Install CloudPanel

The Problem

CloudPanel is lightweight and free, but it has specific OS and resource requirements, and a botched install can leave you with a panel that won't start or won't issue SSL certificates properly.

About this problem

CloudPanel is a genuinely good free alternative to Plesk/cPanel, but it has specific OS requirements (currently Debian/Ubuntu-based) and expects a genuinely clean server — installing it on a VPS with conflicting software already present, or an unsupported OS version, is the most common way to end up with a panel that half-starts or can't issue SSL certificates.

This usually comes up when someone wants a modern, lightweight panel without Plesk's licensing costs, often for a single project or a small number of sites.

What's Included

• OS compatibility check and installation of CloudPanel
• Initial admin setup and security basics
• Confirming the panel issues SSL certificates correctly (Let's Encrypt)
• A working panel ready for your first site

What's NOT Included

• Migrating existing sites onto the new install (separate service)
• Choosing a VPS provider
• CloudPanel feature requests beyond what it currently supports

How It Works

1. Confirm the VPS OS and version match CloudPanel's current supported list before installing anything else.
2. Run the official install script and watch for any dependency or compatibility warnings during setup.
3. Complete initial admin account setup and apply basic access restrictions.
4. Add a test domain and confirm CloudPanel issues a Let's Encrypt certificate for it correctly.
5. Verify the panel is reachable only where intended, not exposed more broadly than necessary.

In practice: you buy the service, send over whatever access or details the job needs, I investigate and do the work, and you confirm it's resolved before we call it done.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CloudPanel really free?

Yes, CloudPanel itself is free and open-source — you only pay for the VPS it runs on, unlike Plesk which has its own licence cost on top.

What operating systems does CloudPanel support?

It's built around Debian and Ubuntu-based systems — installing on an unsupported OS is the most common cause of a broken install.

Can I migrate from Plesk or cPanel to CloudPanel?

Yes, though it's a different structure under the hood, so sites need to be rebuilt natively in CloudPanel rather than directly copied — that's a separate migration service.

Does CloudPanel support multiple PHP versions?

Yes, similar to Plesk, different sites on the same CloudPanel server can run different PHP versions independently.

Why won't CloudPanel issue an SSL certificate for my domain?

Usually because DNS hasn't fully propagated to the new server yet, or the domain isn't correctly pointed — Let's Encrypt needs to verify domain ownership over HTTP/DNS before issuing a certificate.

Is CloudPanel as capable as Plesk for hosting multiple sites?

For most common hosting needs, yes — it covers multi-site, multi-PHP-version hosting well, though it has a narrower extension ecosystem than Plesk's marketplace.