PartnerNOC

Licensing Guide
Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Who is this for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Why change? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

• Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

• We Only Get Paid When You Get Paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

• What is new? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

• Implementation Support for Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

New Licensing Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• Bulk Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• What is a cPanel Account or User? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• Fixed Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• Fixed Premier Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

• Auto-Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Announcing cPanel Solo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

• Bundling Defined for cPanel Solo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

License Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Discounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

• Discount Exclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Manage2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Yearly License Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

cPanel Certified Partner Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
 Executive Summary
This licensing guide provides an in-depth overview
of cPanel’s new account based pricing and licensing
structure, the cPanel Certification Program, and cPanel
Solo™ for cPanel Certified Partners™.

cPanel’s license structure and the way we price our

products is changing. Our pricing and licensing structure
will now be standardized for all of our customers
and include multiple Tier choices. This new structure
defines the price of each license based on the number
of Accounts hosted on the server, reflecting the value
received by the owner; now, customers only pay for what
they use.

Along with new account based pricing, our Tiers, and

product offering names have changed. Moving forward,
VPS is now Cloud, and Dedicated is now Metal.

We are transitioning everyone to monthly licenses, and

removing the option for annual or multi-year licenses.

This change allows PartnerNOCs to be billed only for the

number of Accounts they are hosting each month. As
yearly licenses come up for renewal, we will convert these
licenses to monthly licenses unless you choose to have
these licenses expire. This can be done by changing the
settings on the List Yearly Licenses interface in Manage2.

On September 1st, 2019, we will introduce Auto-Scaling

(see glossary for definition) Packages, Fixed Packages, and
transition all existing monthly licenses to the new account
based pricing and licensing structure. Yearly licenses that
come up for renewal after September 1st, 2019 will also be
able to utilize these Packages by adjusting the settings on
the List Yearly Licenses interface in Manage2.

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 3
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for current cPanel PartnerNOCs, cPanel Certified Partners,
and Distributors wanting to learn more about the recent changes to
licensing structure, and our shift to account based pricing. We hope
that this guide is a useful summary of these changes. Please refer to the
Partner agreements and our new pricing and licensing information at
cPanel.net/noc-agreements/ for the specific terms of the changes.
Why Change?
Our goal is to be as transparent as possible with prices. We want to simplify
the process of adding new servers and make it easier to become a cPanel
customer. Additionally, it is important for us to provide licenses that target
smaller instances opening up a new revenue opportunity for our Partners.
Historically, cPanel has based its services and pricing around a VPS or
dedicated license with unlimited cPanel Accounts. When cPanel defined
its original pricing structure, some twenty plus years ago, servers were
not as powerful as they are today. Thanks to constant innovation in
the hardware sector and optimization in our software, we can now run
hundreds of websites on a single processor system. With this change, we
align ourselves with this growing technology.
As the company has evolved, cPanel has added more development
resources, more structure, and more brain power that, in turn, makes
it possible to take on an increasing number of development projects.
Adjusting our prices will ensure that we can continue to invest in product
development, thrive in an increasingly hostile security landscape, grow
our customer ecosystem, and remain a leader in hosting automation.
The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated.
Benefits
The benefits begin September 1st, 2019, the day we switch to the new
structure. We are focusing on easing the common upgrade path from
shared-customer to private cloud-customer. This new structure opens
up the possibility of deploying lower density customer instances without
the need to purchase a large multi-Account license. It defines the price
of each license based on the number of Accounts hosted on the server,
reflecting the value being received by the owner. By continuing to focus on
the user experience and take into consideration cPanel’s Account density
per instance, cPanel Partners will be able to provision their hosting
infrastructure more efficiently.
Partners with a lower cPanel Account density will also see benefits in
performance, resource utilization, and in some cases, a reduction in their
invoicing.
We Only Get Paid When You Get Paid
After implementing the new pricing structure, if your customer fails to pay
for their cPanel license, Partners will be able to request a service credit for
up to one month via Manage2 on a license by license basis. For example, if
one of your resellers adds 100 accounts and they don’t pay their bill, then
you can request a refund from cPanel Customer Service. Please contact
Customer Service for additional details.
What is new?
• Account based pricing
• New License Types
• Monthly Billing (Yearly licenses no longer available)
• cPanel Solo for Partners
• New Discounts
• Flexible Billing Options with Auto-Scaling
Implementation Support for Partners
We understand that account based pricing requires additional effort
from our Partners. We want to help ease this transition by providing
implementation support to our Partners. We will apply a one-time credit
to cover part or all of your September 2019 invoice up to $10,000 USD.
For complete detail on our implementation support program, including all
eligibility requirements, please contact your Account Manager.
Partners can find out who their account manager is by logging into
Manage2 and selecting the Account Manager tab.
cPanel.net | 4
New Licensing Explained
Cloud Packages (formerly VPS) will be offered on all Account Tiers, while
Metal (formerly Dedicated) packages will only be available on Premier. Below
is an example of our new pricing Tiers and Account limits for each Tier.
cPanel Admin Cloud Up to 5 Accounts
Premier Fixed Packages
In addition to being able to make any of our packages fixed, with the
exception of cPanel Solo, we now offer new Premier Fixed Packages
that come in 50 Account increments starting with 100 Accounts. This is
for Partners who find that Auto-Scaling is not a good fit (see definition
below). We are offering these fixed price packages at a discount. Additional
discounts apply to the base price only.

cPanel Pro Cloud Up to 30 Accounts

Total Base Price Bulk Account
Total
cPanel Plus Cloud Up to 50 Accounts Accounts (Discountable) Price

cPanel Premier Cloud Up to 100 Accounts Premier Fixed 100 100 $32.00 $0.00 $32.00

cPanel Premier Cloud Bulk Accounts Each Account above 100 Accounts Premier Fixed 150 150 $32.00 $2.50 $34.50

Premier Fixed 200 200 $32.00 $7.50 $39.50

cPanel Premier Metal Up to 100 Accounts Premier Fixed 250 250 $32.00 $12.50 $44.50

cPanel Premier Metal Bulk Accounts Each Account above 100 Accounts •••
Premier Fixed 400 400 $32.00 $27.50 $59.50
Introducing cPanel Plus Cloud (50 Account Package) Premier Fixed 450 450 $32.00 $32.50 $64.50
We will add a new 50 account “Plus” package available at Partner pricing •••
for $25/month USD to our Cloud offering for customers who aren’t quite
* Each additional 50 Accounts above 250 adds $5.00/month in licensing cost. Pricing in USD.
ready for a 100 account+ Premier license.
Auto-Scaling
Bulk Accounts Auto-Scaling is the seamless transition between Account Tiers based on
Each additional Account on a cPanel & WHM® server over 100 Accounts is the number of Accounts being used. By default, all Partner licenses are on
considered a Bulk Account. These Accounts qualify for a discounted bulk an Auto-Scaling package.
price of $0.10 per additional Account. As this pricing already includes a 50%
discount off the cPanel Store price of $0.20, no other Partner Discounts How Auto-Scaling works
apply. When an Auto-Scaling package is selected, during monthly
invoicing Partners will be invoiced for the package that
What is a cPanel Account or User? accommodates the number of Accounts on the server.
A cPanel Account often called a cPanel user, is an Account that logs into There is no need to upgrade or downgrade packages,
the cPanel interface to manage their website. The root administrator or and Partners are only billed for the package that best
reseller typically creates these Accounts. accommodates the number of Accounts they have.

Fixed Packages Auto-Scaling example

A fixed package is a package that limits the server to a fixed quantity
of Accounts. Fixed packages are not available when selecting cPanel
Solo. When the server reaches the number of Accounts included in the
package, Partners will need to upgrade the license to allow additional
Accounts. Partners can upgrade or downgrade to a different fixed
package within Manage2 or via the API. These changes will be reflected on
your next billing statement.
For example, if a server has five cPanel Accounts on cPanel
Admin Cloud and adds ten more cPanel Accounts before
the next billing cycle, that license will be billed as cPanel Pro
Cloud on the 15th of the month. If eleven cPanel Accounts
are terminated from the server at a later date, the license
will be billed as cPanel Admin Cloud on the 15th of the next
month.

Auto-Scaling Month to Month Cloud Example

Month Accounts Billed Package

January 15th 4 Admin

February 15th 8 Pro

March 15th 35 Plus

April 15th 57 Premier

May 15th 28 Pro

June 15th 115 Premier with 15 Bulk Accounts
July 15th 130 Premier with 30 Bulk Accounts

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 5
Announcing cPanel Solo™
cPanel Solo provides the power of cPanel & WHM for a single Account. The cPanel Solo Licenses (With Bundling Agreement and Certification)

single Account system is the perfect way to leverage the power of cPanel Accounts cPanel Certified Partner
& WHM without asking customers to shoulder the burden of a multi Cloud 1 $7.00
Account server license. cPanel Solo was built to help ease the upgrade
Metal 1 $10.00
path from shared hosting to single-Account cloud hosting, but has also
proven to be an attractive entry point for new and returning cPanel &
WHM users. Discounts
cPanel Certified Partners can now take advantage of cPanel Solo by There are two possible discounts available to Partners:
offering a bundled solution. Under this pricing structure, cPanel Solo
Revenue Discount
licenses are available to Partners who select an Auto-Scaling package
and bundle cPanel Licenses with their services as defined in the Bundling The revenue discount is based on the Partnerʼs total monthly gross
Agreement (contact your Account Manager to get started with Bundling). Internal cPanel license revenue. Gross revenue is calculated by
cPanel Solo licenses are the same low price for all Partners and therefore adding the non-discounted Partner price of all Internal cPanel
do not qualify for any additional discounts. licenses. External cPanel licenses or 3rd party licenses (e.g.,
CloudLinux) are not taken into account.
Bundling Defined for cPanel Solo
cPanel Certified Partner Discount
A simplified explanation of Bundling would be that Partners must offer a
cPanel & WHM license at no additional cost to their customers in qualifying Partners can earn an additional 2% discount when they achieve
environments, and that cPanel & WHM must be the pre-selected choice for cPanel Certified Partner status. For more information on how
their customers. Partners can achieve cPanel Certified Partner status, see page 9.

Bundling Prerequisites:
Partner Discount Levels
• Active Partner in good standing
• cPanel Certified Partner status Minimum Monthly
Non-Certified Certified
Gross Revenue*
• Bundling Agreement in place
$500 0% 2%

$2,000 4% 6%
Auto-Scaling Month to Month Example with cPanel Solo
$5,000 8% 10%
Month Accounts Billed Package
$15,000 12% 14%
January 15th 1 Solo
$30,000 16% 18%
February 15th 2 Admin
$75,000 20% 22%
March 15th 1 Solo
$250,000 24% 26%
April 15th 57 Premier
$750,000 28% 30%
May 15th 28 Pro $2,500,000 32% 34%
June 15th 115 Premier with 15 Bulk Accounts $5,000,000 36% 38%
July 15th 130 Premier with 30 Bulk Accounts
* Monthly Gross Revenue is the sum of all the internal cPanel Licenses invoiced each month.

Discount Exclusions
License Pricing This new structure starts by giving all Partners the same low price for
cPanel Solo and a 50% discount on Bulk Account prices, which are the
Admin Pro Plus Premier
same prices for all Partners. cPanel Solo and Bulk Account prices are not
Accounts Up to 5 Up to 30 Up to 50 Up to 100 Bulk Accounts eligible for any additional discounts, including Revenue Discounts and
cPanel Certified Partner Discounts. External cPanel licenses or 3rd party
cPanel Store Pricing licenses are not discounted.
Cloud $20.00 $30.00 N/A $45.00 $0.20
Metal N/A N/A N/A $45.00 $0.20 For more information, visit our FAQs.
https://go.cpanel.net/partnerfaqs
Partner Pricing

Cloud $12.50 $17.50 $25.00 $32.00 $0.10

Metal N/A N/A N/A $32.00 $0.10

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 6
Manage2
This License structure change will be reflected in our license Management Billing History Function
portal, Manage2. This API function will show the user counts for historic billing cycles
(available after September 1st, 2019)
The List Active Licenses page offers the status and upgrade paths available
for each License; Customers can upgrade or downgrade between Tiers New Functionality in Manage2:
anytime. Changes will be reflected on your next billing statement.
• The ability to export the number of Accounts on each server by license
API Updates as a .csv file.
The following updates have been published to our API: • cPanel Accounts and Max Accounts will now be included in the
https://go.cpanel.net/manage2apiguide Manage2 interface.

• Partners will be able to preview a sample invoice that reflects the new
List License Function
account based license model by checking the announcements area in
This API function now includes the number of Accounts on the server
Manage2.
associated with the license.
https://go.cpanel.net/manage2-api-license

Raw Lookup Function

This API function now includes the number of Accounts on the server
associated with a license.
https://go.cpanel.net/manage2-lookup

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 7
Yearly License Conversions
As yearly licenses come up for renewal, we will convert these licenses
to monthly licenses unless you choose to have these licenses expire by
changing the settings on the List Yearly Licenses interface in Manage2.

For yearly license conversions after September 1st, 2019, the conversion
options on the List Yearly Licenses interface in Manage2 will reflect the new
licensing structure with the opportunity to select an Auto-Scaling or Fixed
Package. The default selection will be an Auto-Scaling package based on
your server’s environment type (Metal or Cloud).

Shown below is an example of the List Yearly Licenses interface in Manage2.

Partners can control what happens when yearly licenses come up for
renewal.

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 8
cPanel Certified Partner Program
When does this program start? How long does a certification last?
The cPanel Certified Partner program launched on June 4th, 2019. Certification begins the day Partners reach the required number
Partners who contact their Account Manager and commit to getting of certified employees and lasts through January 31st the following
certified by the end of 2019, can benefit from the discount immediately. year. Certifications for 2020 have the ability to be earned as early as
January 1st, 2019 and will remain valid until January 31st, 2021. Similarly,
How does a PartnerNOC achieve certified status? Certifications for 2021 will be available to be earned on January 1st, 2020,
PartnerNOCs will be considered cPanel Certified Partners after a defined and will be valid through January 31st, 2022.
number of their employees successfully achieve cPanel University
certifications in all three of the following certification Tiers:
First Day Last Day
Date Certification Badge Received
Certification can Certification can
expires
cPanel Sales Professional (CPSP) be earned be earned
(Good Through)

The cPanel Sales Professional certification track covers the

Now 12/31/2020 1/31/2021 2020
features, benefits, and elemental usage of cPanel & WHM,
providing individuals with the skills and knowledge needed to 1/1/2020 12/31/2021 1/31/2022 2021
effectively and responsibly sell cPanel & WHM licenses to their 1/1/2021 12/31/2022 1/31/2023 2022
customers.

cPanel Professional (CPP)
The cPanel Professional certification track is the first step
in building a fundamental understanding of cPanel from an
end-user perspective. It is designed to test their knowledge of
essential internet technologies and their application through the
use of the cPanel interface.
WHM Administrator (CWA)
The WHM Administrator certification track will test their
knowledge of server administration within a WHM server
interface environment, covering web server setup, email
troubleshooting, custom DNS configurations, MySQL
administration, and more.
What happens when a PartnerNOC joins the Program?
Partners will have a high-quality, printable certificate to represent their
official certified status, as well as a visible status indicator to be displayed
alongside their Partner name in our Partner Directory.
One significant change that will also accompany cPanel Certified Partner
status is the automatic escalation to the Ultra Priority technical support
tickets queue, providing the fastest support response times of any of our
existing ticket queues. In addition to this, cPanel Certified Partners will
receive a badge to use in showcasing their status online.

How many certified employees are needed for a

PartnerNOC to achieve Certified status?
We have tailored this Program for cPanel Partners to prepare all support
teams to provide the best support to all cPanel & WHM users. The
number of employees that will need to pass certification in the above
three certification courses is directly related to the number of cPanel
Licenses attributed to the Partner.
The following chart can be used to identify your company’s 2020 certification requirement:

License Range Certified Employees Required

0 – 49 Licenses 1
50 – 2,999 Licenses 2
3,000–3,999 Licenses 3
4,000 – 4,999 Licenses 4
5,000 – 5,999 Licenses 5
6,000 – 6,999 Licenses 6
7,000 – 7,999 Licenses 7
8,000 – 8,999 Licenses 8
9,000 – 9,999 Licenses 9
10,000 – 11,999 Licenses 10
12,000 – 13,999 Licenses 11
14,000 – 15,999 Licenses 12

+1 Employee required for each additional 2,000 licenses for Accounts exceeding 10,000.

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 9
Glossary of Terms
Distributor: A PartnerNOC who has entered into a Distributor
Account Based Licensing: The new license types are based on the
Amendment with cPanel. A Distributor Amendment gives the PartnerNOC
number of Accounts hosted on a server.
the ability to resell cPanel products on external servers
Auto-Scaling: The seamless transition between Tiers based on the
External License: Licenses other than Internal Licenses.
number of Accounts on the server at the time of invoicing: the 15th of
each month. Fixed Package: A fixed package is a package that limits the server to
a fixed quantity of Accounts. Fixed packages are not available when
Bulk Accounts: Any Account on a cPanel & WHM server over 100
selecting cPanel Solo.
Accounts is considered a Bulk Account.
Internal License: cPanel-approved License owned or leased and
Bundling: Occurs when Partners offer a cPanel & WHM license at no
operated by the PartnerNOC located within a cPanel-approved facility
additional cost to their customers in qualifying environments, when
owned and operated by the PartnerNOC.
cPanel & WHM is the pre-selected choice for their customers, and they
sign a Bundling Agreement. Metal: A license for a physical dedicated server in which the client leases
an entire server not shared with anyone else.
cPanel Certified Partner: A PartnerNOC who has achieved cPanel
Certified Partner status by completing the requirements of the cPanel Packages: A combination of license type and Tier.
Certified Partner Program.
PartnerNOC: A cPanel customer who has entered into a PartnerNOC
Cloud: A license for a virtual private server (VPS) or a virtual machine sold Agreement with cPanel. A PartnerNOC Agreement is only available to
as a service by an Internet hosting provider. certain cPanel customers who, among other things, maintain their own
servers.
cPanel Account or User: A cPanel Account often called a cPanel user, is
an Account created by the root administrator or reseller, who logs into the Tier: A specific named license such as: Solo, Admin, Pro, or Premier.
cPanel interface to manage their website.

The full terms and conditions of these programs and pricing are available in your contract and on our website. The programs and
processes above may require additional documentation, and individual participation may be terminated. cPanel.net | 10