Didn't realise this until now, despite asking all the right questions! I've got a site that has 23 subdomains and is running cakePHP. Up until now I've been able to have the application files below the root and to have all 23 subdomains accessing the same set of application files. The difference between the 23 is all in the database. Now with Plesk I discover that my application has to be above the root/httpdocs (how primitive is that!) and that each subdomain is a discrete hosting setup that can't share files (ie the application). Its shared hosting so I can't mess with the conf files but is there any other way around this before I have to back out and return to my original host?