What is Pterodactyl used for?

Pterodactyl is a self-hosted web panel for creating and managing game servers, running each one in its own isolated Docker container. It is a good fit for game server hosting providers, community and clan game servers, and hobbyists running several game servers.

Is Pterodactyl open source?

Yes. Pterodactyl is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at pterodactyl/panel and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. Pterodactyl is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host Pterodactyl?

Yes. Pterodactyl can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What are some alternatives to Pterodactyl?

Similar open-source tools in the Hosting & PaaS category include 1Panel, Coolify and Dokploy. SaaS products in the same category include Laravel Forge, Ploi and RunCloud.

Is Pterodactyl actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Pterodactyl was on 14 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.15.1, published on 14 August 2026. The project has 9.3k stars on GitHub.

Pterodactyl: open-source hosting & PaaS

About Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl Panel is an open-source web application for running and administering game servers. It gives administrators and players a browser interface to create, start, stop and configure servers without logging into the underlying machines. The project has been developed since 2015 and is built with PHP, React and Go.

Security is a central design goal. Every game server runs inside its own Docker container, which keeps workloads separated from one another and from the host system. The panel itself is a Laravel application with a React and TypeScript front end styled with Tailwind CSS, while a separate Go component called Wings handles the server-side work on each node. The project publishes documentation for both the panel and Wings, plus community-written guides.

Because it is self-hosted software, game hosting providers, community operators and hobbyists install it on their own infrastructure rather than subscribing to a hosted service. The most recent release listed is v1.15.1, and a Discord server is available for support. Several hosting and infrastructure companies sponsor its development.

Key features

Runs each game server in its own Docker container
Web interface for creating and managing servers
Wings node daemon written in Go
Laravel backend with React and TypeScript front end
Separate documentation for panel, Wings and community guides

Good fit for

→Game server hosting providers
→Community and clan game servers
→Hobbyists running several game servers

Built with: PHP; Laravel; Docker; Tailwind CSS; React; TypeScript; Go
Tags: game-servers; docker; self-hosted; server-management; laravel; php; open-source; hosting-panel

Pterodactyl: questions and answers

What is Pterodactyl used for?: Pterodactyl is a self-hosted web panel for creating and managing game servers, running each one in its own isolated Docker container. It is a good fit for game server hosting providers, community and clan game servers, and hobbyists running several game servers.
Is Pterodactyl open source?: Yes. Pterodactyl is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at pterodactyl/panel and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Pterodactyl free?: Yes. Pterodactyl is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host Pterodactyl?: Yes. Pterodactyl can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What are some alternatives to Pterodactyl?: Similar open-source tools in the Hosting & PaaS category include 1Panel, Coolify and Dokploy. SaaS products in the same category include Laravel Forge, Ploi and RunCloud.
Is Pterodactyl actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Pterodactyl was on 14 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.15.1, published on 14 August 2026. The project has 9.3k stars on GitHub.