cloudlinux.com

Let me start with this: we’ve been a CloudLinux customer for years. We run CloudLinux OS, Imunify360

Let me start with this: we’ve been a CloudLinux customer for years. We run CloudLinux OS, Imunify360, and ImunifyAV+ across multiple Plesk and DirectAdmin servers. Functionally, these products have done what they’re supposed to do, and the pricing used to be fair. However, that’s where the compliments end — because the experience surrounding them has gone steadily downhill.

Support is often unresponsive, evasive, and allergic to customer input. Tickets vanish into thin air, concerns are brushed aside, and nothing ever gets resolved. Everything gets swept under the rug while customers are strung along with vague promises.

A prime example: we repeatedly reported that our customers hate the intrusive nagging built into ImunifyAV+. The “upgrade to Imunify360!” pressure is plastered on nearly every page — four, sometimes five different sections, all insisting the product is incomplete unless you pay more. Many of our hosting clients literally cancelled their ImunifyAV+ plans because of it. It makes the product look like crippleware or a desperate upsell machine rather than a serious, reliable security tool.

We opened multiple tickets about this and CloudLinux simply didn’t care. Their message was clear: “We’re not changing anything.” To us, that’s just corporate arrogance dressed up as “product strategy.”

Still, ImunifyAV+ worked — and the price made the irritation tolerable.
Until now.

Starting January 2026, CloudLinux raises the monthly price per license by $1. Annoying, but fine — cost increases happen. But the real shock arrives in October 2026. That is when the pricing jumps from $5 USD/month to $17 USD per month, per license. Yes — a 240% increase, out of nowhere, without justification, and without any added value.

We currently pay $48/year.
In January 2026 this becomes $60/year — still acceptable.

But in October 2026 the price skyrockets to $204/year.
Three times the cost.
For the same product.
And for what?
A glorified AV tool already riddled with spam pointing users to Imunify360.

And suddenly, everything makes sense:
All those banners, pop-ups, warnings, icons, upgrade links… all the bloat and psychological pressure tactics to “just buy Imunify360 instead.” This was never about product enhancement — it was a slow-burn marketing funnel with one goal: squeeze customers dry.

It’s the same playbook we’ve seen everywhere lately:
Plesk, DirectAdmin, cPanel, WHMCS, Comet Backup — price hikes, bloat, manipulative upsells, and hollow “business justifications.” Hosting providers like us get blamed by customers for becoming “too expensive,” when the real problem is vendors behaving like opportunistic monopolists.

Well, CloudLinux won’t be dragging us down with them.

We’ve cancelled everything — CloudLinux OS, Imunify360, and ImunifyAV+ licenses, both directly and through resellers. We refuse to be part of CloudLinux’s downward spiral. We already watched this happen once with Patchman — before CloudLinux acquired it. Now they own that too. Interesting pattern, isn’t it?

Anyway, we’ve already moved on and found an affordable and actually respectable alternative: cPGuard. Not perfect, but effective, clean, and reasonably priced — without shoving upgrade spam in your face every 10 clicks.

In short:
CloudLinux’s greed is the reason we left.
And we won’t be the last.


Update; I just noticed their CEO's quote from the CloudLinux website: A lot of hosters are finding their niche, but if you are a “generic” hosting company, you have to focus on the quality of service and monetization. CloudLinux is here to help your business grow and expand.

They should really rephrase it to: If you’re a ‘generic’ hosting company, it’s crucial to improve service quality and increase monetization.
Luckily, CloudLinux is here to help — primarily with monetization.
Quality is optional, upsells are mandatory.

Date of experience: Dec 05, 2025