{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "plesk",
 "name": "Plesk",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "plesk.com",
 "category": "IT & Productivity",
 "task": "Hosting & websites",
 "summary": "Server control panel for agencies and hosters running many sites — per-domain management, security and one-click stacks. Domain caps drive the tier, and a roughly 26% average price rise took effect in January 2026.",
 "best_for": "agencies and hosters managing multiple sites on their own servers who want a mature control panel with per-domain management, security and one-click stacks",
 "skip_if": "you run one or two sites (managed hosting is simpler), or you're comfortable with free panels and the command line",
 "honest_knock": "Two honest notes. Plesk has been raising prices steadily (the 2026 round averaged ~26%), so budget for the renewal trajectory, not today's invoice — it's a recurring theme in the ecosystem since the acquisition era. And the domain caps are the real tier-driver: growing past 10 or 30 domains bumps you up a license, so count your domains including the parked ones before choosing.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$16.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Web Admin Edition (VPS) · per server per month billed monthly for 10 domains, or 15.57 a month on a 12-month term",
  "from_price_usd_month": 16.99,
  "plans": [
   {
    "name": "Web Admin",
    "price": "$16.99/month",
    "includes": "10 domains, VPS"
   },
   {
    "name": "Web Pro",
    "price": "$29.99/month",
    "includes": "30 domains, VPS"
   },
   {
    "name": "Web Host",
    "price": "$62.99/month",
    "includes": "unlimited domains, VPS"
   }
  ],
  "plans_source": "summarised from pricing.notes; every plan name and amount appears verbatim in those notes",
  "notes": "(read 2026-08-30 on plesk.com/pricing from a US exit; re-verified 2026-09-20 from the Netherlands against the page's own PleskPricing rate card, which carries every currency) Per-server licences, priced per edition by domain count. On a VPS: Web Admin $16.99/month (10 domains), Web Pro $29.99 (30 domains), Web Host $62.99 (unlimited domains). A 12-month term takes 8% off, to $15.57, $27.49 and $57.74. Only Web Host costs more on dedicated hardware — $69.99/month, or $64.16 on the yearly term; Web Admin and Web Pro carry no separate dedicated rate at all, so they cost the same on either. Sitejet Builder is included on every edition. Two weeks free trial, no card. Refunds run 14 days and only on purchases made direct through the Plesk Online Store; resellers, cloud marketplaces and hosting providers apply their own policy. The partner programme discounts 15-45%, but the page states its minimum twice and differently: the Partners card reads \"Monthly Minimum of only €250 / $250\" while the FAQ lower down says the minimum commitment starts at $500/month. The page bills in local currency by region: read from the Netherlands the same table shows EUR 14.29, 25.49 and 52.99 monthly, EUR 13.10, 23.37 and 48.57 on the yearly term, and EUR 59.99 (54.99 yearly) for Web Host on dedicated hardware. VAT may apply depending on your country. The ~26% average increase that took effect January 2026 is visible in the page's own data: it still carries the pre-increase set — Web Admin $15.49, Web Pro $26.99, Web Host $49.99 on a VPS and $66.99 dedicated — behind a baseIncreased flag that is set, and a notice on the page says renewals after 1 January 2026 move to the revised structure.",
  "verified_at": "2026-09-20",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "cPanel or free panels like CloudPanel",
  "why": "cPanel shares the same pricing-pressure story; free alternatives trade polish and ecosystem for zero license fees"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/plesk.json",
  "review": "https://officesoftwaremarketplace.com/plesk-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/plesk/",
  "vendor_site": "https://plesk.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://try.plesk.com/bhj2s1yu28h0",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "plesk:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "plesk:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "plesk:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "plesk:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": {
   "what": "Official Plesk extension exposing the Plesk and WP Toolkit REST APIs to ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini — server administration in plain language.",
   "plan": "Free from the Plesk Extension Catalog. Plesk Obsidian for Linux 18.0.72 and above only; no support during the beta and not meant for production.",
   "status": "Very early beta",
   "source": "https://talk.plesk.com/threads/mcp-server-extension-for-plesk-wp-toolkit.389895/",
   "checked": "2026-07-28",
   "note": "The vendor's own MCP server, from our MCP research; it works with your own account at the vendor."
  },
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}