In my cPanel price piece, the honest part was buried in a disclosure section: Plesk raised its prices too. This is that story told properly, because the real comparison is not "cPanel went up, Plesk stayed flat." Both went up. What matters is the gap that is left after both increases land.
The short answer
Plesk's new prices take effect January 1, 2027, about two weeks after cPanel's. At some tiers Plesk raised prices by a bigger percentage than cPanel did. It does not matter as much as it sounds, because Plesk started lower. After both increases, Plesk is still cheaper at every matched tier: by $168 to $300 a year at the sizes freelancers run, by almost nothing at exactly 100 accounts, and by a growing amount past 100, because cPanel charges per extra account and Plesk does not.
Plesk's new prices
Monthly prices from Plesk's 2027 licensing guide. The structural change is at the top: Web Host used to cost one price on a VPS and a higher one on a dedicated server. In 2027 both become the same price.
| Edition | Domains | Now | From Jan 1, 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Admin | Up to 10 | $16.99 | $18.99 | +11.8% |
| Web Pro | Up to 30 | $29.99 | $33.99 | +13.3% |
| Web Host (VPS) | Unlimited | $62.99 | $73.99 | +17.5% |
| Web Host (dedicated) | Unlimited | $69.99 | $73.99 | +5.7% |
Give Plesk this much: a 17.5% jump on the VPS edition of Web Host is a bigger hit than anything on cPanel's card. Nobody at WebPros is the good guy in this story. There is only a cheaper line item and a more expensive one.
The head-to-head, after both increases
This is the comparison that actually decides things: 2027 cPanel prices against 2027 Plesk prices, at matched scale, per year.
| Your setup | cPanel 2027 | Plesk 2027 | Plesk saves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just your own sites | Solo, $395.88/yr | Web Admin, $227.88/yr | $168/yr |
| Around 20 to 30 client sites | Pro, $707.88/yr | Web Pro, $407.88/yr | $300/yr |
| Around 100 accounts | Premier, $923.88/yr | Web Host, $887.88/yr | $36/yr |
| Around 150 accounts | Premier + overage, $1,253.88/yr | Web Host, $887.88/yr | $366/yr |
The 100-account row is the one the marketing never shows. At exactly 100, the two panels cost nearly the same. Past it, cPanel adds $0.55 a month for every extra account while Plesk's Web Host stays flat, so the gap opens up again. The honest summary: Plesk wins clearly at freelancer scale, ties at 100, and wins again at real hosting scale. It never actually loses.
Three caveats before you decide
Domains are not accounts. Plesk counts domains, cPanel counts accounts. If you pack many client sites into a single cPanel account, cPanel's tiers stretch further than this table suggests. If you give each client their own account, which is the setup I argued for in the first piece, the table is the right comparison.
Same owner. WebPros owns cPanel, Plesk, and WHMCS, and WHMCS goes up in January too. Switching panels does not escape the annual increase cycle. It resets your price level lower inside the same cycle. Budget for an increase every year either way, because that is now clearly the pattern.
Switching has a cost too. Migration is unpaid hours, and clients notice panel changes. The saving has to beat your weekend. At $300 a year it does. At $36 it does not.
What I would do
If the cPanel math already had you thinking about switching, do it once and do it before December 16, so you never pay cPanel's new rates at all. Plesk is where I would land at freelancer scale: same job, lower level, and the WordPress Toolkit is genuinely good if your client sites run WordPress.
If you are staying on cPanel, at least check your tier. Plenty of people pay for Pro, which covers 30 accounts, while running five. Admin covers five accounts for $20 a month less. That is $240 a year for a dropdown change, no migration required.
Either way, decide with the 2027 numbers, not the ones on your last invoice. Those are already gone.