Well - back when I was curious about direct admin hosting back when cpanel had its jacked up release that didnt accept Front page, and some other issues. I had never used Direct Admin before, and I had tried several web hosts , but u2mike had given the best support, and were pretty proactive when it came to taking care of problems. Ha - cant really say Id give D/A to them, as Ive changed business models completely. We prefer to keep things mainstream. cPanel and Fantastico over D/A and Installatron seem to be in right now, and it has reflected in sales, as well as industry acceptance.
Im not going to dog either one, as Ive offered hosting under them both, but they each have their own pros and cons. Direct Admin I love for NOT preinstalling FP extensions, less SSL installation errors, and for offering API for instant signups. CP offers easier transfers between servers. You can change a clients account to a new server within a minute or so with a script.