DirectAdmin Web Hosting Control Panel
Published March 18, 2025
DirectAdmin is one of the web hosting control panels offered from Evolve Web Hosting.
DirectAdmin is a feature rich and easy to use web hosting control panel. It is being offered by more and more web hosting providers. DirectAdmin has been around since 2003 and has gained in popularity over the last 8 - 10 years since cPanel began raising rates repeatedly.
DirectAdmin control panel includes many of the features that cPanel has along with other features not available in cPanel. It is a strong competitor to cPanel and it's quite easy to adapt to using it.
DirectAdmin Screenshot
Popular Features
You will find all of the popular tools including the ability to add domains, databases, email accounts, ftp users and upload files. Web developers and individuals alike will appreciate the cleanliness and effectiveness of DirectAdmin.
Users enjoy additional features including Webmail and additional spam reduction features that can be fine tuned for your needs.
The control panel includes a highly functional search feature to find the tools you're looking for along with an easy to follow menu layout with links to every page of the control panel.
The best way to learn DirectAdmin is to login and spend time looking around and familiarizing yourself with the interface.
DirectAdmin vs. cPanel
The biggest difference between DirectAdmin and cPanel is the different look and layout of the tools included with the control panel. DirectAdmin is more cost effective and it relies on less server resources to perform. Unless you are an agency providing your clients with web hosting or rely on features that only cPanel has, DirectAdmin is a great fit.
DirectAdmin Domain Setup
In order to create a database, follow these steps
- Login to your DirectAdmin control panel
- Navigate to Account Manager > Domain Setup or type Domain Setup into the search bar
- Hosting providers may limit the number of domains you can add to your hosting account
- On the Domain Setup page, type in the domain name (do not include www.) and you can either choose a fraction of your overall alotted storage and bandwidth or allow it to be the same as the overall account limits
- You may also setup redirection such as non www to www and force HTTPS (make sure you have a valid SSL certificate installed)
In File Manager or an FTP connection, you will see a directory created for each domain name and that is where you will upload your files to for your website.
DirectAdmin Databases
In order to create a database, follow these steps
- Login to your DirectAdmin control panel
- Navigate to Account Manager > Databases or type Databases in the search bar
- enter a name for the Database. If you want to use the same name for the Database Username, click Create. If you want a different name for the Database User, toggle the Advanced mode section.