StackRegent vs cPanel, taking the WHM way of working to Windows

cPanel is Linux-only, so this is not a like-for-like choice#

cPanel's own system requirements list four operating systems: AlmaLinux OS, CloudLinux, Rocky Linux and Ubuntu. There is no Windows edition. So StackRegent vs cPanel is not a choice between two panels for the same server. It is a question for providers who know cPanel and WHM well and now need to host workloads that only run on Windows: classic ASP.NET on the .NET Framework, ASP.NET Core under IIS, Microsoft SQL Server databases, or applications that expect IIS features such as web.config and Windows authentication.

StackRegent is a hosting panel for Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025 that keeps the model WHM users already think in: an administrator who runs the server, resellers who run their own customers, and customers who manage their own sites, mail and databases. The vocabulary changes a little; the structure does not.

Many providers end up running both: cPanel on the Linux fleet and StackRegent on the Windows servers. The table above lists the details with sources, with cPanel's Windows-specific rows marked Linux only.

How cPanel licensing compares with StackRegent licensing#

Both products count hosting accounts per server, which makes budgeting familiar. As listed on cPanel's pricing page and its 2026 store pricing article (effective December 16, 2025):

cPanel also states that prices change again for new orders and renewals from December 16, 2026. Its trial is 15 days on a new installation.

StackRegent plans also differ only in the number of hosting accounts, with every feature in every plan and domains, mailboxes and databases unlimited inside each account. The top plan has no account limit at all, so there is no per-account charge above a ceiling. Current prices are on the pricing page; the trial is 10 days with 3 accounts and no card.

Mapping WHM ideas to the StackRegent admin panel#

A WHM package bundles limits and features into a template; a StackRegent service plan does the same, grouped into resources, permissions, hosting, PHP, mail, DNS, performance and logs. Add-on plans extend one subscription without cloning a whole plan, and a single subscription can be customized when one customer needs an exception. Customers can lower some hosting options in their own panel but never raise them above the plan.

The account model on Windows#

A cPanel account is a Linux user with a home directory. In StackRegent the equivalent is a subscription: a Windows user, a private webspace that only that user, SYSTEM and Administrators can open, and one IIS application pool per site running as that user. PHP runs through FastCGI as the same user with a locked php.ini per site.

Resource limits work the way CloudLinux LVE users expect. The subscription's websites, PHP and scheduled tasks run in one Windows job object that caps CPU (as a percentage of one core), memory, disk read and write speed, disk operations per second and the number of processes. Limits come from the subscription itself, its plan, or server-wide defaults, and limit-reached counters show who keeps hitting them. On cPanel the same kind of limits come from CloudLinux, which is licensed separately; CloudLinux lists tiers from $63 a year per server.

Resellers and customers#

Reseller hosting is often why providers stay with WHM, so StackRegent treats resellers as a full level. A reseller gets a separate panel with their own customers, subscriptions and service plans, their own branding, and the option to log in to a customer's panel. With overselling off, the default, every plan a reseller sells must fit into the totals of their reseller plan, and the panel refuses anything that does not. If you allow overselling, you get a notice at most once a month per limit when a reseller's customers really use more than the plan allows. Administrators can give resellers IP addresses and let them create API keys. More on the hosting providers page.

Customers find the tools they know from cPanel under different names: File Manager, FTP, Mail, Databases with a SQL console and phpMyAdmin single sign-on, Scheduled Tasks, Backups, Statistics and the website tools, including SSL/TLS with Let's Encrypt, DNS, PHP settings and password-protected directories. Windows adds ASP.NET settings for web.config errors, session state and connection strings, virtual directories and Web Deploy publishing from Visual Studio.

Habits that change on a Windows server#

• Rewrites. IIS does not read .htaccess. Rules live in web.config, and StackRegent installs URL Rewrite 2.1 by default so most rules have a direct equivalent.
• Mail. Exim and Dovecot become MailEnable Standard, with Roundcube as webmail, DKIM, a spam filter and hourly outgoing limits per domain or subscription.
• DNS. Zones run on Microsoft DNS Server with recursion off and a zone template for new domains.
• Firewall. Instead of a Linux firewall add-on, the panel manages Windows Defender Firewall, with Panic Mode and an automatic rollback if a change locks you out.
• Databases. MySQL-style databases run on MariaDB; SQL Server Express is there for .NET applications.
• Git. On Windows Server 2019 and later the built-in OpenSSH server allows Git over SSH; pull deployments from GitHub or GitLab work on all versions.
• Shell access. Customers do not get a Unix shell. Scheduled tasks, Composer, a Laravel toolkit and WP-CLI-backed WordPress tools cover most of what shell users do.

What does not carry over#

StackRegent cannot restore cPanel backups or transfer accounts from a cPanel server; its migration tools read StackRegent servers, Plesk for Windows and Plesk backups. Linux-only applications also stay on Linux. If a site is PHP on Apache with no Windows dependency, moving it to IIS adds work without a clear benefit, and cPanel remains a sensible home for it.

What moves is the way of working: the same three levels, plans as templates, account-based licensing, per-account limits and isolation, and an API for automation. The quickest way to judge it is to install the free trial on a spare Windows Server and rebuild one of your WHM packages as a service plan.

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