Results 1 to 21 of 21
Thread: Plesk hosting software
-
07-31-2005, 04:46 PM #1Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Aug 2001
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 42
Plesk hosting software
Hi
We're evaluating switching from our custom hosting software written by ourselves to Plesk (one of the only Debian-supported control panels, besides Directadmin which is still beta for Debian)
However, there seem to be a few drawbacks compared to Cpanel?
#1: Cannot update "plans" for multiple domains at once
It seems that you can manually select multiple "clients" and multiple "domains", and you can create templates for both clients and domains when you create/add clients/domains, but you CANNOT update them later. That is, if you create a template called "Gold Plan" or something, you cannot later just update the "Gold Plan" template and have all the clients/domains created using the "Gold Plan" template automatically update. That is, you would have to go through and manually update clients/domains, if you remember which ones were created with which templates. Cpanel can do this easily, and even migrate between plans easily. Basically you could just update the "plan" and all clients/domains that were created using that "plan" are all updated immediately. Is this something Plesk just cannot do?
#2: No auto-updates, only when admin manually logs in
Cpanel auto-updates by itself, without needing the admin to constantly log intothe server, especially important if you have many multiple servers. Plesk needs manual login. Or did we miss an option for auto-updates, or at least auto-update minor releases?
#3: Pricing more expensive for over 100 domains
The pricing for Plesk USED to be cheap, now it seems much more expensive than Cpanel once you get over 100 domains, especially if you add in anti-virus, Spamassassin, etc. (which all come standard with Cpanel). The so-called "bundle" is over US$1000, to get features similar to Cpanel.
With security (not features) as the primary concern, Plesk seems to be the most secure options once we add in our hardware firewalls/IDS systems, but Cpanel really does seem more suited to companies that offer shared web hosting, considering the above.
Perhaps someone that uses Plesk knows of workarounds or solutions to the above, or if we missed something obvious?Zentek International - Webhosting, Dedicated Servers, Colocation in Asia
http://www.zentek-international.com/
-
07-31-2005, 05:52 PM #2Eternal Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2000
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia.
- Posts
- 3,590
Re: Plesk hosting software
#1: Cannot update "plans" for multiple domains at once
That's basically true. Though you could always do it via the database, checking for example for all sites that are set to 100MB ("Silver Plan") and change them all to 200MB ("Gold Plan").
#2: No auto-updates, only when admin manually logs in
This is a good thing, IMO. No constant problems with expired license messages for clients, or broken control panel features, resulting from failed auto-updates that are left to fend for themselves.
#3: Pricing more expensive for over 100 domains
Cpanel is US$1250.00. Plesk is close enough to that with the add-ons. I don't see much difference in the pricing, but as you say Plesk seems to be the most secure option so price should be a very minor consideration (unless they were $1000 different perhaps).
or if we missed something obvious?
Gary
-
07-31-2005, 06:07 PM #3Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Jun 2003
- Location
- United States of America
- Posts
- 1,847
how many domains do you guys have they store data in a mysql database
Computer Steroids - Full service website development solutions since 2001.
(612)234-2768 - Locally owned and operated in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area.
-
08-02-2005, 08:17 AM #4Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Aug 2001
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 42
Aussiehosts:
Thanks for confirming my points. Cpanel DOES seem to have more hosting provider "specific" features, but is less stable/secure than Plesk, perhaps because of all the extra features.
I take it you also use Plesk?Zentek International - Webhosting, Dedicated Servers, Colocation in Asia
http://www.zentek-international.com/
-
08-02-2005, 06:12 PM #5Eternal Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2000
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia.
- Posts
- 3,590
Originally posted by zentek
I take it you also use Plesk?
Gary
-
08-03-2005, 05:11 AM #6Newbie
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Russia
- Posts
- 10
Re: Plesk hosting software
Originally posted by zentek
#2: No auto-updates, only when admin manually logs in
Cpanel auto-updates by itself, without needing the admin to constantly log intothe server, especially important if you have many multiple servers. Plesk needs manual login. Or did we miss an option for auto-updates, or at least auto-update minor releases?
But personally I would not recommend to do such things without administrator, it could be dangerouse :-)Paul 'Lawyer' Kandikov
-
08-03-2005, 01:21 PM #7Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Aug 2001
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 42
I was thinking more of security updates. Right now we have cron jobs to update everything (apt-get) daily, but with Plesk we might not be able to do it since we need to wait for Plesk to update their software before upgrading other packages.
Do you know when the next Plesk release will come out (that supports Debian)? We're a bit cautious since 7.5.3 is the first Plesk release to support Debian, so we're not sure on the quality...???Zentek International - Webhosting, Dedicated Servers, Colocation in Asia
http://www.zentek-international.com/
-
08-03-2005, 01:33 PM #8Newbie
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Russia
- Posts
- 10
Originally posted by zentek
Do you know when the next Plesk release will come out (that supports Debian)? We're a bit cautious since 7.5.3 is the first Plesk release to support Debian, so we're not sure on the quality...???Paul 'Lawyer' Kandikov
-
08-03-2005, 04:43 PM #9Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Jun 2005
- Location
- European Union
- Posts
- 391
#2: No auto-updates, only when admin manually logs in
Cpanel auto-updates by itself, without needing the admin to constantly log intothe server, especially important if you have many multiple servers. Plesk needs manual login. Or did we miss an option for auto-updates, or at least auto-update minor releases?
My vote is FOR PLESK! You cannot compare the shoddy workmanship of cPanel to Enterprise class Plesk.EuroVPS - Europe's Fully Managed Hosting
Established 2004 - The European Hosting Authority
-
08-06-2005, 12:32 AM #10Registered User
- Join Date
- Jun 2001
- Posts
- 597
I would say I have been using Plesk since version 2.5.
Plesk used to be amazing, but now has gone downhill thanks to crappy policies created by SWSOFT inorder to suck out Plesk clients dry. As they add more and more third party programs, it is becoming more work for admins to secure up the servers.
Their support forums. Notice how no one from SWSoft ever go there at all and answer questions? Half the time you pray someone will kindly answer anything. I really enjoyed when RHEL3 up2date broke plesk because of the RPM DB update.
Notice how they come out with these special add-ons for $$$ when it should come with the software? And some of these add-ons were tied in to the system which you could not update at all but wait for your server to be hacked from the add-on.
My latest mojo with them was that my license key suddenly expired due to their new feature to protect their revenue. Since a well secured server is hardened to a point where all uncenssary ports are closed off, theres no f-ing way an admin would know that the copy of Plesk in your server would open a mysterious port to communicate with SWSoft servers once in a full moon to automatically renew a key by itself. Thus...you are locked out of your own server and have clients all asking what happened to the control panel. It sure made me look real bad in front of the clients.
Email their support for help. I get the round-about from their Tech. Call them up, they give me a temporary key for 14 days WTF? but will not renew my PAID key, but instead tell me to upgrade. WTF again.
The only good thing that came out of this... a manager from swsoft actually calls me, but unfortunately I wasnt at home.
Neverthless, its a great product. But managed by a group who really needs to re-evaluate their business practices.
-
08-06-2005, 12:37 AM #11Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Jun 2005
- Location
- European Union
- Posts
- 391
Well written, I agree on some points.
Have you ever used cPanel in a business environment?EuroVPS - Europe's Fully Managed Hosting
Established 2004 - The European Hosting Authority
-
08-06-2005, 01:21 AM #12Eternal Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2000
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia.
- Posts
- 3,590
Originally posted by Cephren
I would say I have been using Plesk since version 2.5.
I agree that SWSoft at least man their forum properly though. I am sure they can afford to cough up the wages for a few medium level technical/customer support reps to look after the general questions/problems that people have.
Gary
-
08-06-2005, 04:10 AM #13Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Dec 2003
- Location
- Sunny So. Calif.
- Posts
- 213
Eventhough SWSoft staff don't man the Plesk forums, at least there are a number of us who care enough to help out as much as we can...
Plesk may have some bad points about it, but cPanel is not without it's problems as well. I do wish for some of cPanels features in Plesk, but I guess we each make our decisions on which control panel we use and stay with...
-
08-07-2005, 08:38 PM #14Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Croatia
- Posts
- 200
I can't find in PLESK to have backup like cPanel does or am I missing something ?
Backup can be done on invidual bases , and on admin side ? I can't backup and restore my clients ? - I will probobly switch to PLESK when this major thing is added ...Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for !
-
08-07-2005, 09:07 PM #15Eternal Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2000
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia.
- Posts
- 3,590
Originally posted by 1ONE
I can't backup and restore my clients ?
http://download1.sw-soft.com/Plesk/P...tml/index.html
Gary
-
08-07-2005, 10:13 PM #16Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Croatia
- Posts
- 200
Ok , but in cpanel it is alot easyer ?
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for !
-
08-08-2005, 01:56 PM #17Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Aug 2001
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 42
Originally posted by AussieHosts
Sure can.
http://download1.sw-soft.com/Plesk/P...tml/index.html
Gary
This is what I sort of mean when I said Cpanel is design "specifically" for hosting companies, they have this kind of thing in mind, where as Plesk, while it can do the same job in most cases, doesn't make it as easy to do.
And for all the "security" of Plesk it doesn't even run with phpsuexec by default (which runs PHP scripts under the user's uid/gid, instead of Apache's user uid/gid). I am at a loss as to why they don't at least integrate that as it would mitigate many security problems.
All said, however, Plesk's security does seem better than Cpanel's, possibly because it has less integrated features. It is a concern, however, that Plesk only releases updates every quarter or so, which means security issues in the mean time go unaddressed in many cases for a long time (weeks/months).
What do you guys think? We'd try Directadmin but they don't really support Debian, saying that with manual tweaks and patience it could work and some people have it working on Debian, but I don't think we'd risk putting it on production web servers.Zentek International - Webhosting, Dedicated Servers, Colocation in Asia
http://www.zentek-international.com/
-
08-08-2005, 03:21 PM #18Registered User
- Join Date
- Jun 2001
- Posts
- 597
Originally posted by zentek
All said, however, Plesk's security does seem better than Cpanel's, possibly because it has less integrated features. It is a concern, however, that Plesk only releases updates every quarter or so, which means security issues in the mean time go unaddressed in many cases for a long time (weeks/months).
Well said
the updates are completely horrible.....
sending out an email to us when there are updates would be a nice feature.
-
08-08-2005, 04:23 PM #19Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Aug 2001
- Location
- Hong Kong
- Posts
- 42
Thanks. I'm trying to learn the pros and cons of each control panel so we can make an informed choice for the next 3-5 years at least.
Zentek International - Webhosting, Dedicated Servers, Colocation in Asia
http://www.zentek-international.com/
-
08-08-2005, 07:35 PM #20Eternal Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2000
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia.
- Posts
- 3,590
Originally posted by zentek
This is what I sort of mean when I said Cpanel is design "specifically" for hosting companies
Gary
-
08-09-2005, 03:03 PM #21Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Aug 2002
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Posts
- 367
Originally posted by zentek
It is a concern, however, that Plesk only releases updates every quarter or so, which means security issues in the mean time go unaddressed in many cases for a long time (weeks/months).
I've been using Plesk since 2001 and it's come a long way, but you would probably be better off setting up a few servers (or VPS's) with different platforms on to evaluate the best platform for your business.Andrew Cranson, Director of Operations
Layershift Fully Managed Cloud Hosting :: WizzVPS Cheap Unmanaged VPS
Jelastic :: Next generation PaaS :: Cloud Hosting
True 24x7 Technical Support - peace of mind around the clock! UK, USA, Singapore server locations.