Question Issue with Availability of Free Version of Plesk (Plesk Web Admin SE) on Vultr Server Deployment

[manim]

Server operating system version

Ubuntu 22.04

Plesk version and microupdate number

NA

Hello,

I am writing to report an issue I encountered while attempting to deploy a new server on the Vultr.

Upon my initial server deployment (a month ago), I successfully utilized the free version of Plesk, namely "Plesk Web Admin SE," without any complications (used for only 1 domain). However, when attempting to deploy another server for second domain recently, I noticed that the option for the free version of Plesk is no longer available during the setup process. Instead, only other paid versions (Web Pro and Web Host with free trial) are being displayed.

Is the Plesk Web Admin SE has been removed from Vultr or it has been discontinued by Plesk?

Although about "Plesk Web Admin SE" is no more mentioned in vultr site Deploy Plesk in One-Click

However, plesk still mentioning about "Plesk Web Admin SE" for vultr platform here: Plesk Web Admin SE

And more importantly, what will happen to my 1st domain utilizing Plesk Web Admin SE? Is it safe to continue using it, or will it impact its functionality in the future?

Please clear out this matter.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Hi, the Plesk Web Admin SE edition is being discontinued. It can no longer be installed on new servers. On existing servers the Web Admin SE edition can be used till Augustus 30st this year when it will be fully discontinued.

 

[manim]

Thank you for providing clarity. I would also like to know if there are any immediate plans to discontinue the Plesk Web Admin SE edition on Amazon Lightsail, Amazon EC2, and DigitalOcean.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Across all providers the Plesk Web Admin SE edition is being discontinued.

 

[emanuelemarchiori]

the prices for a license are too high, between you and those of cpanel you have now truly become a disgrace, I will justify this increase in prices. I will find some free solutions to customize.

 

[ItsDan]

Across all providers the Plesk Web Admin SE edition is being discontinued.

That's a heck of a rug pull, ~40 droplets many on SE but also with paid licenses for quite a few of them which I now need to reconsider options for

 

[Bitpalast]

Why do you think that a company with hundreds of employees should work for you for free to provide you a control panel for free so that you can earn money using some high tech product you do not want to pay for yourself? What is the disgrace here?

 

[ItsDan]

Why do you think that a company with hundreds of employees should work for you for free to provide you a control panel for free so that you can earn money using some high tech product you do not want to pay for yourself? What is the disgrace here?

I'm not the one you're responding to and I would not call them a disgrace, but just to provide another perspective, because we can run the free version on some smaller servers that only host 1 or 2 sites, and because having a homogenous hosting setup is helpful, we pay for 8 licenses for our larger servers. Plus we have a couple paid extensions I believe even on the free ones. So there's money being paid.

 

[Matt2k]

Why do you think that a company with hundreds of employees should work for you for free to provide you a control panel for free so that you can earn money using some high tech product you do not want to pay for yourself? What is the disgrace here?

I don't expect anyone to work for free. The service was offered to me and I built business plans around it, and I'm disappointed to see this change. I'm not sure why you'd want to shame someone into mentioning that this is an unwelcome disruption.

I have maybe 8 clients that started with a single site. I set them up with Web SE. Now 4 of them are on paid plans because they grew. Those 4 plans would probably not have existed otherwise because we would have taken other routes to manage the sites, like just sticking them on WP Engine or something. So unfortunately I think this will be a net loss for Plesk, at least for people like me.

Honestly it doesn't even need to be free. If we could get a paid license that's suitable for < 3 domains, I'd be all over it.

 

[pleskpanel]

Indeed, there are cases that could be made to offer a paid low domain license so if the powers that be at Plesk could see the value in this, it would be a nice way to transition from web admin to something more!

 

[cbuckers]

Quite a frustrating decision this. Like others have mentioned above, we have a combination of servers and client setups on various Plesk options.

Usually it starts with the free license before progressing to one of the paid options.

We have 30/40+ droplets with different Plesk configurations. Some of which we have no choice but to upgrade, but others we'll likely investigate different hosting solutions.

 

[MrNoBody]

With the price of Plesk package available currently, adding up to total cost of running the server, I consider hosting web by IIS on Window Server is cheaper and more reliable than Plesk on Linux.
I love using Plesk but if there is nothing change in the near future, I would love to move to Window Server.

 

[JohnnyU]

Maybe you should consider changing the hosting company. Leaseweb still offers a good price for Plesk

 

[Chrisgg]

I manage 3 Digital Ocean Plesk droplets, 2x30 domain and one Plesk Web Admin SE.

A while ago I encountered the license message regarding the Admin SE licence depreciation. This message has since disappeared and the licence is now valid until 20 Sept.

Should I assume the 3 domain Admin SE licence is now still active or is the planned depreciation still occurring at the end of this month (August 2024)?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Hello, Chris. The Web Admin SE license will be discontinued at the end of August and the licenses on Digital Ocean will become inactive on the 2nd of September. While this will not affect the accessibility of your website, the Plesk panel will no longer be operational.

 

[Chrisgg]

Hi,
Thanks for the clarification. There is a lot of conflicting information online.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time migrating if I didn't have to.
Thanks again
Chris

 

[ItsDan]

Hello, Chris. The Web Admin SE license will be discontinued at the end of August and the licenses on Digital Ocean will become inactive on the 2nd of September. While this will not affect the accessibility of your website, the Plesk panel will no longer be operational.

Just clarifying it's just the Web Admin SE licenses that will be inactive correct? We have been adding some paid licenses for Web Admin Pro purchased through DO's addons feature, those are fine?

 

[Chrisgg]

Hi Dan,
That appears to be the case. Only the Web Admin SE is being discontinued. The paid for licences are all ok to my understanding and I have had no warnings on the 2 droplets with 30 domain licenses and DO aree still offering Plesk droplets with paid licenses.

It's a bit of a pain for me as the Web Admin SE was a great sandbox area for webdev before hitting production servers. (I confess to creating the occassional endless php loop).
I'm a huge Plesk fan but having to look at other options to see if anything else comes close. I've read with interest many of the more emotional threads relating to this and totally understand costs and staffing cannot be paid on freebies. Plesk will have done the maths and evaluated losing free-to-paid growth will be less than others forced to upgrade to paid. It feels a bit of a short term win to me but maybe my opionion is marred by the extra work I now have. Time will tell for sure though.

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Just clarifying it's just the Web Admin SE licenses that will be inactive correct? We have been adding some paid licenses for Web Admin Pro purchased through DO's addons feature, those are fine?

Yes, this is correct. Only the Web Admin SE license is being discontinued, the rest of the Plesk licenses offered on Digital Ocean's end will not be affected.

Hi Dan,
That appears to be the case. Only the Web Admin SE is being discontinued. The paid for licences are all ok to my understanding and I have had no warnings on the 2 droplets with 30 domain licenses and DO aree still offering Plesk droplets with paid licenses.

It's a bit of a pain for me as the Web Admin SE was a great sandbox area for webdev before hitting production servers. (I confess to creating the occassional endless php loop).
I'm a huge Plesk fan but having to look at other options to see if anything else comes close. I've read with interest many of the more emotional threads relating to this and totally understand costs and staffing cannot be paid on freebies. Plesk will have done the maths and evaluated losing free-to-paid growth will be less than others forced to upgrade to paid. It feels a bit of a short term win to me but maybe my opionion is marred by the extra work I now have. Time will tell for sure though.

Thank you for being our valued user, Chris. After thorough analysis our team determined that the costs of maintaining the license exceed our expenses and although we understand the inconvenience that deprecation will cause to some of our users it will help us better align with our long term goals of continues improvement, enhanced support, sustainability, and exclusive features offered.

 

[Matt2k]

Can you really not find a price point for 1-3 domains that aligns with your support obligations? Maybe offer it without support?

It's really too bad. I would not have acquired my other paid licenses without it. I'll move to something else, but with regret.