NovaPanel
Get Pro
Free forever for personal sites — Pro from $7/mo

Self-hosted hosting,
in one command.

cPanel-style power, modern UX. Sites, databases, mail, DNS, backups, WAF — everything a reseller needs, in a single binary that installs in ten minutes. Free for solo developers, seriously.

root@vps 
$ curl -fsSL https://license.novapanel.dev/install.sh | sudo bash

Run on a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 VPS — installer takes ~10 minutes.

See pricing Read the docs
https://panel.example.com:2087/

Admin panel

live
Active sites
47
Total customers
12
Disk used
38%
Uptime
99.9%
7-day traffic

Admin panel at :2087 — manage users, packages, system services, license, mail, DNS.

$0
cPanel bill replaced
~10 min
Install on a fresh VPS
5
Sites in Community (free)
1 binary
Zero runtime deps

Who's it for?

Most hosting panels assume you're a reseller. NovaPanel works just as well for the solo developer running a blog — and the Community tier means you never pay anything to find out.

Community

Solo developer

Free forever, genuinely.

Hosting your blog, portfolio, or 2-3 side projects on a small VPS? Community tier covers everything you need — auto-TLS, file manager, cron, local backups, full DNS — and never expires. No upgrade pressure, no crippleware.

  • ✓ 5 sites + 5 databases (more than enough for personal use)
  • ✓ Caddy, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, FTP, file manager
  • ✓ Auto-TLS for every domain you add
  • ✓ Runs comfortably on a €4-5/mo VPS
Install free
Pro

Small reseller

$7/mo replaces a $20-50/mo cPanel bill.

Selling hosting to 10-50 customers? Pro unlocks unlimited sites/databases plus the features your clients ask about: WAF, virus scanning, S3 backups, real email accounts, white-labelling.

  • ✓ Unlimited sites, databases, customer accounts
  • ✓ Per-customer disk quotas + per-package limits
  • ✓ WAF + ClamAV scheduled scans
  • ✓ S3 / Backblaze remote backups
  • ✓ Branded login + dashboard (white-label)
See Pro features
Developer

Agency / multi-server

Built for teams running real fleets.

Multiple servers, multiple staff, multiple clients. Developer tier adds unlimited admin accounts, priority support, and licenses that don't expire server-side — so your panels keep running even if billing has a hiccup.

  • ✓ Everything in Pro
  • ✓ Unlimited admin user accounts
  • ✓ License never expires server-side
  • ✓ Priority email support + custom integrations
  • ✓ Best for agencies running 3+ panels
Compare tiers

Everything you'd expect

Don't pay for cPanel licenses. Don't fight Plesk. NovaPanel ships every feature a hosting reseller actually needs — and the ones cPanel charges extra for.

Sites & Domains

Caddy reverse proxy, automatic Let's Encrypt, custom error pages, per-site PHP config.

Databases

PostgreSQL 16 + MariaDB. Per-customer isolation, phpMyAdmin built in, one-click backups.

Mail Server

Postfix + Dovecot + OpenDKIM. SPF/DKIM/DMARC out of the box. Roundcube webmail.

DNS

PowerDNS with optional DNSSEC. Per-domain records, slave/master modes, API-driven.

File Manager

Browser-based file editor, drag-and-drop upload, chmod/chown, hidden files.

Backups

Local + S3/Backblaze remote. Per-site, per-database, scheduled or on-demand.

…plus FTP, in-browser terminal & logs, cron jobs, process manager, git deploy, WAF, virus scanner, white-label branding. Full list →
https://panel.example.com:2083/

Customer panel

live
My sites
3
Databases
5
Disk used
1.2 GB
Bandwidth
27 GB
7-day traffic

Customer panel at :2083 — what your end-users see. Sites, files, databases, email, FTP, DNS, all white-labelled.

How it fits together

One binary on your VPS does everything. Our license server only sees the heartbeat — your customer data never leaves your machine.

Cloudflare R2
Binary CDN
Signed URLs, license-gated
License server
JWT issuance
Heartbeat every ~24h
Your VPS
NovaPanel binary
  • Admin SPA (port 2087)
  • Customer SPA (port 2083)
  • PostgreSQL + MariaDB
  • Caddy + Postfix + DNS
Customer sites your panel hosts
blog.example.comshop.acme.ioportfolio.devsaas.appapi.startup.codocs.tool.iomail.org

vs. the alternatives

Honest comparison. NovaPanel isn't strictly better at everything — but if you want a free tier that's actually useful, a modern UI, and one of the lowest paid prices on the market, it's hard to beat.

  NovaPanel cPanel Plesk HestiaCP CyberPanel
Free tier with real features ✓ — — ✓ ✓
One-line install on fresh VPS ✓ — — ✓ partial
Modern UI (React, dark mode) ✓ — partial — partial
PostgreSQL + MariaDB built-in ✓ MySQL only MySQL only MySQL only MySQL only
Mail (Postfix/Dovecot/DKIM) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
WAF + virus scanner ✓ ✓ ✓ — partial
S3/Backblaze remote backups ✓ addon addon — —
License cost (1 server) Free / $7/mo $23-50/mo $15-50/mo Free Free / $9/mo
Single binary, no PHP at runtime ✓ — — — —
Auto-update via heartbeat ✓ ✓ ✓ manual manual

Comparison reflects each product's most-recent commercial release as of 2026. Pricing may vary by license type and region.

Three tiers, one binary

Start free. Upgrade when you need WAF, virus scanning, S3 backups, or white-labelling.

Free forever
Community
$0
forever, per server
  • ✓ 5 sites, 5 DBs, 5 customers
  • ✓ All core hosting features
  • ✓ Auto-TLS for every domain
  • ✓ Local backups + cron
  • ✓ Auto-issued at install
  • ✓ License never expires
Pro
$7/mo
or $70/yr (save 17%)
  • ✓ Unlimited sites & databases
  • ✓ Unlimited customer accounts
  • ✓ WAF + ClamAV virus scanner
  • ✓ S3 / Backblaze remote backups
  • ✓ Email accounts + relay
  • ✓ Git deploy + webhooks
  • ✓ White-label branding
Developer
$19/mo
or $190/yr (save 17%)
  • ✓ Everything in Pro
  • ✓ Priority email support
  • ✓ Multiple admin accounts
  • ✓ Custom integrations
  • ✓ License never expires (server-side)
Compare full feature matrix →

Questions you might have

Is the Community tier really free? What's the catch?
No catch. The Community tier auto-issues a license at install, never expires, and includes every core hosting feature: 5 sites, 5 databases, 5 customer accounts, Caddy with auto-TLS, MariaDB/PostgreSQL, full file manager, FTP, DNS, local backups, terminal, cron, the works. Pro features (WAF, virus scanner, S3 backups, mail accounts, white-labelling) are locked behind paid tiers because they cost real money to support — but everything you'd expect on a personal site or small project is unlocked. We don't sell crippleware.
What's it built on?
Single Go binary that embeds both web UIs (admin + customer) and runs all the orchestration. PostgreSQL for the panel database, Caddy as the reverse proxy with automatic Let's Encrypt, and the usual hosting stack underneath (PHP-FPM, Postfix, MariaDB, PowerDNS, ClamAV, vsftpd).
Which Linux distros are supported?
Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 LTS. Debian 12 should work too but isn't formally tested.
What does the install actually do?
Installs PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Caddy, PHP-FPM, Postfix, Dovecot, PowerDNS, ClamAV, and vsftpd. Configures systemd units for the panel, fetches your Community license, downloads the panel binary from our CDN, applies the database migrations, and sets up Let's Encrypt for the panel hostname. The whole thing is idempotent — re-running is safe.
How is licensing handled?
Every install gets a free Community license auto-issued at boot, bound to the machine's fingerprint. Pro and Developer licenses are entered manually in the admin panel. License tokens are short-lived JWTs verified offline against an embedded public key — your panel keeps working even if our license server is briefly down.
Can I migrate from cPanel / Plesk?
Not yet — migration tooling is on the roadmap. For now it's manual: dump databases, copy site files, recreate users.
Source code?
Closed source. The installer is public on GitHub so you can audit exactly what gets installed before you run curl | bash. The panel binary itself is distributed via our license-gated CDN, signed and SHA-verified at install time.

Stop paying cPanel licenses.

One command, ten minutes, fully self-hosted. Try the Community tier — free, no signup.

root@vps 
$ curl -fsSL https://license.novapanel.dev/install.sh | sudo bash