Plesk control panel is a commercial web hosting automation program that allows server administrators to manage their websites, email accounts, reseller accounts, DNS entries, and more from an easy-to-use web management interface. In order to help readers understand this awesome control panel thoroughly, we come out this review which has reviewed Plesk control panel comprehensively on compatibility & usage, interface, features, ease of use, and security.
Quick Overview
Plesk was originally developed by the Plesk Inc, which was acquired by SWSoft in 2003. And then, SWSoft renamed it under the Parallels name in 2008, and Plesk control panel is also well-known as Parallels Plesk Panel.
Plesk supports both Linux and Windows systems. Still now, Plesk has released 11 versions, and the latest one is version 11.5 that comes with the most effective, flexible and secure interface for professional web hosts and webmasters.
Compatibility & Usage
Plesk is a powerful control panel, providing anything server administrators to host websites and web applications. The control panel is fully compatible with both Linux and Windows operating systems. Plesk for Linux supports various POSIX platforms, including CentOS, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, CloudLinux, Red hat Linux, SUSE, and Ubuntu, while Plesk for Windows supports Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 / SP2 and Windows Server 2012.
In addition, it is completely compatible with the major browsers, such as Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, and Google Chrome.
As a result, Plesk is an ideal choice for shared web hosting, web designers, IT professionals, and small to businesses who hope to manage email and hosting needs in-house.
Pricing and Licensing
As a commercial control panel, Plesk starts at an affordable price for $39.99/mo, which covers unlimited domains for Linux or Windows platforms. Besides, if you purchase the service with annual payments, you can get 11% discount for 1-year billing, 19% discount for 1-year billing and 25% discount for 3-year billing.
Besides, Plesk gives users the ability to purchase the service through multiple channels.
If you are a Parallels Partner, visit PartnerNet.
If you want to buy Parallels Plesk Panel from a Parallels partner, search for a provider here.
If you want to buy a license directly from Parallels, visit the Online Store.
Note that the prices apply to Plesk version 11 or later, which include all features except the add-ons listed in the following.
License
Dedicated Server
Virtual Machine
Parallels Containers
Power Pack
$14.99/mo
$5.99/mo
$5.99/mo
Kasperky Anti-Virus
$29.99/mo
$7.25
$7.25
Parallels Anti-Virus
$29.99/mo
$7.25/mo
$7.25/mo
Web Presence Builder – 100 Sites
9.99/mo
9.99/mo
9.99/mo
Web Presence Builder – 1,000 Sites
$19.99/mo
$19.99/mo
$19.99/mo
Interface & Features
When you consider about the features, Plesk has many similarities with the most popular cPanel, hardly any striking differences. The significant differences are in the user interface. See the interface demo of Linux plan in the following to learn about how intuitive Plesk control panel is.
The Power User Mode demo shows how small businesses and IT professionals use Plesk to manage websites, email, applications, files, and more. Through an easy-to-understand UI, you can hide servers to reduce complexity and improve usability as you want.
With full functionality, Plesk allows you to do anything you want, such as
Upload and manage files
Create FTP user accounts
Create and manage email accounts
Add new domains, sub-domains, and add-on domains
Create and manage databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL
Backup and restore site files
View weblog files
Manage DNS and other resources
Ease of Use
Plesk is very comfortable to use. The Power User Mode offers a full-featured yet simple interface that gives users complete functions to manage their sites. The Parallels Presence Builder helps you create a site using one of the best site building tools so that you can easily set up a site within minutes. With the one-click installation, you can feel free to install hundreds of applications.
The Panel comes with a Simple View that enables end-user panel functions to be customized to customers’ needs. Besides, it prepares search function for newbies to browse the functions and data within the Panel. With multi-language support, the Panel is available for English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean.
Security
Security is always an important part for website and server management. In order to ensure top-notch security, Plesk improves password security with random default password assignment and password strength enforcement. Besides, it micro-updates weekly to protect against future instability and security risks.
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