A Plesk alternative for Linux servers, with every change previewed.
RespireCloud is a self hosted server panel for Linux with resellers, plans, an assistant you approve and one app for desktop and phone. It reads Plesk backups and builds a test copy before it commits. It runs on Linux only, it is in early access, and this page says what is not there yet.
What carries over.
A Plesk server is a hosting business with customers, plans and mail. The same shapes are here.
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Subscriptions become accounts
A client's domains, sites, databases, mailboxes and DNS records come over as a hosting account with its own Linux user, its own PHP-FPM pool and its own resource slice.
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Plans and resellers
Plans with limits that every module enforces, resellers with their own customers, and billing modules for WHMCS, Blesta and HostBill.
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Docker and Git
Docker Compose per account behind a strict validator, and apps deployed from Git with rollback, workers and cron jobs.
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Backups
Encrypted, incremental backups to any storage with a restore at every level.
What is different, by design.
These are statements about RespireCloud, not about Plesk.
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The web panel cannot run commands
The panel runs as an unprivileged user. Work that needs root goes to a separate agent that accepts typed operations only, never a command line.
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Every change is shown before it happens
A change is a plan with the exact difference. You approve it, risky ones with a passkey, and it can be undone.
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Isolation is in the base product
Every hosting account is its own Linux user with its own systemd slice, its own PHP-FPM pool and quotas, in every edition.
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An assistant, and a guide for beginners
Ask in plain words and get a plan to approve. RespireSoft AI comes with every licence as a monthly allowance and turns itself on; or with your own key for a model provider, or a model on your own server. A guide walks new users through their first steps.
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Updates that go back by themselves
The panel updates itself from signed releases, keeps the previous release and a copy of its database, and goes back on its own if the new release does not start. Every server and Store module follows.
How a move from Plesk goes.
The importer reads a Plesk backup that holds content, with its XML descriptor beside the files.
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1. Install RespireCloud on a new server
Linux only: Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 12 and 13, AlmaLinux 9 and 10, Rocky Linux 9 and 10.
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2. Back up the client in Plesk, with content
A configuration only backup is not enough. Upload the backup in the import wizard.
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3. Read the report and run the dry run
The dry run builds the subscription and tests it: sites are fetched over HTTP and mailboxes probed over SMTP. DNS and certificates are held back.
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4. Commit or roll back
A rollback removes everything the import created.
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5. Switch DNS per domain
Lower the TTL first. A live transfer over SSH can bring what changed after the first copy.
Plesk and RespireCloud, in numbers.
What Plesk's own pages say, with the address and the date they were read. Their page is the authority.
What RespireCloud does not have yet.
Read this before you plan.
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Windows Server
RespireCloud runs on Linux only. If you host on Windows Server, it is not a replacement.
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A public release
RespireCloud is in early access. There is no public download, the production signing keys are not made and prices are not set. One install has run on a real server; everything else ran in our lab.
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Proof on real backups
The importers have run end to end only on archives we built to match each format. A backup taken from a production server has not been imported yet, so expect differences.
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A second web server
Sites are served by nginx. Apache .htaccess rules, PHP ini overrides and redirects are not translated by the importer: a site that depends on them needs its rules rewritten.
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Recovery to a moment
A database restore goes back to the time of a scheduled dump. Recovery to a chosen moment between backups is not built. The database tool (Adminer) is built; it covers MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL on the server itself.
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An independent security test
An external penetration test has not started.
Questions
- Is there a Plesk alternative for Linux?
- RespireCloud is one, for Linux only. It is licensed, in early access, and has no price yet.
- Can I import a Plesk backup?
- Yes. The importer reads the XML descriptor, reports what converts, builds the subscription in a dry run and commits when you say so. So far it has run on a backup we built ourselves, so a real backup may differ.
- What does not come over?
- The messages inside mailboxes (the mailboxes are created), subdomains and domain aliases, PostgreSQL databases and FTP accounts. Scheduled tasks are listed, not created. Rules written for Apache are not translated.
- Does it run on Windows Server?
- No. Linux only.
- Does it have extensions like Plesk?
- It has a Store of signed add-ons and sandboxed panel extensions. The Store is described on its feature page.
Read next
Planning a move from Plesk?
Tell us how many servers and subscriptions. We will say honestly whether RespireCloud is ready for them.
cPanel, WHM, Plesk, DirectAdmin, CyberPanel, HestiaCP, CloudPanel and LiteSpeed are trademarks or names of their respective owners. RespireCloud is made by RespireSoft and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them. Their names are used here only to say what RespireCloud can import from and how it differs.