What’s new in Plesk Obsidian?

With Plesk Obsidian now available, it is worth taking a look at what has actually changed. The update touches several areas, from the interface through to how certificates are managed and how server issues get diagnosed. Section by section, here is what is different from the previous version.

Interface

The user interface has been updated and modernised. Plesk put real users through interview processes to find out where the biggest pain points were, then worked to address them. That meant tidying up colour and font sizes, aligning elements to a grid, allowing the left menu to be minimised for more screen space, and creating a lighter overall feel.

There is also a global search function and an at-a-glance overview that makes it faster to see what is happening across your account. You can combine this with a detailed view rather than navigating in and out of separate menus, which saves a fair amount of time in day-to-day use.

Security certificates

The addition of SSL It! makes it easier to purchase, install and renew certificates from a list of trusted certificate authorities (CAs). Plesk now treats this as core functionality, meaning it ships with every Plesk installation going forward.

From within the panel, you can see exactly what is and is not secured across your content, including your domain and webmail. You can issue new certificates for anything that has lapsed, manage your HTTPS status, and view all your security stats in one place. That consolidated view also feeds into a higher overall security rating for your account.

Repair Kit

One of the more frustrating parts of running a website is working out what went wrong and when. The new Repair Kit lets you automatically detect and resolve issues across Plesk services, without having to dig through logs manually.

It includes a list of all processes running on the server, filterable by domain, with the ability to kill anything that is causing problems. You can see how much RAM, CPU and disk space each process is consuming, along with a running total, which makes it much easier to spot what is putting pressure on the server.

General improvements

A range of technical improvements have been made with the aim of making Plesk faster, more secure and more useful. These include PHP-FPM improvements and automatic restarting of crashed Linux services. If the technical detail does not mean much to you, the practical result is a more stable and responsive panel.

There is also a better PHP Composer, an improved file manager, and it is now easier to move domains between subscriptions.

Taken together, these changes make Obsidian a meaningful step forward. The full list of updates on the Plesk Obsidian release page goes further still, covering smaller refinements that may not be immediately visible but do have a real effect on day-to-day performance and usability.

If you are looking to run Plesk on your own server, take a look at our Plesk hosting plans to find an option that fits your setup.