FastPanel review and alternatives (2026)
What FastPanel is, what the free and paid licences include, its strengths and gaps, and the FastPanel alternatives worth testing in 2026.
Key takeaways
- FastPanel is a free hosting control panel from P.A.G.M. OU in Estonia, with a paid Extended licence at €4.20 a month and a €399 Lifetime membership at the time of writing.
- It runs nginx in front of Apache with a choice of four PHP modes per site, and includes Exim, Dovecot, Roundcube and BIND.
- Its supported OS list stops at Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04, and features such as built-in Node.js support and white label need Extended.
- HestiaCP, CloudPanel, aaPanel, DirectAdmin and ZoPanel are the main alternatives, depending on whether you need mail, isolation or app hosting.
FastPanel is a free hosting control panel for Linux servers, made by the Estonian company P.A.G.M. OU, with paid Extended and Lifetime licences that add monitoring, white label and services. It is a good fit for one person or a small agency running PHP and WordPress sites with mail on a single VPS. If you need newer operating systems, strict per-account resource limits or app deployment from Git, the main FastPanel alternatives are HestiaCP, CloudPanel, aaPanel, DirectAdmin and ZoPanel.
This review covers what FastPanel is, what each licence includes, where it does well and where it falls short, and how the alternatives compare. We make ZoPanel, so we have an interest. Every statement about FastPanel comes from fastpanel.direct and its knowledge base at the time of writing (October 2026).
What is FastPanel?
FastPanel (written FASTPANEL by the vendor) is a web hosting control panel you install on your own VPS or dedicated server. The website names P.A.G.M. OU as the owner of the FASTPANEL trademark and says it is "made in Estonia". It is offered as a one-click app at partners such as DigitalOcean and Vultr, and its interface is available in about ten languages.
According to the installation guide:
- It needs a clean operating system with no other software already set up.
- Minimum hardware is 1 GB of RAM, 5 GB of free disk and one 1 GHz CPU core, 64-bit only.
- Supported systems are Debian 9 to 12, Ubuntu 18.04 to 24.04, CentOS 7, AlmaLinux 8 and Rocky Linux 8. The licence page adds ARM64 support on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04.
- You install it with
wget https://repo.fastpanel.direct/install_fastpanel.sh -O - | bash -and open the panel on port 8888.
The software stack
FastPanel puts nginx in front of Apache. Per its PHP mode guide, each site can use one of four PHP modes: Apache module, PHP-FPM (nginx frontend, PHP-FPM backend), FastCGI or CGI. The guide recommends PHP-FPM for sites that do not use .htaccess, and the Apache modes for sites that do. Several PHP versions can be installed side by side.
The services page lists Exim and Dovecot for mail and BIND9 for DNS, and webmail is Roundcube. The site wizard offers PHP, Node.js, reverse proxy, systemd service, static and CMS site types.
FastPanel pricing
| Licence | Price (October 2026) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Free, "forever" | Core panel; free for personal and commercial use, including hosting providers |
| Extended | €4.20 per month | Disk usage statistics, extended outgoing mail statistics, Prometheus monitoring, built-in Node.js support, Telegram and Slack notifications, white label |
| Lifetime Membership | €399 one-time | Extended features plus installation, migration of up to 5 websites, a wildcard SSL certificate, 1 TB of backup storage for a year, a VPN, a security audit and a year of support |
Source: FastPanel licence page. Prices and bundled services change, so check the page before you buy.
The free tier is generous: there is no site or account limit stated, and commercial use is allowed.
What FastPanel does well
- Free with no site cap. You can run a hosting business on the Standard licence.
- Low requirements. 1 GB of RAM is enough to start.
- Flexible PHP handling. nginx plus Apache with per-site PHP modes covers both modern apps and old sites that depend on
.htaccess. - Mail and DNS included. Exim, Dovecot, Roundcube and BIND come with the panel.
- Wide OS list for older servers. It still supports CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 18.04, which helps if you cannot rebuild yet.
- Cheap paid tier. €4.20 a month for monitoring and white label is low compared with most commercial panels.
Where FastPanel falls short
- Newest operating systems. At the time of writing, its install guide does not list Debian 13 or Ubuntu 26.04. If you want to start a new server on the latest release, check before you build.
- Isolation is your job. FastPanel's security recommendations advise hosting each site under its own FastPanel user so that one hacked site cannot affect the others. That is good advice, but it means isolation depends on how you set accounts up. Check what CPU and memory limits you can enforce per user if you host customers.
- Some features are paid. Built-in Node.js support, server monitoring and white label are on the Extended licence.
- Security features are thin in the docs. The security page covers passwords, separate users, backups, CAPTCHA and updates, and mentions a scan feature while warning that "not all malware may be detected". It does not describe a web application firewall. Restrict the panel port to your own IP addresses either way.
We searched NVD for "FastPanel" in October 2026 and found no published CVEs. That is a fact about the database, not proof that the panel has no bugs: a smaller user base also draws fewer researchers. Keep it updated like any other panel.
FastPanel alternatives compared
| Panel | Web server | OS (per vendor) | Price (October 2026) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FastPanel | nginx + Apache | Exim, Dovecot | Debian 9-12, Ubuntu 18.04-24.04, Alma/Rocky 8 | Free; Extended €4.20/month |
| HestiaCP | nginx + Apache, or nginx | Exim, Dovecot | Debian 12/13, Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04 | Free (GPLv3) |
| CloudPanel | nginx | No mail server | Ubuntu, Debian | Free |
| aaPanel | nginx, Apache or OpenLiteSpeed | Mail Server app | Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL family | Free; Pro $198/year |
| DirectAdmin | Apache, nginx, LiteSpeed | Yes | RHEL family, Debian, Ubuntu | From $5/month |
| ZoPanel | nginx, Apache per site | Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd | Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04, Debian 12/13 | Free plan; Pro $49/year |
Sources: HestiaCP, aaPanel download and pricing, DirectAdmin, ZoPanel.
HestiaCP is the closest open-source match: same nginx-plus-Apache idea, mail and DNS, and support for Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04. CloudPanel is lighter but has no mail. aaPanel has a larger app store; read our aaPanel safety review first, since all its sites share one www user. DirectAdmin is a commercial panel with tiered pricing, and its docs ask for 4 GB of RAM.
ZoPanel differs mainly in how it isolates. The web interface runs as an unprivileged user, and system changes go through a root agent that accepts only a fixed list of actions. Every hosting account is its own Linux user with its own PHP-FPM pool and a systemd slice with CPU, memory and process limits, on every plan. It includes a WAF, malware scanning, 2FA, a panel IP allowlist, Git deploy for Node.js and Python, and a Docker App Store (security docs). Where FastPanel is stronger: ZoPanel's Free plan stops at 3 hosting accounts and 10 websites, it does not support CentOS, AlmaLinux or Ubuntu 18.04/20.04, and it does not import FastPanel backups.
Which one should you choose?
| Your situation | Good fit |
|---|---|
| Personal PHP sites with mail, unlimited and free | FastPanel or HestiaCP |
| Older OS you cannot rebuild yet (CentOS 7, Ubuntu 18.04) | FastPanel |
| Latest Debian or Ubuntu on a new server | HestiaCP or ZoPanel |
| Your own apps, mail hosted elsewhere | CloudPanel |
| Selling hosting with per-customer CPU and RAM limits | ZoPanel or DirectAdmin with CloudLinux |
| Node.js, Python or Docker apps next to PHP sites | ZoPanel |
Moving off FastPanel
There is no direct importer from FastPanel into the panels above, so the move is manual: copy each site's files, dump and import its databases, recreate mailboxes and copy mail over IMAP with imapsync, then switch DNS after testing through your hosts file. Lower the TTL a day ahead. Our CyberPanel migration guide shows the same steps in detail, and migrating without downtime covers the DNS switch.
Conclusion
FastPanel is a capable free panel with a generous licence, low requirements and a familiar nginx-plus-Apache stack. Look for a FastPanel alternative when you want the newest OS releases, per-account resource limits enforced by the panel, a built-in WAF or app deployment from Git. HestiaCP is the closest free swap, CloudPanel the lightest, and ZoPanel the option built around account isolation.
To compare on your own server, ZoPanel's Free plan covers 3 hosting accounts, 10 websites and 10 databases with no time limit.
Frequently asked questions
Is FastPanel free?
Yes. The Standard licence is free with no time limit, for personal and commercial use, including by hosting providers. Extended (€4.20 a month at the time of writing) adds monitoring, Node.js support, notifications and white label.
Who makes FastPanel?
The FastPanel website names P.A.G.M. OU, a company in Estonia, as the owner of the FASTPANEL trademark. The panel is also offered through partners such as DigitalOcean and Vultr.
Does FastPanel support Ubuntu 24.04 and ARM?
Yes. Its install guide lists Ubuntu 24.04, and the licence page lists ARM64 on Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04. At the time of writing, Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04 are not on its list.
Does FastPanel use nginx or Apache?
Both. nginx serves as the frontend, and each site can run PHP as an Apache module, through PHP-FPM, FastCGI or CGI. Sites that rely on .htaccess need one of the Apache-based modes.
Is FastPanel safe?
We found no CVEs for FastPanel on NVD in October 2026, but that does not prove it has no bugs. Keep it updated, restrict port 8888 to your own IP addresses, use a separate user per site, and keep backups off the server.
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