Dear Sir
I understand that you want to save the 10-15 USD per month on Cpanel in your development Server. People will say different things as solution, But from my own experinece, the ebst solution is to use a free control panel for the vps. Obviosly it wont be cpanel, but it will do all required tasks. I will install VestaCP for you which will work best for your needs.
I also work for a web design and development company, and we faced teh same issue, we used DirectAdmin and Cpanel before and as w ehave to host many servers(almost 10of them) spending on Cpanel becomes very big.
So I started testing different options, and at last after 6months of testing with difefrent options, We started to use VestaCP as Cpanel aletrnative and we completely dumped cpanel and using VestaCP for more than last one year. Its the most easy to use, secure, free and lightweight Control panel avaialble for free.
So I understand your needs more than anyone else, even I can help you getting the best server for you configured with proper settiings with Vesta CP at the lowest price.
I can assure you that no one can do this task better than me.
My Skype ID is neelimsahariah
Best Regards
Neelim