If you run a web hosting business or you’re building one licensing costs are one of the first things that will quietly eat into your margins. cPanel, Plesk, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed each one is essential, each one carries a monthly fee, and if you’re buying them all directly from the vendors, you’re almost certainly paying far more than you need to.
This post breaks down exactly what each license costs when bought directly versus what you pay at Tremhost, so you can make an informed decision with real numbers in front of you. No fluff, no vague claims just an honest comparison.
And right now, Tremhost is running a 50% off promotion across all licenses, which makes the numbers even more compelling.
Why shared licenses exist (and why they’re completely legitimate)
Before the comparison, it’s worth addressing the question that most new hosting providers ask: are shared licenses actually legit?
Yes. Shared licenses are a well-established model in the hosting industry. Rather than each customer purchasing a dedicated license from a vendor, a provider like Tremhost purchases and maintains licenses at scale and allocates access to individual servers. The software still receives official updates, the activation is genuine, and the features are identical to a directly purchased license. The difference is in the cost structure and it’s a significant one.
Tremhost has issued over 10,000 licenses to hosting providers worldwide, and every license comes with free installation, 24/7 support, and the ability to change the IP address from the client area if you ever migrate your server.
With that established, let’s look at the numbers.
cPanel
Buying directly from cPanel: cPanel moved to a per-account pricing model in 2019, and the cost has climbed steadily since. For a VPS or dedicated server with unlimited accounts, you’re looking at roughly $45 to $65+ per month depending on your tier and agreement. Many small hosts were blindsided by this pricing shift and have been looking for alternatives ever since.
Buying from Tremhost:
- cPanel VPS License: $5/month
- cPanel Dedicated License: $6/month
- With the 50% off promotion: $2.50 and $3/month respectively
Both come with unlimited accounts, instant activation, free Softaculous, free Sitepad, and free FleetSSL (Let’s Encrypt integration).
The saving: Depending on your current cPanel plan, Tremhost’s pricing represents a reduction of anywhere from 85% to 95% compared to buying directly. For a small hosting business processing modest volumes, this can translate to $40 to $60 saved every single month that’s $480 to $720 per year from this one license alone.
Plesk
Buying directly from Plesk: Plesk’s Web Host Edition the version most hosting providers need — starts at around $13/month for a VPS and can go higher for dedicated servers. If you need unlimited domains and accounts, which most hosts do, that’s your minimum entry point.
Buying from Tremhost:
https://tremhost.com/licenses.html
- Plesk VPS License: $5/month
- Plesk Dedicated License: $6/month
- With the 50% off promotion: $2.50 and $3/month respectively
Both include unlimited accounts, the latest version of Plesk, official upgrades, and free installation.
The saving: Roughly 60% to 75% less than buying from Plesk directly, with identical features and access to all official updates.
CloudLinux
Buying directly from CloudLinux: CloudLinux OS is sold directly at around $13 to $15 per server per month for the standard license. If you’re running shared hosting, it’s essentially non-negotiable — without it, one misbehaving account can destabilize your entire server.
Buying from Tremhost:
https://tremhost.com/licenses.html
- CloudLinux OS License: $6/month
- Lifetime CloudLinux License: $250 one-time
- With the 50% off promotion: $3/month
The saving: More than 75% off the direct vendor price. At $6/month (or $3 with the current promotion), there’s no financial reason not to run CloudLinux on every server you operate.
Imunify360
Buying directly from CloudLinux (Imunify360’s parent company): Imunify360 is priced per server based on the number of users. For unlimited users — which is what most hosts need — direct pricing starts at around $15 to $20 per month.
Buying from Tremhost:
https://tremhost.com/licenses.html
- Imunify360 License: $5/month
- Lifetime Imunify360 License: $190 one-time
- With the 50% off promotion: $2.50/month
The saving: Approximately 75% to 85% less than going directly to the vendor. Imunify360 combines a web application firewall, real-time antivirus, intrusion prevention, network firewall, and patch management — all in one tool. At $2.50/month during the promotion, it costs less than most people spend on a single coffee.
LiteSpeed
Buying directly from LiteSpeed Technologies: LiteSpeed’s pricing is worker-based. A 2-worker license starts at around $20/month when purchased directly. The 4-worker and 8-worker editions climb from there, and the unlimited-worker (X) license is considerably more expensive.
Buying from Tremhost:
https://tremhost.com/licenses.html
- LiteSpeed 2 Core: $5/month
- LiteSpeed 4 Workers: $8/month
- LiteSpeed 8 Workers: $12/month
- LiteSpeed X Workers (unlimited): $15/month
- With the 50% off promotion: $2.50, $4, $6, and $7.50/month respectively
The saving: The entry-level 2-worker license is 75% cheaper than the direct price. Even at the top tier, you’re saving significantly. LiteSpeed makes your server up to 6 times faster than Apache and dramatically improves PHP and SSL performance — it’s one of the highest-impact upgrades you can make to any hosting server, and at Tremhost’s prices it pays for itself almost immediately in customer retention alone.
The full stack comparison: what it costs to properly equip a hosting server
To make this concrete, here’s what it costs to run a properly equipped VPS hosting server — cPanel, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed, JetBackup, Softaculous, and Sitepad — when buying each license directly from vendors versus buying through Tremhost.
Buying directly from vendors (approximate monthly total): cPanel (~$45) + CloudLinux (~$14) + Imunify360 (~$18) + LiteSpeed 2-core (~$20) + JetBackup (~$10) + Softaculous (~$5) + Sitepad (~$5) = roughly $117/month
Buying through Tremhost’s VPS License Bundle: Everything above included for $15/month
With the current 50% off promotion: $7.50/month
That’s a saving of over $100 every single month, or more than $1,200 per year — from the same set of tools, running with the same features and official updates.
What you don’t give up
Some hosting providers hesitate around shared licenses because they assume there’s a catch. Here’s what you actually get with every Tremhost license:
- Official software updates from the respective vendors
- 24/7 support from Tremhost’s team
- Instant activation on your server
- The ability to change the server IP from your client area
- Free installation assistance
- Access to the latest version of each product
The software behaves exactly as it would on a directly purchased license. Your clients won’t notice any difference, your server won’t behave any differently, and you won’t be left without support when something needs attention.
Who this makes sense for
Tremhost’s licensing model is particularly well-suited for:
New hosting providers who need to keep startup costs low while they build a client base. Spending $117/month on licenses before you’ve made your first sale is a fast track to giving up. Spending $7.50 during the promotion period makes the whole business viable from day one.
Established hosts who are already profitable but paying full vendor prices and haven’t reviewed their licensing costs recently. The savings on just a handful of servers add up to thousands of dollars per year.
Resellers and VPS providers who manage multiple servers and multiply these savings across every machine they operate.
Developers and agencies who need a personal development or staging server with a full control panel setup but don’t want to pay enterprise rates for low-traffic infrastructure.
The 50% off promotion
Tremhost is currently running a 50% discount across all licenses. This applies to cPanel, Plesk, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed, JetBackup, Softaculous, Sitepad, WHMCS, Virtualizor, and every bundle in the store.
This is not a stripped-down or trial version of any product. You get the full license, with full support, at half the already-competitive price. Given that some of these licenses particularly the bundles already represent savings of 80% to 90% compared to buying directly, the promotion pushes the value into territory that’s genuinely hard to justify passing up.
Final verdict
The cost difference between buying directly from cPanel, Plesk, CloudLinux, and other vendors versus buying through Tremhost is not marginal it’s transformational for a hosting business’s bottom line. The software is identical. The updates are official. The support is available around the clock.
The only meaningful difference is how much money stays in your pocket at the end of each month.
If you’re currently buying any of these licenses directly, or if you’re setting up a new hosting server and wondering how to keep costs manageable, the numbers in this article make the decision straightforward.
Browse all available licenses and take advantage of the 50% off promotion at tremhost.com/licenses.html — and start running your hosting infrastructure for a fraction of what you’re paying today.
