HHawk
Regular Pleskian
One of the Large Partners from whom we consume licenses (the few we still have) informed us about rumors in regards to extra high price increases and that they are now looking into commercial alternatives to Plesk, however from what I understood they do this through a daughter company due to contractual situatuon. Pretty interesting that the „Big Ones“ now also start thinking into new direction.
Very true. We have been a Plesk Partner for a very long time — going all the way back to the SWsoft days. Back then, being a Plesk Partner actually meant something. There was real collaboration, innovation, and pride in the product. Sadly, over the past 7–9 years, things have taken a very different turn. Not only for Plesk, but for the entire WebPros portfolio: cPanel, WHMCS, SolusVM, Comet Backup — all are clearly suffering from the same underlying issues.
Despite what some may say, this is not a matter of opinion anymore; it’s a pattern. No meaningful innovation, unstable releases, rushed patches (just look at the recent Dovecot incident), and a complete disconnect from the communities that once built these platforms up. The focus has shifted entirely to revenue extraction.
We used to maintain a very large volume of Plesk licenses. Today, we have dropped most of them. Not because we wanted to — but because our customers simply refuse to pay license fees that now exceed the cost of the server itself. And honestly, I can’t blame them. We had no choice but to migrate clients to alternative solutions and, eventually, we developed our own internal control panel (which we will never commercialize). It was a major investment, but it’s already paying off — especially now that yet another price hike is looming in 2026 and years to come after that. This has gone far beyond “inflation adjustments.” It’s unsustainable.
For context: I once posted our Partner statistics in another thread — that discussion was closed shortly after. We were among the largest Plesk partners in our region, but even at that scale, the relationship deteriorated. The turning point was clear: Plesk was sold to Oakley Capital, then bundled into WebPros, and later moved to Fund IV. From that moment onward, product leadership was replaced by financial engineering.
Just look at WHMCS — it followed the exact same path: community destoyed, key contributors gone (e.g. brian!, bear, kian), prices up, quality down, forum practically dead; WHMCS is now in terminal decline, and nobody can honestly deny it.
And this will happen to the rest of the WebPros stack if things continue like this. You cannot keep increasing prices every single year while offering nothing substantial in return. Even large providers like Hetzner are openly moving away. The “big ones” are quietly exploring alternatives through subsidiary entities to avoid contractual penalties — that alone says everything.
The irony? These aggressive price strategies are actually accelerating competition. Alternative platforms — while not perfect — are rapidly evolving, fueled by frustration with WebPros’ approach. It’s only a matter of time before a mature, credible alternative emerges. And when that happens, the exodus will be irreversible. At that point, the investment firm will simply dismantle or sell off what remains.
It’s deeply disappointing to witness the decline of platforms that once shaped our industry. But one thing is certain: greed has never built great software — and it never will. If this trend does not reverse, the future is predictable: Plesk, cPanel and WHMCS won’t be abandoned by customers — they will be replaced.
Let's just someone at Plesk will wake up and decide this is not the road to follow, before it's too late... But that is wishful thinking I guess.