You use the Plesk administrator username and password to log in to Plesk. By default, the Plesk administrator username is admin.

However, admin is a predictable username, which can be easily guessed and used in brute-force attacks. Along with a strong password, you can set a custom username as an additional layer of protection against brute-force attacks.

To change the Plesk administrator username:

  1. Open the panel.ini file for editing, which is located here:

    • (Plesk for Linux) /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini
    • (Plesk for Windows) %plesk_dir%admin\conf\panel.ini

    You can also edit the file in the Plesk interface using the Panel.ini Editor extension.

  2. Add the following lines to the panel.ini file, and then save it:

    [login]
allowChangeAdminLogin=true

    You can now change the Plesk administrator username in the Plesk interface or via the CLI.

  3. Go to My Profile.

    image admin username

  4. The “Plesk Preferences” section now contains the “Username” text field. Change the default admin username to a custom one, and then click OK.

    Note: To change the Plesk username via the CLI, run the plesk bin admin --set-login <custom_username> command.

You now need to use the custom username to log in to Plesk.