Plesk is the most popular commercial web hosting control panel on the market. It is actively developed by Plesk International GmbH, under a proprietary license. The last release is Obsidian. This commercial control panel is developed for Linux and Windows. It is targeted to: infrastructure providers, IT administrators, developers, content managers and digital agencies.
Main features
As one of the most popular control panels on the market, Plesk is highly customizable and includes many advanced features, for instance:
- Full access via SSH.
- DNS helper.
- Enhanced security:
- ModSecurity is active by default to prevent web applications from attacks.
- Fail2ban is active by default to protect servers from brute force attacks.
- Advanced monitoring and 360 Monitoring.
- Repair Kit to detect and resolve issues automatically.
- Wide range of File Manager features.
- Complete WordPress Toolkit.
- Support for many OS.
- Improved stability and isolation of websites using PHP-FPM handlers.
- WHMCS Module.
- +100 Extensions (.NET Toolkit, Let’s Encrypt, Docker, Google PageSpeed Insights…)
Current version: Plesk Obsidian
Plesk Obsidian is the last version of this server and hosting control panel — perfect for simplifying the management of domains and web hosting on a single control panel. It offers a new and more compelling UX which further simplifies website management. Its graphical interface is very user-friendly and enables adding many functionalities.
Supported Operating Systems
As of June 2022, these are the operating systems supported by the current version:
- AlmaLinux 8 (until 2029)
- CentOS 7 (until June 2024)
- CloudLinux 7 (until June 2024)
- Debian 10 (until June 2024)
- Ubuntu 18.04 Server LTS (until April 2023)
- Ubuntu 20.04 Server LTS
- RHEL 7 and 8 (until June 2024)
- RHEL 8 (until May 2029)
- Rocky Linux 8 (until 2029)
- Virtuozzo Linux 7 (until June 2023)
- Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 (until January 2023)
- Windows Server 2016 (until January 2027)
- Windows Server 2019 (until September 2029)
- Windows Server 2022
Supported virtualization systems
As of June 2022, these are the virtualization systems supported by this control panel:
- VMware
- XEN
- Virtuozzo 7
- OpenVZ
- KVM
- Hyper-V
- LXC (Docker)
Pricing plans and licenses
It offers monthly and annual pricing plans for both dedicated servers and virtual private servers (VPS), under three different types of license:
- Admin Edition: intended for basic management of websites and servers. It can be used on up to 10 domains.
- Pro Edition: targeted to web developers and designers. It can be used on up to 30 domains.
- Host Edition: intended for building hosting businesses on Plesk. It can be used on an unlimited number of domains.
Besides, it offers a Partner Program for hosting companies, cloud providers, managed service providers and agencies.
Releases history
The control panel was initially founded by Dimitri Simonenko and its first version was released in 2001.
| Version | Release date | End of life date |
| Plesk 6 | June 2003 | – |
| Plesk 7 | February 2004 | January 2012 |
| Plesk 8 | September 2006 | September 2012 |
| Plesk 9 | December 2008 | June 2013 |
| Plesk 10 | November 2010 | May 2015 |
| Plesk 11 | June 2012 | December 2016 |
| Plesk 12 | June 2014 | January 2019 |
| Plesk Onyx | October 2016 | April 2021 |
| Plesk Obsidian (General Availability) | October 2019 | – |
At Stackscale we can help you with the installation, system administration and monitoring of dedicated and virtual servers. Let’s talk about managed services!
