Wanted: Reviews of reliable PLESK Windows hosting resellers

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Posted by mrzippy, 04-10-2007, 12:56 PM
Hi everyone, There are lots of threads regarding Windows Reseller hosting, but most of them are very generic and not particularly helpful if one is looking for a PLESK windows reseller account. ... so, if you are a reseller for a company that offers PLESK Windows Reseller Hosting packages, please post your review here. Here's a template: ----------- Company name/url: Support & Service Rating: Server Reliability Rating: Explaination, Details And Review: ----------- NOTE 1: The purpose of this thread is not to debate whether plesk is better or worse then hsphere or hostingcontroller or whatever other windows control panels are out there. NOTE 2: Please do NOT post a review or opinion unless you are an actual reseller customer of the company or you have been a reseller customer within the last 4 months. (The idea is that this "PLESK Windows reseller hosting" review thread should only be filled with current reviews of company's offering PLESK reseller accounts, based on actual real and recent customer experiences.) Cheers!
Posted by ReliableSite, 04-10-2007, 03:12 PM
MrZippy, Have you tried to do a search for "plesk" in the offers section, then using that list of hosts do a search on the main boards to find reviews?
Posted by mrzippy, 04-10-2007, 03:14 PM
Actually, that's exactly what I did. I ended up finding a few reviews, but only one or two recent ones... I'd like to hear from current customers to see what they think.
Posted by ReliableSite, 04-10-2007, 03:26 PM
Completely understandable! Just out of curiosity, why does it need to be a PLESK reseller?
Posted by sgarbus, 04-10-2007, 03:31 PM
Does it really matter why? That's what he needs.
Posted by mrzippy, 04-10-2007, 08:52 PM
OK.. here's the reason. We are longtime cpanel company and have lots of cpanel servers. But more and more of our customers are asking for windows accounts. My thinking is that we should first "test the water" with a reliable host that offers windows reseller accounts. (Our admins don't know any windows skills, and I want to make sure our customers actually want the windows hosting before I start hiring..) So I searched around for very reliable company offering windows reseller accounts, and had many recommendations to www.fluidhosting.com. (See my "*** note" below.) I opened an account with them, and got a basic reseller account on their HSPHERE system and started playing around. We just set up a few customers on the system, as a live "testing ground" to trial things out. HSphere is really nice. But now that we have some real-world customer on the system.. we're finding that it is not appropriate for our needs. The problem is that it has its own internal billing system, and it's 100% integrated, and not flexible at all. This is a big problem, since we use our own billing system and we obviously don't want customers to be sent invoices from two different systems, nor do we want to manage two completely different billing systems. With Hsphere, it appears to be impossible to do even basic things like "add an IP address" for a customer without having to first give a "credit" to the customers account, then they "buy" the IP address, etc.. We figured out how to turn off the invoices being auto-emailed, but the customer can still see the internal billing stuff in their control panel, and it's downright confusing for them since we do our actual billing with a different application. We then found out we can set up a plan in HSphere as "Without Billing", but then the customer is able to modify their own disk/bandwidth/resources without being charged for anything and there's no way for us to know about it. Obviously that's not good. It isn't even possible to have a "per customer" over-ride to offer (for example) a free IP address or an extra 500mb disk space. For example, if the customer's plan is set to charge a $2 setup fee and $2/month for an Ip address, then the only way to give a free Ip to them is to actually create a whole new plan and move the customer to that plan. This means if you have a lot of customers who have special pricing or feature allowances.. you'll wind up with a *lot* of custom plans to manage. Not good. So... while I have really liked what I see with hsphere.. it is just not appropriate for our needs since it is so tightly integrated with its own billing system, and completely inflexible for handling "special customers" who need extras added to their account that don't "fit" with their plan's pricing setup. So.. now we are looking to try PLESK. Our billing system has a module for it (www.awbs.com), so hopefully it will allow us more flexibility then HSphere. PURPOSE OF THIS THREAD So now you understand why I need plesk.. and this is why I'm trying to now find an extremely reliable company like fluidhosting.com that offers PLESK reseller accounts. ** BTW - I have been VERY impressed with www.fluidhosting.com for our hsphere reseller account testing. They have been solid and reliable, extremely friendly and fast support/service, and reasonable pricing. I really really wish they offered Plesk reseller accounts. Last edited by mrzippy; 04-10-2007 at 09:01 PM.
Posted by dgarbus, 04-10-2007, 11:45 PM
I am not sure if you want to do any of the administrative work but maybe you should look into getting a Windows VPS with Plesk on it? They aren't that expensive (but probably more than a cheap reseller) and will give you a little more control as well as an idea of what you would be dealing with if you did decide to implement it.
Posted by mrzippy, 04-11-2007, 09:06 AM
We don't have any Windows admins on staff, (we're a linux/cpanel shop) so if we got a VPS it would need to be fully managed by the provider. I still have the same problem: which provider to pick? Reviews of reliable PLESK windows VPS providers (who offer fully managed service) would also be welcome
Posted by ReliableSite, 04-11-2007, 10:25 AM
MrZippy, A few more questions... You mentioned that AWBS has a module for PLESK, but doesn't the billing system have to be on the same system or even the same local network for that module to work correctly? Also, AWBS supports Enism and HELM, two other Windows based control panels -- have you considered expanding your requirements to these two panels as well?
Posted by mrzippy, 04-11-2007, 10:47 AM
No. AWBS can be installed on any server. It will use the API provided by plesk (or whatever panel it's connecting to) to do the server management. For example, we use AWBS to manage about 75 cpanel servers, and awbs is installed on a dedicated machine in a different datacenter. I don't like the "look and feel" of HELM. (Our customers will not like it.) In my research into Ensim, I did not hear more then one "decent" review of it. The vast majority of people I have spoken with to discuss what Windows control panel to use have said either hsphere or plesk. So.. I've checked out hsphere already.. and now I'd like to check out plesk. If Plesk doesn't work out either, then I'll possibly consider Ensim and then helm if necessary. Either way.. the most important thing for me is to find a reliable provider. This is much more important then the control panel being used or even pricing.
Posted by kpmedia, 04-11-2007, 11:19 AM
EuroVPS / CanadaVPS - www.eurovps.com / www.canadavps.com The support is both fast and knowledgeable. Sometimes you can get fast, sometimes you can get knowledgeable, but these guys have both. You should also notice they are a swsoft partner (or something like that) and are really good with swsoft products like Plesk and HSPC. Their Windows techs also seem to actually know Windows too, which can be hard to find with some hosts out there. The server I'm on went down about a week ago, but was up within 2 hours. I don't remember when it was down before that, though it happened once or twice in the past year. They restore e-mail first, which I like. They usually see the error before I do, as they seem to monitor and are proactive, not reactive. I'd give an A+ rating. Use Euro in Europe, use Canada in North America. I needed Windows, and I liked Plesk, and these guys have done well. I use my reseller for multi-domain hosting for myself, friends and family. I don't really "re-sell" anything. The master account, the reseller admin, will use HSPC, which is Plesk plus others mixed together (search here or visit swsoft.com for more info on this). The domains can individually have Plesk access added. They offer shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated, Windows and Linux, Plesk and others. So you should be able to find what you want. Last edited by kpmedia; 04-11-2007 at 11:22 AM.

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