Parallels Plesk Reality vs. Myths: Part 3
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 2:17PM | Parallels Cloud By Craig Bartholomew, Vice President, Shared Hosting, Parallels
Part 2 of my Plesk Myth Busting was also well received. Thanks for the positive messages confirming that Parallels Support is indeed changing for the better, as well as for your appreciation for these clarifications. Its January already, and we’re all busy planning for Parallels Summit next month. So today I’m going to finish the marathon and take us all the way to 20 … and then maybe I’ll be back to bust some more myths … when we find them. If you missed the previous installments of this 3 part series, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Keep them handy, and share them far and wide. That way you can be a Plesk Myth Buster too.
Myth #13: The included SiteBuilder is an old product that is just thrown in to make Plesk look more complete.
Reality: The new Web Presence Builder is an entirely new product that starts with pre-written websites for 77 small business types, available in 12 languages – including different American English and British English templates, and our latest languages – Polish and Brazilian Portuguese. A fully-functioning website with business-appropriate content can be created in 60 seconds. This site can then be edited and expanded with drag-and-drop Modules and WYSISYG editing, and then published onto Facebook (expanding your web presence) but maintained from a single editing experience. This is a modern, industry-leading product that goes beyond websites to web presence. Check it out on our website.
Myth #14: It is impossible to find things in Plesk – in spite of Plesk being an attractive UI.
Reality: We always strive to improve our technology. It had been a little difficult to find some things – though we think our tab-based interface in Plesk 10 is clearer and more intuitive for customers than other control panels. But, in Plesk 10.4, we have added in a Search feature that works for the Admin Panel as well as the customer Control Panel in addition to reorganizing some interfaces. It is very easy to find anything in Plesk now.
Myth #15: Plesk’s mail subsystem has been difficult to work with and out-of-date.
Reality: Plesk has both Linux and Windows versions, so there are really two answers here. On Linux, Plesk previously used qmail by default, which is indeed not so actively supported by the community. In Plesk 10.4, the default is now a Postfix-native configuration – which gives far more robust mail serving on a respected enterprise-grade Mail server. This increases reliability, as a failure to process will not stop mail delivery. We now support a density up to 100,000+ mailboxes. Also, we offer Providers the option to direct outgoing email from the customer’s own exclusive IP. Since e-mail goes from their dedicated IP, this customer will be the only IP that is blacklisted if detected for outgoing spam – not burning other IPs in the process. On Windows, Plesk supports your choice of MailEnable, SmarterMail, IceWarp, and other leading Windows mail servers.
Myth #16: Plesk is not customizable as a Panel.
Reality: Plesk 10.4 introduces a new Simple View that can easily be configured by just selecting the checkboxes for what is shown and not shown. This Simple View can be set up for the Shared Hosting customer Control Panel or by Providers to control and simplify the Power User View for VPS and Dedicated hosting.
Myth #17: Plesk lacks self-help for novice users.
Reality: In addition to the new Simple View, Plesk supports novice users with a full-range of Video Tutorials on the most common server tasks, email and business management tasks. These videos are exposed directly at the top of the customer Control Panel in Plesk 10.4. These Video Tutorials are also on our Plesk Website if you want to see how easy we make it for you to be successful using Plesk. We are also re-writing and re-structuring our documentation to be both scenario-based and easier to search. Further, we have introduced a self-help “Spider” utility that allows you, as a Plesk administrator, to use it to scan Plesk log files and automatically recommend Knowledge Base articles that could be relevant to any issues you’re having. You can read more about and download this utility here: http://kb.parallels.com/en/8665
Myth #18: Plesk is not great for running on VPS’s because there is no VPS optimized mode and the footprint is too big.
Reality: Plesk has a VPS-Optimized mode in Plesk 10 that results in a lower Memory Footprint than competitive control panels – dropping memory consumption to 57 MB (from 170MB in Standard mode). In Plesk 10.4, you can turn on/off Apache modules in our Tools & Settings page to adjust this. Also, Plesk offers both a Power User View and a configurable Simple View – optimizing the UI for VPS usage. Plesk is an outstanding choice within VPS or Dedicated hosting.
Myth #19: Many control panels provide the same level of IPv6 support as Plesk.
Reality: Plesk offers full dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 Support. Plesk’s IPv6 support helps future-proof hosters, as IPv4 addresses get filled up. This support is extended in Plesk 10.4 with IPv6 support for Reverse DNS Zones (PTR). Plesk 10.4 also supports SNI which lets hosters stretch IPv4 addresses further by placing multiple SSL Certs on a single IPv4 Address. Check the small print on what competing control panels support here. Plesk is ahead of the pack on IPv6 support.
Myth #20: There are no special programs I can take advantage of to switch to Plesk.
Reality: The programs we offer may change over time, but our latest Switch offer is at http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/switch/
So there we go. 20 Myths Busted! We’re very proud of Plesk 10.4 and think that it’s the best Plesk we have released so far. If you haven’t used Plesk in a while, I encourage you to do so. If you’ve never used it, I encourage you to try it. If you use Plesk and love it, then shout it from the mountaintops. And if you still have issues with Plesk, then be kind as you let us know, and we’ll consider you issues and continue to make Plesk better.
I hope to see many of you at Summit.
All the best,
VP, Shared Hosting, Panels
Reader Comments (5)
For hosters using PBAS to control Plesk nodes this version of Plesk appears complicated and contains many unnecessary features. Simplicity has disappeared ( check out Plesk 8 or 9 compared to this version for example).
Whilst I still need to check out items it is still not entirely clear that PBAS 4 and Plesk 10 are entirely compatible!!
Having checked stuff out ,Web presence builder is not compatible with PBAS 4.1 and is not likely to be for some time.
So while stand alone users of Plesk 10 can utilise Web presence Builder and its features, for gaining new customers, dedicated users of PBAS, with several Plesk Nodes, cannot. How sensible is that!!
Hi A Sands,
PBAS 4.1.5 (the latest version) is fully compatible with Plesk 10.4.4 (the latest version).
So that I can better address your questions, what do you find complex about the version of Plesk you use?
Thanks,
-Blake Tyra
Product Manager, Control Panels
|| Parallels, Inc. // www.parallels.com
The Web Presence Builder bundled in Plesk 10.4.4 is fully compatible operating in a PBAS 4.1.5 environment. If you're still having trouble, feel free to e-mail me. I'll try to help you find the issue:
blake [at] parallels.com
Hi Craig,
That's a great follow up post on Plesk and debunks many of the issues that are thrown about against Plesk.
We now use Plesk exclusively and have only three legacy Ensim servers remaining!
We've tried all the poplar panels and I can say from experience that Plesk (since v9) is the best.
Keep up the great work!
Colin.