Free Panels in 2026: CyberPanel, HestiaCP and aaPanel Compared Line by Line
The three most widely used free panels as cPanel alternatives, compared on supported operating systems, real-world limits and what stays locked behind a paid tier.
UptimeMag editorial team · 9 October 2026 · 3 min read
Anyone needing to replace cPanel on a VPS without paying for a licence has three recurring names to consider: CyberPanel, HestiaCP, aaPanel. All three install via a bash script and handle sites, databases and SSL. The differences that actually matter show up in the supported operating systems and in what stays locked behind a paid version. We put them side by side by reading each project's official pages, not their marketing brochures.
What differs between the three
| Panel | Supported OS | Stated minimum requirements | Default web server | What's missing in the free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CyberPanel | Ubuntu 24.04.3, 22.04, 20.04; AlmaLinux 10, 9, 8; RockyLinux 9, 8; RHEL 9 | not clearly specified on the official site | OpenLiteSpeed in the free tier, commercial LiteSpeed Web Server in the Enterprise tier | switch to LiteSpeed Enterprise at a cost, premium add-ons |
| HestiaCP | Debian 13, 12, 11; Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS | no minimum CPU/RAM figures published on the official repository | Apache2 and NGINX with PHP-FPM | no Pro version: the project is entirely free |
| aaPanel | CentOS 7.x, Debian 10/11/12, Ubuntu 18.04/20.04/22.04, CloudLinux 7.x/8.x, AlmaLinux 8.x/9.x, Rocky Linux 8.x | minimum 1 CPU core + 512MB RAM, recommended 1 CPU core + 1GB RAM | Nginx, Apache or OpenLiteSpeed, your choice | multi-tenancy, WAF, file protection, bulk email sending |
CyberPanel: free only with OpenLiteSpeed
The point that causes the most confusion online is precisely this: CyberPanel is free only when used with the free OpenLiteSpeed, whereas it becomes a paid product when used with the LiteSpeed Enterprise edition. The official site confirms that CyberPanel with OpenLiteSpeed is indeed free and open source, while premium add-ons and hosted services are optional purchases. On the operating system front, CyberPanel covers both the Ubuntu/Debian world and the Red Hat-like one, making it the only one of the three that doesn't force you to commit to a single distribution family from the start.
HestiaCP: no CentOS, no Pro version
HestiaCP doesn't support Red Hat-derived distributions at all: there's no version for CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or any other derivative distribution. On the plus side, there's no paid tier to tempt you with: the whole project, including the firewall with brute-force attack detection and IP lists (iptables, fail2ban, ipset), remains free under the GPLv3 licence.
aaPanel: the lightest option, but Pro costs a one-off $399
aaPanel has the lowest hardware requirements of the three and is the only one that also runs on CentOS. The free version supports managing WP Toolkit, websites, mail servers, FTP, MySQL, file management and an online code editor, while upgrading to Pro unlocks multiple accounts for shared hosting, WAF, analytics, file protection and bulk email sending. The price stated on the official site is $399 for a lifetime licence, with a 14-day free trial requiring no credit card.
Who should actually use them in production
None of the three replaces cPanel or Plesk when it comes to multi-tenant billing or structured reseller functionality: they're designed for people managing their own sites or those of a handful of direct clients, not for anyone reselling hosting to third parties with automated billing. For that use case you'll still need a separate billing system, whether free or paid.
Written with the help of artificial intelligence and checked by the editors (EU AI Act, art. 50).