Modern open-source control panels for your VPS

What this is#

If you want point-and-click hosting on your VPS without paying license rent to the cPanel/Plesk generation, the open-source world has you covered, and the current crop is genuinely good. This list is deliberately short: only panels that are open source, actively developed, built for the Docker/Let's Encrypt era, and pleasant to actually use. They split into two families, pick by which question you're asking.

Family 1: deploy platforms ("host my apps and sites")#

These treat your VPS like your own private Heroku/Netlify: connect a git repository or pick an app, and the platform builds, deploys, reverse-proxies, and handles HTTPS automatically. The right family for developers and self-hosters.

• Coolify, the standout. Deploys apps from git, one-click installs for hundreds of open-source services, databases as first-class citizens, automatic SSL, backups, webhooks. Big, friendly UI and a very active project. It's also one of our one-click Applications, so you can deploy a VPS with Coolify preinstalled and skip the setup entirely. Give it room: a 6 GB plan runs it comfortably alongside real workloads.
• Dokploy, the newer, leaner take on the same idea (Docker + Traefik under the hood): git deploys, compose support, databases, automatic HTTPS, with a tighter footprint than Coolify. Worth a look if Coolify feels like more platform than you need.
• Dokku, the minimalist elder that aged beautifully: git push deploys via buildpacks or Dockerfiles, driven from the command line rather than a web UI. Tiny footprint, rock-solid, perfect if you live in the terminal and want the platform to disappear.

(Honorable mention with an asterisk: EasyPanel is slick and popular but not open source, and on our Linux VPS its Swarm services need the dnsrr adjustment.)

Family 2: classic hosting panels ("host my PHP sites, mail, and domains")#

These are the true replacement for what shared hosting's panel did: sites, PHP versions, databases, DNS, mailboxes, in one web UI.

• HestiaCP, the most complete free cPanel replacement: nginx/Apache sites, per-site PHP versions, MariaDB, full mail hosting (with DKIM), DNS, Let's Encrypt, user accounts, and quotas. Actively maintained, clean UI, runs light. If you're migrating off shared hosting and want the same mental model, this is the one. (Mail hosting on a VPS remains a commitment, deliverability and our email policy apply regardless of panel.)
• CloudPanel, focused and fast: PHP sites on nginx with per-site versions, MySQL/MariaDB, Let's Encrypt, cloud-friendly and genuinely quick. No mail hosting, which is a feature if you took the hosted-mail advice, one less thing the panel can get wrong.

Installation, for any of these, is a single documented script from the project's site, and an AI chatbot walks the distro-specific quirks with you if the script hits one.

The rule that applies to every panel#

A control panel is, by definition, a root-powered web application listening on the internet, which makes it the juiciest target on your server, and several popular panels (not the ones above) have suffered mass-exploited remote holes in recent years. Whatever you install:

• Update the panel with the same urgency as the OS, panel CVEs get weaponized within days.
• Restrict access to it: IP-allowlist the panel's port in your firewall, or reach it only over a VPN/SSH tunnel, the same logic as any admin surface.
• Strong unique password and 2FA where the panel offers it.

Do you need a panel at all?#

Honest question worth a beat: for one or two sites, Caddy or nginx + certbot is arguably less total complexity than a panel, and there's nothing extra to secure or update. Panels earn their keep when you manage many sites, hand access to other people, or genuinely miss the shared-hosting workflow. And choose deliberately: panels take over the server's configuration, so switching later is effectively a migration.

Still need help?#

You can open a support ticket. So we can help on the first reply, it's worth mentioning:

• the VPS hostname or IP,
• which panel you're installing, and where its install script stopped, with the output.

Related questions#

• "What's a good free alternative to cPanel for my VPS?"
• "Coolify or a traditional hosting panel, which do I want?"
• "Which open-source panel can host mail too?"
• "Is EasyPanel open source?"
• "Do I even need a control panel on a VPS?"
• "How do I secure a control panel installation?"