# Plesk

Plesk is a commercial web hosting and server data center automation software developed for Linux and Windows-based retail hosting service providers.
It was developed by Plesk International GmbH, a company with headquarters in Toronto, Canada, and Schaffhausen, Switzerland, with offices in Barcelona, Spain, Cologne, Germany, Tokyo, Japan, and in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Russia, where it was created in 2000 by Dimitri Simonenko.
The hosting automation software was initially released by Plesk Inc. and first went live in 2001. In 2003, Plesk was sold to SWSoft, which became Parallels in 2008. In March 2015, Parallels renamed the service provider division to Odin. In December of the same year, Plesk became a separate business entity. In 2017, British Oakley Capital Limited acquired Plesk and it has since been a part of WebPros, a global SaaS platform for server management. Currently, WebPros comprises Plesk, cPanel, WHMCS, XOVI, and SolusVM.

## Licenses

Plesk, with latest version Obsidian 18.x, is available in the following license configurations:
* Plesk Web Admin Edition: 10 domains.
* Plesk Web Pro Edition: 30 domains. It also includes Plesk WordPress Toolkit full-featured.
* Plesk Web Host Edition: Unlimited domains. The administrator can also create additional reseller accounts.
The license price also distinguishes whether a license can be used for a dedicated server or a virtualized server. Licenses for dedicated servers are usually slightly more expensive.

## Pricing

Plesk sells all three licenses for a monthly or annual price directly. All three editions can also be obtained from official license resellers.
In March 2018, Plesk announced its first price adjustment in 18 years of business, increasing the prices of all Plesk licenses that had versions earlier than 12. The company claimed that it was to cover the increasing cost of support and management over the past two decades. Following the announcement, Plesk created a FAQ page.

## Support

Live and email support for Plesk is available in English, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Japanese. Plesk licenses purchased directly from Plesk include full free support.

## Criticisms

One criticism of Plesk is that the recommended method of removing it is a complete reinstall of the OS after backing up, which complicates the concept of trialware by binding an administrator to the product by facing considerable downtime of a server.

## Version history

| Product | Released | Extended Support | End of Life |
| Plesk Obsidian; (Free Trial) | Current: every 1.5 months; Initial: release 4 June 2019; | Two the latest releases are supported | — |
| Plesk Onyx | 11 October 2016 | 11 October 2020 | 20 April 2021 |
| Plesk 12 | 16 June 2014 | 16 June 2018 | 1 January 2019 |
| Plesk 11 | 13 June 2012 | 13 June 2016 | 13 December 2016 |
| Plesk 10 | 3 November 2010 | 31 January 2015 | 3 May 2015 |
| Plesk 9 | 9 December 2008 | 9 December 2012 | 9 June 2013 |
| Plesk 8 | 20 September 2006 | 1 March 2012 | September 2012 |
| Small Business Panel | November 2009 | 1 August 2011 | July 2012 |
| Plesk 7 and earlier | 10 February 2004 | — | 1 January 2012 |

## Timeline

| Date | Milestone |
| 1999 | Release on Linux |
| 2003 | Release on Windows – Acquired by SWsoft |
| 2007 | Merged with Parallels |
| 2009 | Focus towards Parallels automation away from Plesk going forward – Plesk moved into Maintenance mode |
| 2014 | Launch of Plesk 12 |
| 2014 | Launch of Plesk extensions catalog |
| 2015 | Renaming of service provider business to ODIN – Acquisition of Odin Automation by Ingram Micro |
| 2016 | Relaunch of Plesk as a separate business unit in January 2016 – Launch of Plesk Onyx |
| 2017 | Launch of WordPress Toolkit 2.0 – Launch of WordPress Business Server – Acquisition of XOVI |
| 2018 | Launch of SEO Toolkit and Joomla! Toolkit – Launch of Smart Updates – Acquisition of SolusVM |
| 2019 | Launch of Plesk Obsidian – Launch of My Plesk portal |
| 2020 | Launch of SolusIO |

## Plesk University

In January 2016, Plesk launched Plesk University online. Through its university, Plesk provides courses on how to use their products and services.