Two names, one mail system
Plesk and Mailcow both appear in Broadbent Host mail, and they are not competing products you choose between at checkout. Plesk is the control panel. It is what shared hosting uses, and it is the name on the email hosting plans, including the line that says Plesk webmail access. Mailcow is the mail platform those mailboxes are held on. Webmail is at https://webmail.broadbent.host. The platform domains are mail.broadbent.host and mail.broadbent.email. This guide says which name to use when you are talking to support, writing DNS, or deciding whether you wanted mail at all.
If the question is "where do I click to add a mailbox", the answer is the panel on the hosting or email plan, which is Plesk. If the question is "where is the mailbox stored, and what is the webmail address", the answer is Mailcow at webmail.broadbent.host. If the question is "do I buy Mailcow or Plesk", you buy the email plan or the hosting plan. You do not buy a separate Mailcow subscription from a second catalogue.
Use Plesk when the job is the account
Use the Plesk panel to add the domain to the account, create the mailbox, read the server settings for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP, and use auto-configuration for a phone or Outlook. Use it for the website on the same shared account: WordPress Toolkit, SEO Toolkit, PHP Composer, Git, Softaculous and Security Advisor. Use it when you are on Standard or Premium shared hosting and the site and the mail are meant to live together.
Use Plesk as a name when you are comparing panels on a server. A dedicated server or a Raspberry Pi server can have Plesk installed, or Interworx, or neither. Bring-your-own-licence is the configuration where the Plesk key is one you already pay for. That decision is about the server. It is not a decision about whether Mailcow is the platform for a mailbox on our mail system. A bare server does not automatically receive mail for your domain. Mail still has to be pointed at the platform, or run by you on that server, which is a different design from the email plans.
The email plan sizes are the ones to quote. Basic is 5 GB and 10 mailboxes. Business is 20 GB and 25 mailboxes. Enterprise is 50 GB and unlimited mailboxes on the plan text. All three list Plesk webmail. Spam and virus protection is part of the plan. Migration of existing mail, contacts and calendar data is offered as assistance, not as a button that empties the old host on its own.
Use Mailcow when the job is the mailbox
Use the Mailcow name when you are describing the store: a domain quota, a default mailbox quota, a maximum quota, a mailbox limit, an active flag, aliases, and quarantine notification per mailbox. Use the webmail URL when you want a browser session that does not depend on a laptop profile. Use mail.broadbent.host and mail.broadbent.email only as the platform names. They are not the domains you put staff addresses on. Staff addresses are on your domain, once that domain is on the platform and DNS sends mail to it.
An alias is the right object when several people should receive one address and each already has a mailbox. A mailbox is the right object when someone must sign in, have a password, and have a quota of their own. Inactive is the right flag when someone has left and you are not ready to delete the history. None of those are Plesk product names. They are how the platform records the mail. The panel is still a reasonable place to ask for them to be created. Support can match the two, which is why naming the domain and the address matters more than naming the software.
IMAP is the client mode to ask for when a phone and a laptop and webmail should show the same folders. POP3 that removes mail from the server will make Mailcow look empty, because the messages were downloaded and deleted. That fault is fixed in the client. It is not fixed by changing panel.
When the answer is neither
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are not Plesk and they are not Mailcow. They are managed, if you want us to manage them, under IT and server management. Choose them when the organisation already lives in Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, Gmail or Drive. Choose a Broadbent mailbox when the address should be on your domain on our platform, opened in webmail, a phone or Outlook over IMAP or POP3. Outlook connected over IMAP is still this mail system. It is not Exchange Online.
A website maintenance plan does not set up email. The maintenance FAQ lists email setup as not included. Order mail separately. A Kubernetes namespace does not include a mailbox. A database plan does not include one either. Mail is the email plan, the mailboxes included with hosting, or a suite we manage under the IT plan. Say which of those three you mean.
A hardware firewall does not filter a mailbox. Spam and virus protection on the email plan is the filtering described there. Quarantine notification is the mailbox setting that tells the user something was held. A Cisco ASA or Firepower device is for a rack. Ordering one does not change webmail.
DNS, migration, and the first test
Whoever holds DNS must point the domain's mail at the platform before the rest of the world will deliver. If we hold DNS, the UK team and the panel are the route. If someone else holds DNS, the records have to change there. Webmail can work with a password while delivery still goes to the old host. That split confuses the first week. Test from an outside mailbox, to the new address, and confirm the message is in webmail.broadbent.host. Then reply. Then open the same mailbox on the phone over IMAP and confirm the reply is there too.
Migration assistance moves mail, contacts and calendar data with the aim of little disruption. It needs a window, access to the old system, and a decision about what is left behind. Quotas apply on the new side immediately. A 5 GB Basic domain will not absorb a 20 GB history. Pick the plan for the mail you are moving, not for an empty mailbox. Extra storage is an add-on. A notice is sent as you approach the limit. A full mailbox refuses new mail, which looks like an outage and is a quota.
How to ask for help
Say the domain, the mailbox address, and whether webmail.broadbent.host accepts the password. Say whether one address fails or every address on the domain fails. Say where DNS is hosted. Say whether you expected Plesk, because the site is on shared hosting, or whether you expected only mail. Those details let the desk tell a panel question from a platform question. "Mailcow is down" is a weaker report than "orders@ on example.com accepts the password in webmail and the phone shows nothing, and the phone is set to POP3".
The article Plesk hosting is the panel in full. The article Mailcow email hosting is the platform in full. The topics are Plesk and Mailcow. Order from the email hosting page or from shared hosting, then use the name that matches the layer you are actually touching.
A clean arrangement is dull and correct. The site is in Plesk on shared hosting. The mailboxes are on the email plan, stored on Mailcow, opened at webmail.broadbent.host and on the phone over IMAP. DNS for the domain points mail at that platform. Microsoft 365 is absent unless you deliberately added it. Each of those sentences can be checked. If one of them is false, that is the thing to fix, rather than a new product with a similar name.
A week of ordinary mail
Monday you add a mailbox for a new starter in the panel, inside the domain quota, and you send them webmail.broadbent.host. They sign in once in the browser, then add the account to the phone as IMAP, using the server settings from the purchase mail or the panel's auto-configuration. Tuesday someone asks for accounts@ to reach three people. That is an alias if each person already has a mailbox, and a shared mailbox only if they must share one password. Wednesday a leaver is set inactive. The messages stay in the quota until you export or delete them. Thursday you look at the domain usage before anyone hits the notice. Friday you check quarantine, because a held message is still a message someone may have needed.
None of those steps require you to choose Mailcow instead of Plesk. The panel is where the account is changed. The platform is where the mailbox, the alias, the quota and the active flag are stored. Webmail is the check that the password works without a desktop profile. If the phone is empty and webmail is full, the phone is probably POP3 and has removed the mail, or it is looking at a different account. Fix the client before you change DNS again.
Clients and the plan you already bought
The email compatibility list names Roundcube, Horde, Plesk Webmail, SquirrelMail and Afterlogic WebMail Pro, alongside the phone and Outlook path that IMAP and POP3 imply. Remember webmail.broadbent.host as the Broadbent webmail address. Remember the plan as the quota: 5 GB and 10 mailboxes on Basic, 20 GB and 25 on Business, 50 GB and unlimited mailboxes on Enterprise. A domain quota is a pool. Ten mailboxes do not each receive the whole pool. Extra storage is an add-on. The notice arrives as you approach the limit. A full mailbox refuses new mail.
Spam and virus protection is the plan's protection. Quarantine notification is a per-mailbox setting so the owner hears that something was held. Neither one is Microsoft 365, and neither one is a Cisco firewall. If the company has already standardised on Exchange or Google Workspace, the IT management plans are where that administration is listed: users, licences, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Gmail, Drive, Meet. Connecting Outlook to a Broadbent mailbox over IMAP does not move the mailbox into Exchange. Say which system the address lives on before you buy a second one.
What to order, in one line
Order shared hosting when you want the site and the panel. Order the email plan when you want the mailboxes on your domain with the storage and the count printed above. Point DNS at the platform, or ask the UK team to, when we hold the name. Use the article on Plesk for the panel and the article on Mailcow for the store. Use this guide when someone in the room thinks they are two products. They are two layers. Buying both names as if they were alternatives will not create two sets of mail, and it will not make a Microsoft 365 tenancy appear.
The first successful test is still three messages: one from outside into webmail, one reply out, and the same thread visible on the phone over IMAP. Until that works, do not migrate the next mailbox, and do not cancel the old host. Migration assistance can move mail, contacts and calendar data. It needs a window and enough quota on the new plan for the history you insist on keeping.
Shared hosting mail versus the email plan
Shared hosting can include mail for the site in the same Plesk account. The email hosting plans are the product when you want the printed mailbox counts and storage: ten mailboxes and 5 GB, twenty-five and 20 GB, or unlimited mailboxes and 50 GB. Use the email plan when mail is the thing you are buying. Use the hosting account's mail when the site is the thing you are buying and the mail is a handful of addresses that fit that account. Both still sit on the Mailcow platform when they are Broadbent mailboxes, and both still use the panel. The invoice is what tells them apart.
A domain that points its website at shared hosting and its mail at the email plan is a normal split. Do it on purpose, with the DNS records to match, and test webmail after the records change. A domain that points mail nowhere, because the site move forgot the mail records, is the same split done by accident. The panel will look ready. The platform will have the mailbox. The world will still deliver to the previous host until DNS says otherwise.