controlled WebPros, sold the company to CVC Fund VII. "So, the cycle continues with price increases, as those investments need to generate returns," as one user noted on the official Plesk forums.

10 signs to watch for

1. Acquisition by a private equity fund of software you use in production (panel, billing, CDN).
2. Switch from per-server to per-account or per-user licensing: this is the mechanism that turns a fixed cost into one that grows alongside your business.
3. Introduction of a tiered fee above an account threshold: in 2026, cPanel added a new fee of $0.49 per account for servers with more than 100 accounts.
4. Consolidation of direct competitors under the same owner: cPanel and Plesk, historically rivals, have both been owned by WebPros since 2020.
5. Announcements made just before year-end, with separate effective dates for new and existing licences.
6. Justifications based on "new features" rather than operating costs: cPanel said the price increase is a result of its new features that have added value to the platform, including built-in server monitoring, AI website generator in Sitejet Builder, AI app builder, and site quality monitoring.
7. Steady year-on-year percentage increases, each small on its own, but which add up over time.
8. Restructuring of volume discounts for large customers, either upwards or downwards depending on spending thresholds.
9. Resale of the PE fund to another fund: every change of ownership tends to reopen the cycle of price increases.
10. Public statements from industry operators flagging the pattern: Jon Berry, president of Green Olive Tree, said that "if you compare it to what it was in 2019, you can see that prices have risen by more than 300% in many cases," adding that "this, however, is a symptom of a bigger problem: the acquisition of hosting-related products by venture capital funds."

cPanel's 2025→2026 figures

Tier	Accounts covered	2025 price	2026 price	Change
Solo Cloud	1	$27.99	$29.99	+$2.00
Admin	up to 5	$34.74	$35.99	+$1.25
Pro	up to 30	$49.24	$53.99	+$4.75
Premier	up to 100	$67.49	$69.99	+$2.50
Premier Bulk	each account over 100	$0.44/account	$0.49/account	+$0.05

Data published by HostingAdvice, effective 1 January 2026 for existing licences and 16 December 2025 for new ones.

How to prepare

Before renewing a licence agreement, read the notice clause: many providers reserve the right to change the price with just 30 days' notice, no more. Calculate your margin per account, not per server: with a tiered pricing model, the panel's cost can end up exceeding that of the underlying infrastructure itself. Keep an eye on the provider's official announcements and changelogs, not just forums: that's where the effective date is spelled out in full. Finally, if you're running hundreds of accounts on a single node, work out in advance how much it would cost you to cross the next threshold: that's where the bill really changes.