CloudPanel alternative: all your servers in one panel, Ubuntu 26.04 included
4 min read
Outgrowing CloudPanel? Zefily manages all your servers from one hosted panel, supports Ubuntu 26.04 and Debian 13, and adds malware scanning, AI bot blocking and backups to your own storage.
CloudPanel is a free control panel you install on a server, built on NGINX and PHP-FPM, with a strong focus on simplicity. Its own page lists Debian 12 and 11 and Ubuntu 24.04 and 22.04. When you have several servers, or want more security tooling around them, a hosted panel such as Zefily starts to pay off.
In short
- All servers in one panel, at any provider, instead of a separate panel on each server.
- Ubuntu 26.04 and Debian 13 are supported, with PHP 7.3–8.5 on amd64 and arm64.
- Security tools around the stack: malware scanning with quarantine, vulnerability notices, AI bot and country blocking, signed jobs.
- No admin port on your servers; free plan for 1 server.
At a glance
| CloudPanel | Zefily | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free for 1 server and 2 sites, no time limit; from $8/month for 3 servers |
| Where the panel runs | Installed on each server | Hosted panel; a small agent on each server, no admin port |
| Servers | One panel per server | Every server, at any provider, in one panel |
| Web server | NGINX | nginx (own build, HTTP/3, Brotli) or OpenLiteSpeed |
| Operating systems | Debian 12/11, Ubuntu 24.04/22.04 | Ubuntu 26.04/24.04, Debian 13/12 (amd64, arm64) |
Competitor details are taken from their own pages in October 2026 and may change. Zefily prices are in US dollars, excluding VAT.
What you get with Zefily
All your servers in one place
One panel for every server at any provider: Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode and AWS can even be connected so Zefily creates, snapshots and power-cycles servers for you, and a site can be moved to another server in two steps.
No admin port on your server
There is no control panel listening on your server. The agent connects out to Zefily over mutually authenticated TLS, so the firewall stays closed except for SSH and your sites, and the panel itself does not use the server's memory.
Malware scanning with quarantine
ClamAV scans every site's files on demand, daily or weekly, and can move what it finds to a root-only quarantine. Upload scanning checks every file the moment it is written (SFTP, deploys, plugin installs, upload forms) and quarantines infected files at once. Scans need a server with 2 GB of memory, upload scanning 4 GB. More on our security tools.
Block AI crawlers and countries
One switch per site refuses GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, PerplexityBot, Bytespider and other AI crawlers while search engines keep indexing; you can also block or allow countries (nginx), block addresses, and turn on the web application firewall (ModSecurity with the OWASP Core Rule Set).
Vulnerability scans and notices
Installed packages are checked against the OSV database (Debian and Ubuntu advisories), WordPress core, plugins and themes against WPVulnerability, and you are told by email when security updates have been waiting for more than two days or an installed Node.js version has a security release.
A web stack we build and patch
Zefily ships its own nginx build with HTTP/3 and Brotli, and its own signed PHP packages so PHP 7.3–8.5 run even on Ubuntu 26.04 (amd64 and arm64). Security fixes for PHP, nginx, OpenLiteSpeed and PostgreSQL install automatically, and you can switch a running server between nginx and OpenLiteSpeed in place.
Backups you own
Encrypted restic backups to your own S3, Google Drive, SFTP or FTP storage, with your own repository password, restorable without Zefily. Why that matters.
When CloudPanel may still be the right fit
For a single personal server where you want a free panel and are happy to handle backups and security tooling yourself, CloudPanel does the job.
Moving from CloudPanel to Zefily
- Connect a server to Zefily: a fresh Ubuntu or Debian server at any provider works best, since Zefily does not take over software it did not install.
- Create the site with the PHP version (or runtime) it uses today.
- Copy the files over SFTP and import the database in the site's database section.
- Test on the site's free
zefily.appaddress before you touch DNS. - Switch DNS; the certificate is issued automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Can Zefily manage several servers from one panel?
Yes. Every server you connect, at any provider, is managed from the same panel, and a site can be moved between servers in two steps.
Does Zefily support Ubuntu 26.04?
Yes. Zefily supports Ubuntu 26.04 and 24.04 and Debian 13 and 12, on amd64 and arm64, with PHP 7.3–8.5 on all of them.
Is Zefily free like CloudPanel?
Zefily is free for 1 server and 2 sites with no time limit; paid plans start at $8 a month for 3 servers with unlimited sites.
Does Zefily include backups?
Yes. Every new server gets nightly encrypted restic backups to your own storage, restorable without Zefily.
Can I block AI crawlers on my sites?
Yes. One switch per site refuses GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, PerplexityBot, Bytespider and other AI crawlers; search engines are not affected.
Start free with one server: no time limit, and your first site can be live on a free zefily.app address in minutes.