cPanel is the panel most Indian web businesses grew up with, and moving it from shared hosting to a VPS of your own is a common step. The install itself is easy. The decisions around it, which OS, which size, whether cPanel is even the right panel, are where people waste money.
Before you install
cPanel only installs on a clean server. Supported operating systems at the time of writing are AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu LTS; pick AlmaLinux unless you have a reason not to. The server needs a static public IP, a hostname that resolves (something like srv1.yourdomain.com), and no other web server or mail server already present.
Memory: cPanel itself wants about 2 GB. With a few sites and their PHP workers, 8 GB is the sensible floor. Agencies and resellers should start at 16 GB.
The install
As root on the fresh server:
hostnamectl set-hostname srv1.yourdomain.com
cd /home && curl -o latest -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest && sh latestThen go and make tea. Twenty minutes to an hour depending on the server. When it finishes, WHM is at https://your.server.ip:2087, log in as root, accept the licence terms, set a contact email and nameservers, and you are in.
The licence activates against the server's IP. If you bought the VPS from us with cPanel ticked, all of this is done before the welcome email arrives.
First-login checklist in WHM
- Set the server's nameservers, or point it at your DNS provider.
- Enable AutoSSL so every account gets a free certificate.
- Turn on the firewall. cPanel does not ship one; install CSF or use the OS firewall.
- Create a package (disk, bandwidth, databases) before creating the first account.
- Set backups: destination, schedule, retention. Backups are your job, not the panel's.
- Update preferences: automatic updates on, release tier Stable.
What it costs
The VPS from ₹584 a month on annual billing, plus the cPanel licence at ₹2,999 a month. An 8 GB VPS with cPanel is about ₹4,000 a month before GST. cPanel's licence is per server, with no limit on accounts on our plans, so a reseller with forty client sites pays the same as one with four.
When Plesk or DirectAdmin is the better panel
Plesk, ₹1,699 a month, is the choice if any of your sites run on Windows (IIS, ASP.NET, MSSQL), if you manage many WordPress sites and want the WordPress Toolkit's staging and bulk updates, or if you simply want to pay ₹1,300 less for a panel that does nearly everything cPanel does.
DirectAdmin, ₹500 a month, is light and quick and enough for a developer running a handful of their own sites. It is not the panel to resell hosting on.
cPanel remains the right answer when your team already knows WHM, when clients expect the cPanel login they have always had, or when you resell cPanel accounts and the brand is part of the product.
Moving from a cPanel host
Account-level transfer is built into WHM: Transfer Tool in the source host's details, it copies accounts, email, databases and DNS zones. We run it for you, free, when you move to a URLStart VPS, and you check each site on a temporary address before DNS changes.
Questions we get asked
Can I install cPanel on a server that already has sites? No. It needs a clean OS. Move the sites to a fresh server with cPanel instead.
Ubuntu or AlmaLinux for cPanel? Both are supported. AlmaLinux has the longer track record with cPanel and fewer surprises.
Is there a cPanel trial? cPanel offers a 15-day trial licence; on our VPS the licence is simply part of the add-on.
How many accounts can I create? As many as the server's RAM supports. Our licence has no account cap.
Can I switch from cPanel to Plesk later? Yes, with a migration. Plesk Migrator pulls from cPanel; we do it for you.
