Displacing cPanel, Plesk & Hosting in 2026

In WP Legends Episode 169, Łukasz Gawior shares his path from hosting Counter-Strike game servers as a teenager to building and selling two web hosting businesses in Poland, co-founding the industry outlet WebHosting.today, and launching AdminBolt, a flat-per-server control panel built to take on cPanel and Plesk.

They dig into why legacy panels charging per account punish hosts for growing, what it actually took to get independent hosting companies to switch, why Łukasz built AdminBolt's WhatsApp integration specifically for hosts in Africa, and why he believes the real threat to traditional hosting isn't Wix or Squarespace anymore, it's Cloudflare and Vercel.

Visit Us: https://seahawkmedia.com
Learn more about AdminBolt: https://adminbolt.com/
Learn more about WebHosting.today: https://webhosting.today/
Follow Łukasz Gawior on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukaszgawior/

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro 
0:39 Guest Introduction: Łukasz Gawior & AdminBolt
2:58 Welcome to WP Legends
3:16 Łukasz's Story: From Counter-Strike Servers to Web Hosting
6:14 Launching WebHosting.today
7:54 The AdminBolt Origin Story
9:39 How AdminBolt's 30-Day Trial Works
11:57 The WhatsApp AI Integration, Built for Africa
14:05 Displacing cPanel and Plesk: Why Muscle Memory Isn't Enough
21:53 A Live Dashboard Walkthrough & What's Coming in AdminArea
29:01 What Hosts Are Actually Selling in 2026
31:06 The Real Threat: Cloudflare, Vercel & the New Competitors
35:43 Hosting Growth in Africa, Asia & Latin America
39:56 The GoDaddy-in-India Story
40:43 When IONOS Entered Poland and Still Lost
44:37 Why Łukasz Is Cutting Back on Conferences
45:52 Code Reviews, Security Audits & Why Speed Isn't Everything
47:06 M&A Advice for Hosts Looking to Sell
51:10 Closing Thoughts

Music Credits: Live Like Legends (Nightcore Remix) by Ruelle

Hashtags: #WPLegends #AdminBolt #WebHosting #cPanel #Plesk #WordPress #HostingIndustry