Open-source HostGator alternatives

1Panel is an open-source Linux server management panel that also positions itself as a lightweight AI management platform. Through a web interface it covers monitoring of the host, files, databases and containers, so common server chores can be done without working only in a terminal. It is written in Go, uses Docker for app deployment and is released under the GPL-3.0 license.

A built-in app store offers one-click installation and upgrades of open-source applications, and website tooling integrates with builders such as WordPress and Halo, including domain binding and SSL certificate setup. Security features include a web application firewall and log auditing, and applications are deployed in containers to limit exposure. Backups and restores can be triggered in one click and sent to various cloud storage services. The project compares itself with panels such as cPanel, Plesk, aaPanel and Webmin.

Hestia Control Panel gives server administrators a web and command-line interface for deploying and managing web domains, mail accounts, DNS zones and databases from a single dashboard. It spares them from installing and configuring each underlying service by hand.

The stack it sets up includes Apache2 and NGINX with PHP-FPM and multiple PHP versions, a Bind DNS server with clustering, POP, IMAP and SMTP mail services with ClamAV, SpamAssassin, Sieve and Roundcube, MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, Let's Encrypt SSL with wildcard certificates, and a firewall with brute-force detection using iptables, fail2ban and ipset.

Hestia targets 64-bit Debian and Ubuntu LTS releases and should be installed on a fresh operating system. The project warns that OpenVZ 7 or lower can cause DNS and firewall issues, recommending KVM or LXC virtual servers. It is written in Shell and PHP, licensed under GPL-3.0, and offers documentation and a forum.