Plesk hosting
Plesk is the control panel for Broadbent Host shared hosting and the panel named on the email plans. Standard and Premium both include it, with WordPress Toolkit, SEO Toolkit, PHP Composer, Git, Softaculous and Security Advisor. You add the site, the mailboxes, the PHP version and the certificate from the panel. You do not take a root login on those plans. The machines stay in the UK, and the hosting terms are the terms for Plesk hosting services.
On a dedicated server or a Raspberry Pi server, Plesk is optional. You can install Plesk, Interworx, or leave the machine bare. Bring-your-own-licence is the case where the Plesk key is yours. Shared hosting is the case where the panel is part of the plan. The article Plesk hosting is the long description. The guide Plesk or Mailcow explains why both names appear. This page is the service itself.
What the panel is doing
A shared account is a website, a domain and the mail for that domain, on a server shared with other accounts. The panel is how that account is changed. WordPress Toolkit installs and updates WordPress from the panel. Softaculous installs other scripts. Git and PHP Composer are there when the site is deployed from a repository. SEO Toolkit is the panel's SEO tools. It is not a separate SEO engagement, and website maintenance does not include SEO services. Security Advisor is the checklist in the panel.
Website maintenance is a different order. The panel will not apply a monthly core update, test it on staging, and watch the hours, unless a person does that or website maintenance is in place. Critical patches, staging and the hour allowances live on that service, not inside the hosting plan. Hosting without maintenance is a normal order. It means the updates are yours.
Mailboxes on the Plesk plans
Email hosting is sold as Plesk mail on your domain, with spam filtering, webmail and UK support. Basic is 5 GB and 10 email accounts, with Plesk webmail and standard spam and virus protection. Business is 20 GB and 25 accounts. Enterprise is 50 GB and unlimited accounts, with Plesk webmail. Additional storage can be added. A notice is sent as you approach the limit. You upgrade, add storage, or archive. The mailbox does not grow on its own.
IMAP and POP3 are supported, with SMTP, and the setup message includes the server settings. The panel can auto-configure common clients. Browser clients named for the product are Roundcube, Horde, Plesk Webmail, SquirrelMail and Afterlogic WebMail Pro. Phones and Outlook are expected. Prefer IMAP when more than one device should see the same mail. The mailbox store, the quotas, the aliases and the quarantine notification are on Mailcow, at https://webmail.broadbent.host. You order the email plan. You do not order a second product to reach that webmail.
Domains
A domain can be registered with the hosting, transferred, or pointed from a name you already hold. A transfer needs an auth code, or a Nominet IPS tag for a .uk name where that is the route. DNS for a name we host can be handled with the UK team. The certificate and the mail both wait on DNS. A panel that shows the site as ready, while the name still points elsewhere, is not a finished move. Test the name from outside after the records change.
Existing mail can be migrated, including contacts and calendar data, with assistance. The quota on the new plan has to fit the history. A Basic 5 GB domain will not hold a larger old mailbox. Pick the plan for the mail you are moving.
What to order with it
Order Standard or Premium for the site. Order the email plan when the mailbox count and storage should be the ones printed above. Order database hosting when the application needs MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB or SQL Server on its own address, with the backup retention on that plan. Order Kubernetes only when the application is namespaces and pods. Order IT management when the work is laptops, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. The panel does not do those jobs.
A first week is short. Create the real mailboxes, prove one in webmail, then add the phone. Install the site. Issue the certificate after the name arrives. Turn on the account backup and keep one copy off the account. Look at Security Advisor once. Leave a redesign, a new blog and a new plugin build off this plan. Those are not what Plesk hosting is selling.
The price is the price at checkout for the plan and the options you add. Storage and mailbox counts above are the figures printed on the plans. Start there if the thing you need is a panel, a site and a domain mailbox. Start on a server page if the thing you need is the machine, with Plesk only if you still want the panel on top.
Standard, Premium, and a server with a panel
Standard shared hosting is the plan for a smaller site. Premium is the larger shared plan. Both are Plesk, and neither includes website maintenance. That sentence is the whole of the older short guide, and it is still true. Choose between them on the plan pages, where the allowances are listed, and expect the price at checkout. A domain is optional. You can register, transfer, or point a name you own. Transfer needs the auth code or, for many .uk names, the IPS tag. Until DNS moves, the panel's green ticks are local.
A virtual server, a dedicated server or a Raspberry Pi is a different decision. Those machines can run Plesk, Interworx, or no panel. Self-managed virtual servers include root. Dedicated servers and the co-location facility in Colchester have backup power, and dedicated and co-location descriptions include A+B redundancy. Remote hands for co-location are charged separately. Putting Plesk on a dedicated server means you still have a machine to look after, plus a licence if the configuration is bring-your-own-licence. Putting the site on Standard or Premium means you do not.
Mail, webmail, and the platform under the panel
Create mailboxes in the panel. Open them at webmail.broadbent.host, which is Mailcow, and in a phone or Outlook. The email plans print the limits: Basic 5 GB and 10 accounts, Business 20 GB and 25, Enterprise 50 GB and unlimited accounts, each with Plesk webmail on the plan list. Spam and virus protection is included at the level the plan names. SSL/TLS is part of the security description. UK servers and backups are the line on the email FAQ. Migration assistance covers mail, contacts and calendar data. It needs a window and a plan large enough for the mail you keep.
An alias is for an address that should reach people who already have mailboxes. A mailbox is for a person who signs in. Inactive is for a leaver whose messages you are not ready to delete. POP3 that removes mail from the server will empty webmail. IMAP will not. Those are client choices made after the panel has created the account. They are the usual first-week faults, and they are fixed without a new product.
What you still order separately
Website maintenance if we should test core updates on staging and spend the included hours on edits. IT management if the laptops, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace need a help desk. Database hosting if MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB or SQL Server needs a dedicated address and a stated backup. Kubernetes if the application is pods. SFTP backup if the copy of the files should live on the backup product: 50 GB, 250 GB or 600 GB on the standalone plans. A Cisco ASA or Firepower device if the rack needs that firewall.
Keep the first week small. One domain, the mailboxes you can name, one test message in and out through webmail, then the phone on IMAP, then the site, then the certificate. Take a backup off the account. Look at Security Advisor. Do not install a pile of overlapping plugins on day one, and do not treat SEO Toolkit as a campaign. The hosting is the panel and the place the site runs. The work around it has its own pages, and this one stays useful when you send someone the link for Plesk itself.
Support goes faster with the domain, whether the fault is the site or one mailbox, and whether DNS is ours. A full account disk and a full mailbox are different. A certificate that will not issue is usually a name that has not arrived. A mailbox that will not send is usually a client or a quota. The panel is the right first look for all of those, and the email article and the Mailcow article are the longer reads when the question is which layer is which.
Running the panel after the first month
After the site is live, the panel becomes a short list of chores. Add a mailbox when someone joins and set the old one inactive when they leave. Check the account disk before a campaign sends a lot of mail or uploads a lot of images. Update WordPress from the toolkit, or leave that date to website maintenance if that plan is active. Look at the mail queue only when a message is reported missing. Renew nothing by hand if the certificate was issued for a name that still points here. The certificate follows the name. If the name moves away, the certificate is not the thing to debug first.
The mistakes that return are the same ones as the first week, just later. A laptop on POP3 has been deleting mail for a month and somebody notices only when the phone is empty. Two staff share one mailbox password and a leaver still has it. A contact form writes into a database that has filled the account, so the form fails and the site still loads. A new landing domain was added in the panel and never in DNS. None of these need Kubernetes, a dedicated server, or a new mail platform. They need an hour in Plesk and, if the hour is stuck, the UK desk with the domain name in the first sentence.
Backups in the panel are the account's copies. They are not the SFTP backup plans and they are not the daily or hourly copies on database hosting. If the only copy sits on the same account, a mistake in the panel can remove the copy too. Keep one elsewhere when the site matters. Website maintenance includes scheduled backups of files and the site database, tested, which is a different promise from a panel button you might forget. Use the maintenance plan for that promise. Use the panel for the day to day. Use the email plan when the mailbox counts on Basic, Business or Enterprise are the ones you meant to buy, and use webmail.broadbent.host to prove each mailbox before you call the move finished.
Prices stay on the checkout. This page does not invent a monthly figure the plan files do not print. What it does state is the panel, the toolkits on Standard and Premium, the mailbox storage and counts, the protocols, the webmail address, and the neighbouring products that are not included. That is enough to order the right thing, and enough to tell a later supplier which layer Broadbent Host is running.
What to have ready on the shared plan
Have the domain status: registering, transferring with an auth code or IPS tag, or pointing a name you already control. Have the mailbox list and whether those mailboxes should use the email plan's 5 GB, 20 GB or 50 GB pools rather than whatever the hosting account includes. Have one person who will prove webmail before anyone else is added. Have a decision on website maintenance if you do not intend to apply core updates yourself. Have nothing else. Kubernetes, a managed database, a firewall appliance and an IT help desk can wait until the site and the mail are actually on the panel. Plesk hosting is finished when the name resolves, the certificate has issued, a message has travelled in and out, and a copy of the site exists somewhere that is not only the account itself.