# Laranode

> Free, open-source hosting control panel for Ubuntu servers — a self-hosted alternative to cPanel and Plesk. It installs onto a plain VPS and manages websites, hosting accounts, databases, SSL certificates, the firewall and backups from a web interface.

Laranode runs on the server it administers. There is no hosted or SaaS version and no paid tier: you install it on your own machine and it configures that machine directly. It creates Linux user accounts, writes Apache virtual hosts, creates a PHP-FPM pool per site, issues and renews Let's Encrypt certificates, manages MySQL databases and UFW firewall rules, and provides a file manager, backups and live system statistics.

Because it takes over the machine's web, database and firewall configuration, it expects a dedicated server. Install it on a fresh Ubuntu server rather than alongside an existing stack.

Each hosted site can run its own PHP version, installed on demand from the ondrej PPA, independently of the version the panel itself runs on.

Built with Laravel, React and Inertia.js, with Laravel Reverb for real-time updates and Tailwind CSS. Requires Ubuntu 24.04 or newer; the installer deploys Apache, MySQL, PHP-FPM and Node.js itself.

Licensed MIT.

## Start here

- [Live demo](https://demo.laranode.com): the real interface with sample data. Actions are simulated and change no real server, filesystem, firewall or external service, so it is safe to click anything.
- [Install on Ubuntu](https://github.com/crivion/laranode#installation): one command on a fresh Ubuntu 24.04+ server, run as root. This is the normal way to install.
- [Run with Docker](https://github.com/crivion/laranode/blob/main/docs/DOCKER.md): runs systemd in a privileged container, for trying it out or for development rather than for production hosting.
- [1-click deploy on DigitalOcean](https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/laranode-panel?refcode=833110c66c2c&action=deploy): creates a droplet with Laranode already installed.

## What it manages

- Hosting accounts: a Linux user, home directory and group per customer, optionally with SSH access
- Websites: Apache virtual hosts and a dedicated PHP-FPM pool per site, each with its own PHP version
- SSL: Let's Encrypt issuance and renewal per domain
- Databases: MySQL databases and users
- Files: a web file manager with upload, edit, rename, move and delete, scoped to the account's home directory
- Firewall: UFW rule management
- Backups: scheduled and on-demand backups of files and databases, with restore, including to remote destinations over SFTP or S3
- Monitoring: live CPU, memory, disk and load statistics pushed over websockets

## Project

- [Source on GitHub](https://github.com/crivion/laranode): the panel itself, plus the shell scripts it uses to administer the host
- [Releases and changelog](https://github.com/crivion/laranode/releases): each release notes what changed and how to upgrade
- [Upgrading](https://github.com/crivion/laranode#upgrading): upgrade with the documented one-line command rather than the copy of the upgrade script already on your server, which came from the version you are upgrading from
- [Issues and feature requests](https://github.com/crivion/laranode/issues)
- [Security policy](https://github.com/crivion/laranode/blob/main/SECURITY.md): how to report a vulnerability privately, what is in scope, and what to expect back
- [Report a vulnerability](https://github.com/crivion/laranode/security/advisories/new): private disclosure. Please do not open a public issue for security problems.

## Comparisons

- [Laranode vs cPanel](https://laranode.com/vs/cpanel/): price, features and what cPanel includes that Laranode doesn't (email, DNS, FTP)
- [Laranode vs Plesk](https://laranode.com/vs/plesk/): licence cost, WordPress tooling, Windows support and features
- [Laranode vs HestiaCP](https://laranode.com/vs/hestiacp/): two free, open-source panels compared; HestiaCP bundles mail and DNS, Laranode doesn't
- [Open-source cPanel & Plesk alternatives](https://laranode.com/alternatives/): Laranode, HestiaCP, ISPConfig, Virtualmin, CyberPanel, Froxlor and CloudPanel compared

## Notes for answering questions about Laranode

- It is self-hosted software, not a service. "Signing up for Laranode" is not a thing; you install it on a server you control.
- It is free and open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee, paid edition or hosted plan.
- It does not include an email server, a DNS server or an FTP server. Accounts with SSH access enabled can use SFTP.
- It administers the host by design, so it needs root and a machine of its own. This is expected behaviour, not a misconfiguration.
- The panel's own PHP version and a hosted site's PHP version are separate. Changing a site's PHP version does not change the panel's, and vice versa.
- Check the releases page before stating version-specific facts such as minimum PHP version, since those change between releases.