Entry price
No licence- BeAdmin
- Free core
- DirectAdmin
- From $5/mo
DirectAdmin is a mature, lightweight panel with affordable flat pricing — a genuinely strong product. BeAdmin keeps a free core, charges only for the modules you switch on, never caps accounts or domains, and ships a VPN. Below — where the two really differ.
Free core · No account caps · Built‑in VPN
Entry price
No licenceAccount / domain caps
No capsBuilt‑in VPN
Only BeAdminPricing model
Pay per moduleDirectAdmin is paid from the start — even Personal is $5/mo. BeAdmin keeps a free core and charges only for the modules you switch on, from $1/mo, so a small setup can cost nothing at all.
DirectAdmin Personal stops at 2 accounts and 20 domains, Lite at 10 and 50; unlimited needs the $29 Standard tier. BeAdmin sets no cap on accounts or domains on any plan.
Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline and Amnezia are modules in the same UI. DirectAdmin ships no VPN at all.
DirectAdmin licenses the whole panel by flat tier. BeAdmin keeps the core free and lets you switch features on à la carte — you pay only for what you actually run.
Values pulled from each panel’s public docs. DirectAdmin is the more mature platform with a broader security stack; BeAdmin is free at the core and adds a VPN — we mark each row plainly.
DirectAdmin charges from the first day — Personal is $5/mo, Standard $29/mo. BeAdmin keeps the core free forever and bills only for the modules you switch on, from $1/mo. A small setup can run on the free core alone.
DirectAdmin Personal stops at 2 accounts and 20 domains, Lite at 10 and 50 — unlimited means the $29 Standard tier. BeAdmin never caps accounts or domains, so you are not forced up a tier as you grow.
Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline, Amnezia — turn any of them on with a single click. DirectAdmin has no VPN at all; you would build and maintain that part yourself outside the panel.
DirectAdmin licenses the whole panel by flat tier whether or not you use everything in it. BeAdmin keeps the core free and lets you enable features à la carte, so the bill tracks what you actually run.
DirectAdmin is a mature, lightweight panel with a broad security stack; BeAdmin is free at the core and adds a VPN. Synthesised from public docs and our own usage — your mileage may vary.
DirectAdmin charges a flat fee per server, scaled by tier limits. BeAdmin keeps a free core and bills only for the modules you switch on.
From 1 €/mo. Enable only what you need, disable any time — no account caps. The VPN family lives here.
per month
per month
per month
Prices are flat per server, not per account — a real advantage over per‑account panels. Bulk discounts apply for volume licences. The lower tiers trade price for account and domain caps.
DirectAdmin pricing from directadmin.com (2026). BeAdmin module pricing from beadmin.com.
The smallest VPS each panel will comfortably run on. Both are lightweight; DirectAdmin does not publish a hard RAM floor, so its figures are recommendations.
Source: DirectAdmin install docs (directadmin.com). BeAdmin requirements from internal documentation.
If DirectAdmin already runs on Debian or Ubuntu, there is no OS change. The old panel stays up until you decide to retire it.
If your DirectAdmin box runs Debian or Ubuntu, you can move without changing the OS family; a RHEL‑based box needs a fresh server. One apt command brings up the free BeAdmin core — run it alongside DirectAdmin and switch over only when ready.
Transfer vhost configs, databases (mysqldump) and mailboxes manually or with your own scripts. BeAdmin does not import DirectAdmin backups directly — that is an honest gap, not a marketing trick. Migration notes live in our docs.
Flip DNS when you are comfortable. If anything looks off, revert DNS to the old server — the rollback is just one record change.
DirectAdmin is a solid, affordable panel, and if it fits you there is no need to move. The case for BeAdmin is a free core instead of a paid plan, no caps on accounts or domains, a built‑in VPN, and paying only for the modules you switch on. If those matter to you, the comparison above lays out the differences plainly.
BeAdmin manages multiple servers from one UI. DirectAdmin’s DNS clustering and cluster mail are well established, so if a specific clustering setup is central to your workflow, check our docs for the current scope before you move.
No. DirectAdmin integrates fully with CloudLinux (LVE, CageFS, selectors); BeAdmin does not. If CloudLinux isolation is a hard requirement for your hosting, that is a genuine DirectAdmin strength and worth knowing before you switch.
Not directly. BeAdmin has no native importer for DirectAdmin backups, so sites, databases, mail and DNS move over manually or with your own scripts. We would rather say that plainly than promise compatibility we do not have.
No. DirectAdmin ships no VPN, so you would set one up and maintain it yourself outside the panel. BeAdmin includes five protocols — Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline and Amnezia — as modules in the same UI, each enabled with a single click.
The panel core is free. Pay only for the modules you connect.