1Panel
🔥 1Panel is a modern, open-source VPS control panel, and the only one with native AI agent support. Run Ollama models, deploy OpenClaw agents, and manage your entire server stack from one clean web interface.
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Sep 2026
1Panel is a control panel for your server: a web dashboard that installs apps, hosts websites, manages Docker containers, sets up SSL, and schedules backups without you living in the command line. It is the open source answer to cPanel, with an app store now past 185 titles. The project has also pushed hard into AI hosting, adding an AI self-service portal, an AI gateway, a skills hub, and central model management, so running local LLMs is a first-class part of the panel rather than one more app tile. GPLv3, free for the community edition.
The ops reality is the host itself. 1Panel runs on a Linux VPS with as little as 1 GB of RAM, and once installed it takes most of the busywork off your plate. You still own patching the OS and securing SSH, but deploying and updating apps gets much friendlier.
Solo and small teams: the free edition genuinely covers a single box. The free edition caps you at 5 agents and a basic WAF; unlimited agents, multi-node management and the advanced WAF live in Pro, which is $80 per year as a subscription or $200 as a perpetual V2 license that never expires, with a 30-day trial either way. Perpetual wins if you plan to run it more than about three years and do not care about the next major version. There is now a separate Enterprise Edition above that, priced on request.
The catch is that a control panel is a large attack surface sitting in front of everything on your server. Lock down the login, keep it patched, and never expose the admin port to the open internet, because one compromised panel hands over the whole machine.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
open coreFree (Open Source)
- Community edition, free forever under GPLv3
- Web UI for host monitoring, file management, database management and container management
- App store with 185+ curated open source applications, one-click install
- Website hosting with one-click domain binding and SSL, deep WordPress integration
- Built-in WAF firewall and log audit
- One-click backup and restore to local storage or S3-compatible targets
- AI management: self-service portal, AI gateway, skills hub and model management, capped at 5 OpenClaw agents
Paid
- Pro Edition subscription: $80 per year. Always on the latest major version, cancel any time
- Pro Edition perpetual: $200 one time, never expires for V2. Cheaper than the subscription past roughly three years, but it does not carry you to V3
- 30-day free trial on Pro
- Pro adds multi-node management, advanced WAF, website monitoring, unlimited AI agents and priority support
- Enterprise Edition sits above Pro with expanded user management, VM management and security operations, priced on request
Self-Hosted Costs
1Panel is the self-hosted product; there is no cloud to compare against. It runs on Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS or Rocky with 1 GB of RAM minimum, so a $5 to $10 per month VPS is enough for a single site. Real workloads want 2 to 4 GB, which is $12 to $30 per month. Local LLM hosting through the AI features changes that completely: budget for GPU instances if you go that route.
When to Pay
Pay when you run more than one server, because multi-node management is the wall the free edition hits first, or when you need the advanced WAF in front of a site that matters. At $80 per year it is a rounding error against the hosting bill. Choose the $200 perpetual license only if you are confident you will stay on V2 for three or more years.
The GPLv3 community edition covers a single server completely. Pro is $80 per year or $200 for a perpetual V2 license, and buys multi-node management and the advanced WAF. An Enterprise Edition sits above it, priced on request.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free; the community edition fully covers one box
- Small team
- free until you run a second server, then Pro at $80 per year
- Medium team
- Pro at $80 per year for multi-node management and the advanced WAF
- Large team
- Enterprise Edition for user management, VM management and security ops, priced on request
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Trust Signals
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Commercial OK but must share source of modifications.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
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