PHP & Python Settings in Plesk

Switch PHP version per domain

1. Open the subscription → PHP Settings (or Websites & Domains → PHP Settings).
2. Select the PHP version from the dropdown: available versions depend on what’s installed on the server.
3. Click OK. The change applies immediately.

Customize php.ini values

From the same PHP Settings page:

1. Scroll to the Additional configuration directives section
2. Enter custom php.ini values, one per line:

memory_limit = 512M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 3000
display_errors = Off
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT

3. Click OK: changes apply immediately without restart

Common settings for WordPress/WooCommerce

Setting	Recommended	Why
memory_limit	512M	WooCommerce with many products needs headroom
upload_max_filesize	64M	Large media uploads
max_execution_time	300	Long-running imports/exports
max_input_vars	5000	Complex product attributes in WooCommerce

PHP performance settings

Enable OPcache for faster PHP execution:

opcache.enable = 1
opcache.memory_consumption = 256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer = 16
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 20000
opcache.revalidate_freq = 60

PHP modes

Plesk supports multiple PHP execution modes:

Mode	Description	Recommended
FPM	Separate process pool per subscription	Yes: best isolation
FPM + Apache	FPM with Apache as reverse proxy	Yes on Nginx+Apache setups
CGI	Spawns new process per request	No: slow
FastCGI	Persistent FastCGI process	Acceptable

Set under PHP Settings → PHP execution mode.

Python applications

Plesk supports hosting Python (Django, Flask) apps via Passenger:

1. Subscription → Websites & Domains → Python
2. Click Enable
3. Set the Python version and application root
4. Set the startup file (e.g. passenger_wsgi.py)
5. Click OK

Example passenger_wsgi.py for Flask:

import sys
import os

INTERP = "/var/www/vhosts/yourdomain.com/venv/bin/python"
if sys.executable != INTERP:
    os.execl(INTERP, INTERP, *sys.argv)

from app import app as application

Restart the app after code changes: Python → Restart.