i am wanting to hear about peoples experinces with plesk

I am getting a new dedicated server with plesk, and I am used to cpanel and whm...

is it better or worse or just different

Have you search the forum archive yet? There are literally tons of information. No reason to wait for people to post redundent comment when you can just get the info from the archive.

Peter

Yeah, there are tons of posts about Cpanel and Plesk.

Well, I tried plesk on a new server I got just to see how I like it. From the end user standpoint (which is what I looked at more) I did not like it. It is plain and does not have many features. I did not like the way it handled parked domains either.
I am sure for some users, it is better, but for my hosting customers, they want the features. If that is what they are going to pay for, that is what I am going to offer.

I went back with Cpanel on that machine.

If your Plesk users are advanced, then Plesk is fine. They may even enjoy the non-simplicity.;) However, yes, Plesk is advanced and may not be the best choice for your customers. Plesk may be the best for you as an administrator.

Comparing CPanel to Plesk is like comparing Bill Gates to the guy with the "will code html for food" sign. CPanel blows Plesk off the map.

Plesk ROCKS!!!!!

If you are looking for a stable server and a straight to the point control panel then plesk is for you.

If you are looking for a unstable server and a control full of nice cute little icons for which about 1/2 of them doesn't work then Cpanel is for you. This cpanel has no stability its getting updated so many times is not even funny.

but people like it because its cheaper, and because cpanel comes with themes and stuff like that.

But you should do a search on both control panel and you will figure out witch is best.

Ds3Tech

Although I hear the next version of Plesk will be skinnable... can't wait!

Plesk is awesome

If you buy a license directly from plesk.com make sure you get their upgradable option where it will cost you only 20% of the standard price to upgrade.

Plesk 5.0 looks elite

It appears 9 out of 10 times when ppl are saying Plesk is not as Good as Cpanel, is because of its looks. I don't think that should be the judge in how good a control panel works. Half of my customers are former CPanel users and they all have made comments on how much better they like plesk, as its not bulked up with a lot of BS, it does what needs to be done plain and simple. I haven't had one customer yet complain about plesk. I admin I wouldn't mind seeing some of the features that CPanel has in Plesk, but even without that, it does everything we need it to do thus far.

I have used the demo of plesk and felt like I could not get a good feel of it. I did do searchs on the subject...but you know how many times the word plesk is used on WHT.

I like CPanel and WHT, I am thinking about getting a server from Rackforce instead of Burst. Bescause Rackforce will break up the setup fees over three months. But they only offer plesk. I was worried that I was going to get a few months into this and just not like and then have to pay another set up fee to get on a burst(nocster) server.

Thanks for the input.

I like CPanel's cute icons, but I don't like its unstability and pricing (around $90/month). I think a control panel license should be reasonable and one-time.

I don't like Plesk's less fancy features, but I love its stability and simplicity.

I think if you want to offer a good-looking control panel with lots of features (although not all of them might work), CPanel is the way to go. But if you want to offer a simple control panel with less features yet stable and does what it says, Plesk is better.

If you send an email to Nocster sales they will also split setup fees over 3 months, they just don't advertise it...

I've only used Cpanel as an end user a long time ago when it was 1/2 done and many links were dead. I've used Plesk recently and it seems to do what needs to be done for the most part, though might be a bit more confusing and less intuitive than end users like. Everything is there, however you just need to look around a bit for it.

For example, when you set up hosting for a domain, you click on HOSTING (good so far), and then choose the type (physical, frame forward, redirect), good so far, then next page, you enter a few things like dedicated IP or shared IP, services (CGI, php, ASP, etc.), but you might be confused that there's no place to put the MB of the account. That's under a different heading at the top, PREFERENCES.

Setting up mail is a bit odd as well, as it is done in an Frame which is in the middle of the page (so the scroll bar is in the middle of the page). Once you enter the mailbox name, you then pick from a variety of options which is good, however the UPDATE button is at the bottom and looks the same as other buttons that you wouldn't press.

Want to see your stats? No stats button. Hmmm... where is it? It is under REPORT, then you see a WEBALIZER button, which pops up a new window.

In other words, it isn't as intuitive as it could be and I think that sums up the cp. Needs to be laid out better and it would be fine. Cpanel with the icons has a better layout and makes things easier to find IMHO.

Originally posted by Chicken
Setting up mail is a bit odd as well, as it is done in an Frame which is in the middle of the page (so the scroll bar is in the middle of the page). Once you enter the mailbox name, you then pick from a variety of options which is good, however the UPDATE button is at the bottom and looks the same as other buttons that you wouldn't press.


Me too, always click the wrong button for setting up mail :blush:

The thing I like about Cpanel, is you choose something and you get it.

With Plesk, you work for it...

Tell me, how do you setup a Subdomain in Cpanel. Click Subdomain, and put it in. Cpanel creates a nice subdirectory for you and sets up the dns stuff for you.

To create one in Plesk, if your using Vhosts, you've got to go modify code, and then add a domain, just like adding another domain, in another directory altogether... PAIN IN THE BUTT.

Sorry, I've been working with Cpanel for a few years now. It does what I need to get done. Plesk, as far as I'm concerned is a piece of garbage. No offense. I know some people think it is the cat's meow. Not me.

Steve - Back to trying to figure out why Perldesk hates my plesk environment!!!

Originally posted by Chicken
I've only used Cpanel as an end user a long time ago when it was 1/2 done and many links were dead. I've used Plesk recently and it seems to do what needs to be done for the most part, though might be a bit more confusing and less intuitive than end users like. Everything is there, however you just need to look around a bit for it.

In other words, it isn't as intuitive as it could be and I think that sums up the cp. Needs to be laid out better and it would be fine. Cpanel with the icons has a better layout and makes things easier to find IMHO.

Very well said, Chicken and I can't agree more! :D

FYI - If you are looking to an alternative to PLESK I would check out Webmin. It is not as user friendly, but it is much more robust and FREE. RackForce will load this onto your dedicated server and configure it during install - no problem.

Kelly Beardmore
Operations Manager
RackForce.com

Plesk may be the best for you as an administrator.

agree with this, we run both Plesk and CPanel. Install and upgrading plesk (RPM version) is about as simple as it gets.

However, we checked our help desk calls over a 12 month period and we assessed each one to see if this was a general support call (could be plesk or cpanel - 22%) a unique plesk call (could only be from a plesk user - 63%) or a unique cpanel call (could only be from a cpanel user - 15%) so 63% were what we classed as 'unique plesk calls'

If you don't care having all the bells and whistles of CPanel/WHM, then Plesk I think is fine. Actually, the newly released Plesk 5.0 might asstonish anti-Pleskers (okay, so that isn't a word ;) ).

I have found a couple real big cons for Plesk. They are:
1) Plesk can be very slow loading at times. It may be because of all the MySQL quries it runs, or whatever, but it does take a while to load sometimes.
and...
2) I have found if you change a domain from name-based hosting to ip-based or vise versa, some people may not be able to see that domain. It may be because they have cached DNS, but whatever it is, it isn't good at all.

Also, in addition to those two cons, many customers who previously used CPanel/WHM may not be very impressed...or they might find it very confusing. Plesk is not always straight forward in how it functions.

I am waiting for the Plesk 5.0 demo to come out. :D

Plesk rocks!!

I've only used plesk as a reseller so I have this question:

Is it possable to modify the interface? Specificly, combine a couple pages into one layout, so as to reduce the number of clicks needed for some features. More than just skinning.

At the time you can only skin Plesk, and add custom buttons(which I must say isn't a newbie friendly to do.). You also will need root to do this.