Plesk has rolled out Plesk Obsidian 18.0.76 (dated February 16, 2026) with a release that feels less like a headline-grabber and more like what sysadmins and developers actually want: fewer sharp edges, more control where it matters, and a refreshed baseline of components.
The update combines several meaningful platform improvements—especially around email delivery, database lifecycle, and accessibility—with a long list of bug fixes across Linux and Windows, plus a wave of updates for bundled and third-party components.
Per-domain smarthost support: mail routing finally gets more granular
One of the most practical additions is native smarthost support per domain, available on:
- Linux (Postfix)
- Windows (MailEnable and SmarterMail)
Configuration lives in the familiar Mail Settings interface, which matters: it’s a feature that reduces “special case” scripting and manual relay hacks.
In real-world hosting and multi-tenant setups, per-domain smarthost routing can be the difference between fighting deliverability fires globally and isolating them to where they belong. It also makes it easier to support clients with different outbound requirements, policy constraints, or dedicated relays—without turning the server into a fragile web of exceptions.
MariaDB 11.8 upgrades from the UI: less toil, fewer risky shortcuts
On Linux, Plesk now supports upgrading to MariaDB 11.8 directly from the Plesk UI (with an important caveat: Linux only, excluding ELS and CloudLinux).
This is the kind of feature that tends to pay off over time. Database upgrades are rarely “hard,” but they’re operationally expensive: planning, maintenance windows, compatibility checks, and the constant fear of a small dependency chain snapping at the wrong moment. Having the process supported in the UI helps standardize execution and lowers the chance of human error—especially across fleets.
Accessibility improvements: not flashy, but increasingly non-negotiable
Plesk also continues pushing accessibility forward. In 18.0.76, certain core pages and extensions are now more accessible thanks to:
- improved semantic HTML
- better ARIA support
- text alternatives for non-text elements
- improved usability at up to 200% browser zoom
For administrators who spend hours in the panel (often via remote sessions, laptops, or constrained setups), this is more than a “nice to have.” It’s cumulative friction removed.
PHP tooling and ImageMagick 7: small levers with big downstream impact
Several updates target modern runtime realities:
- TuxCare PHP extension (CLI) can now install TuxCare ELS PHP versions without requiring the corresponding base Plesk PHP version.
- On Plesk for Linux, ImageMagick 7 is now supported for PHP 8.5.
These changes may look niche, but they reduce compatibility gymnastics for teams juggling application requirements, legacy constraints, and modern build pipelines.
Fixes that hit common pain points
The changelog includes a broad set of fixes, but several stand out as the kind that show up in tickets and postmortems:
General product fixes
- Backup Manager now restores subdomains correctly when the main domain uses Forwarding hosting type.
- Reseller extension limits can be changed again (fixing incorrect default value handling).
- Laravel Toolkit fixes around scheduled tasks during domain moves and an installation failure during the Composer uninstall phase.
- A fix that prevented additional users from accessing Plesk Email Security due to invalid email validation.
Linux fixes
- Increased the default
default_vsz_limitfor Dovecot 2.4. - Multiple mail-related fixes: DMARC reports, DKIM selector handling, Sieve vacation replies not being DKIM-signed, and other configuration edge cases.
- Operational reliability fixes: Fail2Ban issues (including problems banning CIDR ranges), task manager behavior after dbus restarts, and more.
Windows fixes
- Better error visibility in the UI when applying global PHP settings fails.
- Log rotation no longer creates empty archive files.
- Fix for application pools being reset for all subdomains when updating a main domain.
Component refresh: the stack keeps moving
18.0.76 also updates a range of third-party components. Highlights include:
Linux
- nginx 1.28.2
- ImageMagick 7.1.2-13 and ImageMagick 6 updates
- OWASP ModSecurity CRS 4.22.0
- Passenger 6.1.1
- Dovecot 2.4.2 and related components
- MariaDB 11.8
Windows
- OpenSSL 3.0.19
- PHP 8.4.17
- Node.js 22.22.0 and 20.20.0
- .NET 10.0.2, 9.0.12, 8.0.23
- libcurl 8.18.0
- OWASP ModSecurity CRS 4.22.0
For sysadmins, these upgrades matter less as individual bullet points and more as a rolling baseline: fewer outdated dependencies, better security posture, and smoother compatibility with modern applications.
Extensions and runtimes: steady maintenance across the ecosystem
Alongside core, several extensions and runtimes were updated around the same period:
- Plesk Migrator 2.31.4: internal and security improvements; updated bundled Python on Linux to Python 3.10.19; plus a fix for a rare APT “Signed-By” conflict.
- PHP updates (Feb 16, 2026): PHP 8.5 → 8.5.3, PHP 8.4 → 8.4.18; on Linux, Xdebug 3.5.1 and PEAR 1.10.18 for PHP 8.2–8.5.
- Plesk Email Security 1.5.26: fixes around access for additional users and SpamAssassin piping behavior.
- .NET Toolkit 2.4.1: sets ASP.NET Core 10.0 Runtime as default.
- Several other extensions list internal, security, and accessibility improvements (Log Browser, PHP Composer, Panel.ini Editor, Monitoring, MFA, SSL It!, and more).
The practical takeaway
Plesk Obsidian 18.0.76 reads like a release built for operational reality: improve the knobs admins actually need (like per-domain mail routing), keep key components modern, and reduce the kind of recurring issues that waste hours.
For teams running Plesk in production, the release is also a reminder of a familiar truth: “panel updates” are rarely about one big feature. They’re about accumulated reliability—and this one leans heavily in that direction.