cPanel alternative
Leaving cPanel is a licence decision, a web-server decision, and a migration.
KLYRN is a hosting control panel for Ubuntu 24.04 that counts nothing on a paid edition, runs nginx rather than Apache, keeps root off the network, and reads cPanel's own backup archives so the move is a job rather than a rebuild. This page says what that means, and where cPanel still wins.
The licence
cPanel counts accounts. KLYRN counts servers.
cPanel's published ladder, read on 6 September 2026: Solo at $29.99 a month for one account, Admin at $35.99 for up to five, Pro at $53.99 for up to thirty, Premier at $69.99 for up to a hundred and $0.49 for each account after that. Its page defines an account as "another term for a cPanel user account that manages websites, files, domains, and email accounts". 1
- On KLYRN's paid editions
- Websites, domains, databases, hosting accounts, WordPress sites and Node.js apps are not limited. The server is the limit. A full server costs the same as an empty one.
- On the Free edition
- One server and five sites, available now, no card and no account required. It is the only KLYRN edition with product limits.
- What is not published
- KLYRN's paid prices. They are announced with the first stable release, and no figure appears on this site before then. The edition philosophy.
The web server
nginx as the server, not as a proxy in front of Apache.
cPanel runs Apache managed by EasyApache 4, with nginx available as a reverse proxy in front of it rather
than as the web server. 2 KLYRN runs nginx only, with the configuration
rendered from validated values and tested with nginx -t before it is ever loaded.
| KLYRN | cPanel & WHM | |
|---|---|---|
| Web server | nginx only | Apache via EasyApache 4; nginx as a reverse proxy in front 2 |
.htaccess | Not run. Read on migration, translated into nginx you review, the rest listed by file and line | Native to Apache |
| Operating systems | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on x86_64 only in V1 | AlmaLinux, CloudLinux, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS; no ARM 3 |
| Panel port | 7443, its own TLS listener, independent of nginx | 2083 for cPanel, 2087 for WHM 4 |
| Not hosted, by decision | Included 5 |
Privilege
The process facing the internet cannot become root.
KLYRN is two processes from one binary. The web tier runs as an unprivileged user and cannot open the panel database, execute a program or make an outbound HTTP request. The root core listens on a Unix socket only and exposes a closed list of typed operations. cPanel documents its role tiers; we found no published statement about keeping its web tier off root, so there is nothing to quote against it. Judge KLYRN's model against cPanel's own security pages.
- Browser
-
klyrn-web user klyrn
Sign-in, sessions, the REST API, live events and the panel's static files. Nothing else.
- become root
- open the database
- execute a program
- use a shell
- make outbound HTTP
- write outside its state directory
- Unix socket, mode 0660 root:klyrn · peer credentials checked by the kernel · the actor is re-authorised against core's own records
-
klyrn-core root · never on the network
A closed registry of typed operations: create site, create database, issue certificate, and so on. Each has its own request type, validator, authoriser and audit entry. No operation takes a command string or an unconstrained path.
- nginx · php-fpm · mariadb · systemd · ufw · filesystem
The migration
KLYRN reads cPanel's own archive, and nothing on the old server changes.
Upload a pkgacct archive, or give KLYRN an SSH login: as root it runs cPanel's own
pkgacct; as the account it asks cPanel's API to package that one account. Every domain,
database, user, cron entry and .htaccess directive becomes a plan you read before anything
is written. Database users keep their original password hashes. The imported site is previewed and
verified on the new server before DNS moves, and the old server keeps serving until you change a
record.
Mail does not come across, because KLYRN does not host it. Mailboxes stay with the provider that holds them, MX records are never touched, and the plan tells you how many mailboxes it found before you move. If your customers' mail lives on the cPanel server, moving it to a mail provider is the first step of the migration, not the last.
Where cPanel wins
The reasons to stay, stated plainly.
- Mail. cPanel ships a mail stack; KLYRN does not and will not in V1.
- Apache and
.htaccess. A site that depends on rewrite rules nobody has reviewed keeps working on cPanel and needs a review on KLYRN. - Operating systems. cPanel supports the RHEL family; KLYRN runs on Ubuntu 24.04 only.
- Years in production. cPanel has run other people's businesses for decades. KLYRN is a beta, tested on real servers and not finished. What that means in practice.
- Buying it today. cPanel sells a licence this afternoon. KLYRN's paid editions are not on sale; the Free edition is what you can have now.
Sources
Every cPanel claim on this page, with the page it came from.
Read on 6 September 2026. Prices and documentation change; the date is what makes this checkable.
- cpanel.net/pricing: the Solo, Admin, Pro and Premier tiers, their account limits and monthly prices, the per-additional-account charge, and the definition of an account.
- docs.cpanel.net: EasyApache 4 and NGINX with reverse proxy (Apache as the web server, nginx as a reverse proxy, PHP-FPM through EasyApache 4).
- docs.cpanel.net: system requirements and AlmaLinux requirements (supported operating systems and the statement that ARM is not supported).
- api.docs.cpanel.net: cPanel API introduction and WHM API introduction (ports 2083 and 2087).
- docs.cpanel.net: Exim Configuration Manager and Mailserver Configuration (the mail stack).
cPanel and WHM are trademarks of their owner; KLYRN is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of it. The full comparison covers Plesk, DirectAdmin and CyberPanel with the same rule: no claim without its source.
Still on cPanel?
Hear the prices the day they are set.
Free needs no waiting: install it on a fresh server this afternoon. This list is for the paid editions, whose prices are announced with the first stable release.
One email when pricing and the first release are announced. Nothing else.