Resolved Why I'm quitting Plesk after nearly a decade

[Gary W.]

The problem with SaaS licenses is that they are perpetual. You end up paying for the same service, slightly improved, for years without ever truly owning anything. I quickly calculated how much I’ve spent on Plesk licenses, and it’s an astronomical number that far exceeds my server expenses. This is a serious issue, which I imagine you are already noticing in your sales data.

I started with a Web Host subscription where I also hosted other clients' sites, then moved to Web Pro, managing less demanding projects with Webmin. Recently, I was about to downgrade to the Web Admin plan, hosting the 10 most demanding sites on Plesk and all the others elsewhere. However, I mustered a lot of patience and finally migrated the last few projects to Webmin and CloudPanel, implementing missing features directly on the server.

Over the years, Plesk has become a very comprehensive platform but also overwhelming and complex to manage. So, here are some suggestions:

• Improve the UI for managing sites and settings. It’s not normal that you have to navigate through layered sections just to enable previous PHP versions;
• Simplify the feature set, especially for managing Nginx and Apache;
• Stop selling extensions for as low as $0.99 per month. This business model is predatory. You get users hooked and then prevent them from accessing important features that should be included;
• Offer a very basic version, similar to CloudPanel, that is not limited by the number of sites. This would be useful for managing school and hobby projects with limited resources.

I know you're a large company that needs to make a profit. I respect that, and I am aware that if Plesk is such a good tool today, it's also thanks to this drive. However, by increasing the price every year, you will only push away loyal customers, the ones who have supported you for many years.

 

[HHawk]

The problem with SaaS licenses is that they are perpetual. You end up paying for the same service, slightly improved, for years without ever truly owning anything. I quickly calculated how much I’ve spent on Plesk licenses, and it’s an astronomical number that far exceeds my server expenses. This is a serious issue, which I imagine you are already noticing in your sales data.

I started with a Web Host subscription where I also hosted other clients' sites, then moved to Web Pro, managing less demanding projects with Webmin. Recently, I was about to downgrade to the Web Admin plan, hosting the 10 most demanding sites on Plesk and all the others elsewhere. However, I mustered a lot of patience and finally migrated the last few projects to Webmin and CloudPanel, implementing missing features directly on the server.

Over the years, Plesk has become a very comprehensive platform but also overwhelming and complex to manage. So, here are some suggestions:

• Improve the UI for managing sites and settings. It’s not normal that you have to navigate through layered sections just to enable previous PHP versions;
• Simplify the feature set, especially for managing Nginx and Apache;
• Stop selling extensions for as low as $0.99 per month. This business model is predatory. You get users hooked and then prevent them from accessing important features that should be included;
• Offer a very basic version, similar to CloudPanel, that is not limited by the number of sites. This would be useful for managing school and hobby projects with limited resources.

I know you're a large company that needs to make a profit. I respect that, and I am aware that if Plesk is such a good tool today, it's also thanks to this drive. However, by increasing the price every year, you will only push away loyal customers, the ones who have supported you for many years.

Gary, you summed it up perfectly. Every single point you raised is exactly what we—and many others—have been saying for years. The SaaS model ensures you keep paying endlessly for what is essentially the same product, with only minor tweaks, while the pricing spirals out of control.

Your experience is all too familiar: starting with Plesk Web Host Edition, then downgrading step by step, only to eventually migrate everything away because the costs became outrageous. The numbers don’t lie—Plesk is now more expensive than the actual hardware it runs on. And yet, they act as if this is a perfectly reasonable business strategy.

We saw the same trend among our customers. When Plesk dropped their latest 40% price increase on Web Host Edition, it became impossible to justify. Many clients assumed we were inflating the costs ourselves and even contacted Plesk directly to complain. Amusingly enough, they received the exact same dismissive responses we did. At least that confirmed we weren’t the problem.

So, what did we do? We migrated as many customers as possible to other platforms. And the result? We’ve canceled 80% of our Plesk licenses in just a few months. Not that Plesk will lose any sleep over it—for now. But when another 25-40% vanish in January 2026, someone, somewhere in the corporate chain might finally start asking questions.

But hey, I’ll let the screenshot do the talking. Plesk can keep pretending all is fine, but when longtime customers are running for the exits, maybe—just maybe—there’s a problem worth addressing.

 

[Gary W.]

Gary, you summed it up perfectly. Every single point you raised is exactly what we—and many others—have been saying for years. The SaaS model ensures you keep paying endlessly for what is essentially the same product, with only minor tweaks, while the pricing spirals out of control.

Your experience is all too familiar: starting with Plesk Web Host Edition, then downgrading step by step, only to eventually migrate everything away because the costs became outrageous. The numbers don’t lie—Plesk is now more expensive than the actual hardware it runs on. And yet, they act as if this is a perfectly reasonable business strategy.

We saw the same trend among our customers. When Plesk dropped their latest 40% price increase on Web Host Edition, it became impossible to justify. Many clients assumed we were inflating the costs ourselves and even contacted Plesk directly to complain. Amusingly enough, they received the exact same dismissive responses we did. At least that confirmed we weren’t the problem.

So, what did we do? We migrated as many customers as possible to other platforms. And the result? We’ve canceled 80% of our Plesk licenses in just a few months. Not that Plesk will lose any sleep over it—for now. But when another 25-40% vanish in January 2026, someone, somewhere in the corporate chain might finally start asking questions.

But hey, I’ll let the screenshot do the talking. Plesk can keep pretending all is fine, but when longtime customers are running for the exits, maybe—just maybe—there’s a problem worth addressing.

View attachment 27949

If I were the CFO of Plesk, the sight of this chart would be terrifying. I can only imagine the sheer amount of work you had to endure to migrate all those projects. From the perspective of a Plesk provider like you, their pricing strategy becomes even more incomprehensible. I mean, they lost a partner who was supplying almost 800 licenses? It’s pure madness from a business standpoint.

I’m glad you can finally consider yourselves free from Plesk.

 

[manni]

May I ask you - sorry if i overread it - what your Target Solution will be ?

 

[Gary W.]

May I ask you - sorry if i overread it - what your Target Solution will be ?

I've been using CloudPanel for 8 months and I'm very satisfied with it. I only installed fail2ban manually, but other than that, the panel has everything I need. From Let's Encrypt to backups, it's very solid and fast. I have absolutely no complaints.

My projects are 80% on WordPress, so PHP. Varnish is native on CloudPanel, wow it's so fast.

 

[manni]

I've been using CloudPanel for 8 months and I'm very satisfied with it. I only installed fail2ban manually, but other than that, the panel has everything I need. From Let's Encrypt to backups, it's very solid and fast. I have absolutely no complaints.

My projects are 80% on WordPress, so PHP. Varnish is native on CloudPanel, wow it's so fast.

Hey. Do they Support AlmaLinux as well? As our whole Infrastructure is based on CentOS this would be really helpful. Do you have experience with the API and Event triggers?

 

[Gary W.]

CloudPanel supports primarily Ubuntu and Debian. I don't have experience with APIs or Event triggers.

 

[trialotto]

@HHawk

The statement

somewhere in the corporate chain might finally start asking questions.

can be responded to with a : no, they will definitely not.


I am simply trying to say here that some things or views will never change within Plesk or will only change with very very great difficulty.

And the definition of "difficulty" here is : it takes years to manifest the concept of an idea of a view that something might have to change.


Sure, Plesk will consider changes that gravitate towards copying "proven concepts" - take the WebPros Cloud initiative, for instance.

Nevertheless, they will fail to evolve away from the critical bottlenecks, like the "one-license-per-one-server" business model.

However, they do not fail to use "make-development-costs-to-support-everything" model and the "impose-all-costs-and-targeted-profit-on-a-decreased-number-of-Plesk-users" business model.

Stated differently, management will - probably - only notice if profits become losses.


At this moment, I am not convinced that Plesk management will ask "questions", not now or in the future.

I think that it will become very very hard to ask the right questions (now or in the future), if the right questions have not been asked for years now.

To be honest, I do see the questions and surveys on the Plesk forum - I am not willing to answer them, they are not the right questions, not at all.


I sincerely hope that you are right and that a significant decrease in Plesk licenses will lead to a change.


Kind regards....

 

[OneFathom]

I've been using CloudPanel for 8 months and I'm very satisfied with it. I only installed fail2ban manually, but other than that, the panel has everything I need. From Let's Encrypt to backups, it's very solid and fast. I have absolutely no complaints.

My projects are 80% on WordPress, so PHP. Varnish is native on CloudPanel, wow it's so fast.

Thanks for your post @Gary W.

Curious as to why you chose CloudPanel vs something like Webmin/Virtmin?

 

[Gary W.]

Thanks for your post @Gary W.

Curious as to why you chose CloudPanel vs something like Webmin/Virtmin?

I don't like Webmin's UX and design. Look at it:



This is CloudPanel. Minimal, easy, fast and has Varnish native support.

 

[trialotto]

@Gary W.

It is one thing that you want to change from one hosting panel to another hosting panel...

....... but it surely is not the Plesk forum where you should talk about or promote CloudPanel.


I find that a bit strange.

In my humble opinion, it might even be inappropriate - it would not be inappropriate if you promote Plesk on forums run by CloudPanel.


And what about the question : on what technology is CloudPanel based?

In some cases, other hosting panels are simply "white label Plesk based panels".

Why not ask that question?


I get it, you are a fan of CloudPanel.

That is fine.


Kind regards.....

 

[HHawk]

@Gary W.

It is one thing that you want to change from one hosting panel to another hosting panel...

....... but it surely is not the Plesk forum where you should talk about or promote CloudPanel.


I find that a bit strange.

In my humble opinion, it might even be inappropriate - it would not be inappropriate if you promote Plesk on forums run by CloudPanel.


And what about the question : on what technology is CloudPanel based?

In some cases, other hosting panels are simply "white label Plesk based panels".

Why not ask that question?


I get it, you are a fan of CloudPanel.

That is fine.


Kind regards.....

What nonsense are you taling about. Gary is not promoting anything here! He is simply explaining stuff by answering questions. Sigh.

 

[trialotto]

@HHawk,

I understand that @Gary W. is trying to "explain" his preferences.

Let's be honest, if he has a preference for CloudPanel, then the CloudPanel forum is the only place to talk about that.

It is common decency ......... and also normal, in the sense that CloudPanel Team would get the credits that they deserve according to @Gary W.


Negativity, unnecessary complaints, lopsided discussions about whatever topic .......... it will not add to the Plesk Forum.

It will only help people and Plesk Team to forget about the things that actually do matter.

It will certainly help Plesk Team to forget about those issues that really need to improvement and/or to resolution.


The above is my "explanation".

Kind regards....

 

[HHawk]

@HHawk,

I understand that @Gary W. is trying to "explain" his preferences.

Let's be honest, if he has a preference for CloudPanel, then the CloudPanel forum is the only place to talk about that.

It is common decency ......... and also normal, in the sense that CloudPanel Team would get the credits that they deserve according to @Gary W.


Negativity, unnecessary complaints, lopsided discussions about whatever topic .......... it will not add to the Plesk Forum.

It will only help people and Plesk Team to forget about the things that actually do matter.

It will certainly help Plesk Team to forget about those issues that really need to improvement and/or to resolution.


The above is my "explanation".

Kind regards....

@trialotto
Appreciate the effort you put into writing essays, but honestly most of us don’t come here for long moral lectures. A point that takes three paragraphs could easily fit into two lines – and that would probably help everyone “not forget” what really matters.

 

[trialotto]

@HHawk,

Still not cordial or helpful.

I will leave the "Kind regards... " away, since somebody told me to be short.

 

[HHawk]

@HHawk,

Still not cordial or helpful.

I will leave the "Kind regards... " away, since somebody told me to be short.

Thank you for listening. ;-)