Pro Pack?

[chrismfz]

Overview | Directadmin Docs

We have been busy thinking how to provide more advanced features, while solving the problem of finding additional resources to do so. This is especially difficult when the majority customer-base consists of lifetime licenses and datacenters utilizing 20 year-old-pricing, without any price increases or adjustments for inflation.

I completely agree with that. But got a question:
Is it gonna be an addon ? If yes, for everyone or for the old pricing structure?
Or integrated with anyone that got a non-lifetime license ?

Because I can understand the issue with the old pricing lifetime and yearly model, but will be unfair for anyone else
that having the relative-new monthly licenses to pay more for the pro pack. Please clarify that.

 

[DirectAdmin Sales]

It will definitely be an add-on (not part of the DA core), just like how a cPanel user would purchase their WordPress ToolKit as an add-on. However, our goals are a little different than simply trying to sell an add-on. All we're trying to do here is get the resources to develop further.

There are people like you who have the relatively-new monthly licenses, and this group of people obviously helps contribute most to our development. We fully agree that it seems unfair for you to be holding the most expensive license type, and then being asked to pay more for an add-on. For this reason, we are intending to have the Pro Pack included with the Lite and Standard retail licenses. Also, any lifetime license paying for extended support will receive the Pro Pack.

In addition to this, we are soon introducing new automatic discounts for retail licenses. It kicks in as early as a 15% discount for four (4) Standard licenses (or any combination of retail licenses equivalent to it). Reaching nine (9) Standard licenses (or the equivalent) brings all retail licenses up to a 25% discount.

I hope this shows that our intent is sustainability, not greed. Not only will these licenses be receiving the Pro Pack, but there will be a price drop for anyone owning 4+ Standard licenses (or the equivalent).

Please understand that this is still in the planning phases, so any constructive input is welcome.

 

[apogee]

I can understand the approach.

I agree to purchase an addon or getting it with the "owned licences" included in the update subscription but the goal should be to replace cloudlinux with it (cagefs, php selector, ror, jsnode, phyton) to no longer be bound to centos (I prefer debian). But in my opinion the following features have to be included in the "basis licence":
- GUI for account migrations (like the new cpanel system transfer with proxy on the old server to the new)
- DNS synchronization (also to cpanel dns only without scripting)
- backup manager

 

[smtalk]

- DNS synchronization (also to cpanel dns only without scripting)

Multi-Server is there for DNS synchronisation between DA servers, and it is not going to disappear It was about CloudFlare (and maybe other providers) control directly from DA panel.

- backup manager

Admin Backup/Transfer is not going to disappear too, it got a speedup with zstd. It's going to get other speedups too. So, it should cover the basic need.

Who wants user-level control for their own backups (to let users restore their own files/databases etc.) would need to use paid 3rd party solutions, or get the Pro pack.

cagefs

BubbleWrap is there for isolation already, included with every license.

php selector

Already available in DA with every license.

ror, jsnode, phyton

Pro Pack

- GUI for account migrations (like the new cpanel system transfer with proxy on the old server to the new)

Basic GUI is there already, as you can take backups in Admin Backup/Transfer, enter FTP details in another server and click restore. That's why Mark has mentioned that essential tools are still going to be provided without Pro Pack. GUI to nicely select the users/domains needed and do everything in a single click just makes the process easier.

 

[jamesf]

Really after email 'track and trace' - really, really required please

 

[apogee]

The problem with the DA “php selector” is that only 4 versions are possible, it never worked correctly for me, changing the php version led php send the file to the client instead of executing.

Also a problem is that if I have activated e.g. "php2" (let's say currently set to version 5.6) for my domain and now the admin replaces "php2" with php 8.0 for all accounts which have chosen php option "php2" the version changes from 5.6 to 8.

Account transfers between servers is an essential tools and should not be limited to pro or not pro version regardless of what is moved how and where. Especially the proxy feature for forwarding traffic I also consider to be an existential goal.

Any yes, the mail tracking features is also a must which should be included in the core version. Also a automated autodiscover & autoconfig feature should be integrated.

Another function for the Pro Pack could be the setup of mail nodes or so which handels spam check, smtp, pop & imap connections, a feature to offload high resource consuming processes to other nodes.

 

[tridinebandim]

Who wants user-level control for their own backups

as a user, didnt like this

the most distinctive, value added thing imo is automated backups for users... it seems you knew it, act accordingly.

 

[netswitch]

Just learned about extended support by reading this : "Also, any lifetime license paying for extended support will receive the Pro Pack."
Is there aldready extended support ? What is the cost per licence ? What does it provides ?

We have 150 owned licences, I would not mind pay "something" / licence / year to keep the development alive but that "something" must be reasonable.

 

[factor]

Is there aldready extended support ?

login to you user account. click on a license # without support. Look for the word "extend"

 

[factor]

Just learned about extended support by reading this

I actually think this is one of the things they should explore more and get the word out.. I dont think most of us know what "support" means? I also dont think a lot of the older people need support the way its structured.

 

[DirectAdmin Sales]

Lifetime licenses only came with a promised 90 days of tech support (that's really the only thing that differentiated them from monthly licenses). Once in a while, someone with a retail lifetime license wants/needs constant tech-support from our staff. So the support extension is a way to pay for that.

Brent is correct though. Very few use this option. We are't marketing it or trying to push it on anyone. It's a little better than paying for a Standard license, but it's not a cheap deal or anything. And it's not really meant for datacenter accounts. Pro Pack is still in early stages so we haven't come to any firm decision about DC/NOC options yet.

 

[ozzWANTED]

You guys need to solve couple issues:
1. You still need to give a way to buy a lifetime license (meaning that it has bug fixes), but no support after i.e. 90 days. As in this case you give your customers a hope. And hope is important here. A hope is that if you will short on money, your business won't be ruined the same month. So that's why I'm saving money and I will buy 4 workers LiteSpeed Server license for 1299 USD ( https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/lsws-pricing ), while as of now I'm paying 65 USD/mo. So this mean that it is pretty much 2 years payment. And it is investment for you to use the money. If that would be only allowing me to use SaaS plan, I'd never have bought it. But the believe that I can get 'owned' one, made me to make this decision. And it is really important ir Parler era, when Amazon AWS gave 1 days to move out. And any SaaS company can do that. So BE DIFFERENT TO AMAZON. And that will give you a customer from Amazon if you will buy correct ads.
Lifetime license here can also cost something like 1500 USD - just leave this as a hope, even if it is super expense, but as Elon Musk says - the only real marketing is when your customers sells your product to other customer without you needing to spend a dollar on that. And if you will be the company that gives this hope, you have much more sellers that you expect.
What you can do, is to make Lifetime licenses available only if Ubuntu is used. But not other OSes. So then you satisfy the customer who is looking for fully OSS/Lifetime alternative to know that they can be safe, and if needed, they can run a server from their basement at the works case if everybody is kicking you out (despite that you did not break any law, just because you said something different).

2. Ubuntu - please focus on it. That's where all OSS customers are coming now.

3. Secure hosting (VPS). You have to have on homepage a trusted list of hosting companies in EU, US and Switzerland that won't kick you out because of negative comment about hosting company, as well as they would do the work to your server if needed for hourly rate without ZERO BULLSHIT - many hosting company that installs DirectAdmin just sents you on three letters when you ask to upgrade something and to help fix the server if websites are not working after their upgrade (i.e. couple cores added, XHProf, XHGui installed).
Also I cannot find a proper hosting provider that can allow me to create an IMAGE of VPS server before we will upgrade it and to restore it from image if it fails. Amazon has that for a years. I cannot find trusted hosting for DA.

4. Consider providing fine-tuned DirectAdmin+Ubuntu VPS NVMe SSD 4 cores fast and expensive (i.e. 200 EUR/mo) hosting yourself. You can make money as Kinsta.com does. As of now you offer a product, but you don't have any premium provider listed in Switzerland, continental EU and US. When you don't have it, you can't get premium class business status with DirectAdmin. Remember, that WordPress is not just OSS. They also has WordPress.com their own hosting, as well as vip.wordpress.com that host such websites as Techcruch.com. That is already a paved path to success - just use it.

5. Get an investment. Seriously - your company is large enough to get extra money and loose 10-20% ownership of it. But that is not 50%. So it means you will get a lot of money, you will get 20 times more customers, and loose only i.e. 20% of your business. After that you will still be much in stronger position that now.

 

[Nickske00]

I'm all for it as long as it's optional. When I look at the list I don't think I personally need it.

 

[DirectAdmin Sales]

@ozzWANTED - is it possible you contact us about this, or start a new forum thread? I am only asking because it is somewhat off-topic from the Pro Pack and this may become a very large thread. So for future visitors, let's make sure the discussion in this thread stays on the Pro Pack.

@Nickske00 Yes!! Your response is exactly why we are developing the Pro pack as an add-on. We want to develop an enhanced optional feature-set... but at the same time, if you don't want them (and don't want to pay for them), you should have every right to continue using your license as you always have. Absolutely, it is optional. Nobody is getting a surprise price increase in order to cover this add-on.

 

[jamesf]

Really Looking forward to this! You guys have come so far!

 

[Nickske00]

@DirectAdmin Sales : https://forum.directadmin.com/threads/a-mess-with-ubuntu-20-04-lts-on-directadmin-com.62929/

 

[DanielP]

This will be ok for hosters to have totally integrated solution from you...

do not forget to add limits capabilities $#!tstemd cgroups CPU, RAM, IO, (TASKs?) made easy
CentosWebpanel Pro version (never tested it on practice but you can open their demo and install it as the demo is CentosWebpane Pro ) and APISCP got that working with the panel....

I support this as altenative to CloudLinux and couple of other plugins and for sure that should work on ubuntu / debian

As we all - that support AMD and fair pricing for CPUs want to have full potential of our CPU which is not fully supported by the 4 RH/ CloudLinux kernel

P.S and More versions for the selector if we go totally integrated way ...

When Will be the ETA ?

 

[CarloTav]

I have no problem with this idea. As long as pricing is kept reasonable and users that are using your higher-tier licenses don't have to pay for it.

But if you're looking for more new users, why don't you make it easier for them to make the move over? I understand you have a tool in place but it's not user-friendly and nor is it time-efficient. It also requires backups to be present on the server beforehand.

The transfer tool was literally the first thing I saw on this forum being asked for as soon as cPanel made the pricing change, almost 2 years later we still don't have it. I noticed it's not even in-progress over in the feature requests even though it's amongst the most upvoted. Moving cPanel backups to Direct Admin is truly a pain, please expedite it! Even if it means it has to come bundled in your new pro pack.

Please!

 

[DanielP]

Yes migration tool will be nice ... DA is afraid that cPanel will make a move cpanel tool can allready connecto to DA accounts as root and do migrations

 

[jamesf]

Personally, restoring a cpanel backup is pretty easy. It’s the same way a shared or reseller transfer would work In CPanel without root access and it’s always worked for me.

With regards to the cPanel transfer tool. So Migrating DirectAdmin to cPanel using the CPanel transfer tool with root access in bother servers. It is garbage!! Give it a whirl:

1- The DNS records don’t come across.
2- sometimes the Database usernames and passwords don’t come across. So your sites are broken and you have to manually fix them.
3- it transfers over the non existing [email protected] mailbox that when you tick the box to remove in cPanel it doesn’t and you have to manually go in and remove.

I do agree that the transfer tool would be useful for DA to DA transfers. Maybe others as well depending on how well it works.