Question Massive price increase for reseller licenses?

[HHawk]

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.

 

[HHawk]

Well, there it is. The grand finale we've all been waiting for — the 2026 Plesk pricing. Another 26% increase, proudly delivered without a single trace of irony. That brings the total price inflation since 2017 to roughly 285%. Bravo. At this point, it's no longer “pricing strategy”; it’s performance art.

Oh look.

New prices are out today for 2026, and behold, a FURTHER 26% is being chucked on top.

This year: £659.81 including VAT (which Plesk also deliberately conceals)
Next year: £831.47

That's the biggest increase since 2018 and means the cumulative increase since 2017 has been 285%.

How can that possibly be justified?

Source 1: Plesk Price Adjustment 2024-2025 - FAQ Online Customers
Source 2: https://cdn1.plesk.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/b2a5u/Plesk_Customer_Licensing_Guide_2026.pdf

Plesk must genuinely believe they’ve invented something no one else has. Yet here we are, facing enterprise pricing for software that now delivers less innovation, less stability, and less community than ever before. But don’t worry — I’m sure there will be a shiny new marketing slogan to explain it all.

Let’s be honest: this isn’t about development costs, security investment, or inflation. It’s the final stage of an exit strategy — extract, extract, extract… until the very last partner gives up. And judging by the reactions here, we’re getting very close to that finish line. Even the “big players” (the ones Plesk assumed would never leave) are quietly migrating under subsidiary brands to escape contractual penalties. That alone tells the whole story.

No company can survive this level of contempt for its user base.
Clients are not customers anymore — they’re revenue units strapped to an annual price escalator.

We are no longer asking if people will leave Plesk. We are now asking who will switch first, and who will be forced to follow. And it won’t be because the alternatives are perfect… it will be because Plesk made staying impossible.

Congratulations, WebPros — you’ve turned one of the most trusted control panels in hosting history into a cautionary tale in corporate greed. This isn’t evolution. It’s the endgame.

 

[KirkM]

The grand finale we've all been waiting for — the 2026 Plesk pricing. Another 26% increase, proudly delivered without a single trace of irony. That brings the total price inflation since 2017 to roughly 285%.

Read the second paragraph in this section from the 2026 document you listed as Source 2: https://cdn1.plesk.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/b2a5u/Plesk_Customer_Licensing_Guide_2026.pdf:

If nothing else, they got balls to gaslight like that right to our faces. Either balls or raging contempt for their customers. "Well, we stopped just short of TRIPLING the price (for a short time), so you should be grateful. " How do you print that kind of straight-up B.S. and think it is good business strategy

 

[Hangover2]

At least they are not lying^^.

In Business / Project Contexts​

In professional or planning discussions, “near future” usually means:

• 1–3 months ahead for operational or short-term planning.
• Sometimes up to 6 months for larger organizations with long planning cycles.

[irony_on]So actually, we can be happy that price increases aren’t happening every six months — only once a year.[/irony_off]

 

[trialotto]

@manni,

This

Pretty interesting that the „Big Ones“ now also start thinking into new direction.

is not a "new direction" - it is not new.

Most license providers - back in the old days - were forced to be "big" : the traditional humbug of "silver", "gold" and "platinum" (or whatever label was attached) plans, with a (false) signal that "the more VIP a provider is, the better the deal".

Well, that deal was not that good : in order to make it a bit viable, (large) bundles had to be taken ......

....... and, as a result, smaller license providers started to combine efforts and strategies and funds.

In the long run, the smaller license providers merged into the "Big Ones" ..... if that is a label that we can assign.

At this moment, the wheel is re-invented : again, (large) bundles have to be used in order to make it viable ....... but the root cause of the problem is more and more related to price increases of individual licenses AND a desire of the (merged) "Big Ones" to make considerable profits (as they were able to realize, during many many years - these larger providers are essentially the same, owned by investors that let ROI prevail).

The thing is that this is a continuous cycle ...... the gain of one is the loss of others, so either the investors, the licensees or the licensors will lose the battle during periods of time (read: years), before the other parties are having a turn at getting their fair share in the loss.

The other thing is that this continuous cycle can only exist when alternatives are not present ...... but in the dynamic market of today, a viable alternative simply means "convergence" : a new party will enter, take some losses at first, then gain some (at the expense of other parties in the market) and then one or more of those other parties will be take over the new party or will be taken over by the new party ......... and again, with new alternatives being absent, the whole continuous cycle will reoccur again, over and over.

It is just life.

Kind regards .......

 

[HHawk]

At least they are not lying^^.

In Business / Project Contexts​

In professional or planning discussions, “near future” usually means:

• 1–3 months ahead for operational or short-term planning.
• Sometimes up to 6 months for larger organizations with long planning cycles.

[irony_on]So actually, we can be happy that price increases aren’t happening every six months — only once a year.[/irony_off]

Haha. Very true @Hangeover2

 

[trialotto]

Oh oh.... I saw this: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/cvc-in...edit-funds-to-refinance-webpros-debt/90128337.

To summarize; CVC Capital Partners is pursuing a major refinancing of WebPros through private credit funds, including a substantial new debt facility reportedly exceeding USD 1 billion. Officially, this move is framed as a restructuring of financial obligations — but it strongly suggests a shift toward shareholder extraction rather than long-term product investment.

For Plesk, this development raises serious strategic concerns.

When private equity owners refinance debt and include mechanisms such as dividend recapitalization and portability clauses, history shows a familiar pattern: increased pressure on subsidiary cash flow, aggressive monetization strategies, and reduced reinvestment in innovation and support. In practice, Plesk may be leveraged not to grow, but to service a mounting debt burden at the parent company.

This could manifest in several key areas:

• Higher licensing costs and stricter commercial terms, driven by financial targets rather than customer value
• Slower product development and reduced investment in engineering, security, and roadmap initiatives
• Increased uncertainty due to the portability clause, which enables an eventual sale of WebPros — potentially subjecting Plesk to yet another ownership or restructuring cycle

Although WebPros will likely maintain a public narrative of continuity and stability, the underlying refinancing strategy prioritizes capital extraction. That inherently risks shifting Plesk’s trajectory from a technology-driven platform to a financially exploited asset.

In short, Plesk may be entering a phase where financial engineering overrides innovation, placing customers, hosting providers, and long-term platform reliability at greater risk. Those who rely heavily on Plesk should be aware that strategic decisions may increasingly serve debt obligations — not the product or its user base.

I think the latter is already happening (for a few years) with those yearly price hikes...

@HHawk,

Some of this is correct, some is not.

There will not be "risk" that exceeds the current level of "risk" - WebPros, Plesk, they are not more exploited than other tech businesses.

Tech industry is always supposed to be that unicorn and people (and investors) really believe that humbug, in the sense that each and every person (and investor) has FOMO.

The remarkable endresult?

FOMO leads to overvaluation, with overvaluation leading to mergers and take overs, with mergers and take overs leading to overpricing and overpayment, with overpayment leading to a necessity to earn the money back - all is about return on investment (ROI).

Essentially a Ponzi Scheme where the last investors has paid so much, that losses are unavoidable for those "last investors".

However, nobody will be inclined to admit they are part of those "last investors" - they still WANT to believe in that unicorn, even though they know already that an unicorn is a mythical creature from fables, not existing in real life.

So, they "dabble" a bit to avoid the unavoidable.

They do some price increases - the fast management types that learn from books (without understanding what they learn) never realize that this will speed up the unavoidable, they are only rewarded by stock options, higher salaries.......... rewarded, but never punished.

It is like putting a child in a candy store and telling them : well, you are in charge, I trust you, I will be back in a couple of days!

They do some refinancing - the fast investors want to have the money before the whole thing collapses.

It is like surrendering the invested amount and then wanting the money back when those fast investors need (not want, but need) the money back.


So yes, you are correct that there is - probably - some panic ........ due to large amounts of capital and debt for all those mergers and take overs.

However, that is life.


I would not consider that as a risk, since sooner or later there is the situation that a new party will take over WebPros.

The term "risk" is not covering the story, it - essentially - is a certainty that there will be a new owner and the same-old-same-old over and over again.


Nobody here, Plesk users and Plesk Team, wants to be a passenger in the bumpy ride caused by those investors.

We are simply passengers and we are too late to simply say : let's not pay the Plesk fees, but contribute an identical amount to a fund that enables us to take over WebPros and become the owner and decision maker.............. and do the right thing and make the right decisions.


I do not object to the term "risk", but it simply is not there.

WebPros and hence Plesk will sooner or later feel the burden of the large overhead of all those investors (wanting dividend and ROI) and of all those fast management types (wanting bonuses and big salaries) .........

...... but there will come a period that WebPros will be confronted with bad financial results (or even losses), which period will only end by a take over.

The latter take over may cause some changes, like lower license fees.

I hope so, but I really doubt it - as long as tech industry is considered to be "the vehicle to become the next billionaire", any tech business will be taken over with the sole intention to take advantage of it.

And yes, there is always the risk that idiotic finance types will make a mess of it - that is a given in life, they simply do.


Kind regards ........

 

[trialotto]

@HHawk

There is no irony in this quote

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.

since you are absolutely right.

In addition, parties wanting to enter the market (as investor or new business) get invested in (by investors) to speed up the process that will or should result in the new party being able to compete with existing parties (WebPros or other parties).

Yes, the investment firm will devalue its own investment.

No irony there, it is a simple fact.

However, the nonsense of those investors will continue ........ with the other parties that they have financed, including alternatives for Plesk.

No problem here, a good old credit crunch - or worse, a stock market crash - will work ;-)


By the way, I like this one :

Clients are not customers anymore — they’re revenue units strapped to an annual price escalator.

Kudos.


Kind regards....