CyberPanel alternative: OpenLiteSpeed with signed jobs and malware scanning
4 min read
Looking for a CyberPanel alternative? Zefily runs OpenLiteSpeed or nginx, manages every server from one hosted panel with no admin port, and adds signed jobs, malware scanning and AI bot blocking.
CyberPanel is a free, open-source panel built on OpenLiteSpeed and installed on your server, with paid add-ons available. If you like OpenLiteSpeed but want one panel for all your servers and stronger guarantees around it, Zefily keeps OpenLiteSpeed and changes the rest.
In short
- OpenLiteSpeed or nginx per server, switchable in place;
.htaccessand LiteSpeed Cache keep working on OpenLiteSpeed. - One hosted panel, no web admin port on your servers.
- Every job signed twice; risky actions need your passkey.
- Malware scanning with quarantine, vulnerability notices and AI bot blocking; free plan for 1 server.
At a glance
| CyberPanel | Zefily | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free and open source; paid add-ons | 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 |
| Web server | OpenLiteSpeed | nginx (own build, HTTP/3, Brotli) or OpenLiteSpeed |
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
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.
Signed jobs and passkey approvals
Every change to a server is signed by the panel and by a separate signing service on its own machine; risky actions (a root terminal, deleting a site or database, opening a database port) also need your passkey. A stolen session, or even a compromised panel, cannot quietly change your servers. How it works.
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).
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.
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.
Servers that look after themselves
Failed services (web server, PHP, databases, Valkey, CrowdSec, cron) are restarted automatically, a full disk is cleaned safely, planned maintenance windows silence alerts, and a weekly digest sums up what needs you.
When CyberPanel may still be the right fit
If you want a free panel on a single server and are comfortable securing and updating the panel itself, CyberPanel is a reasonable choice.
Moving from CyberPanel 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
Does Zefily support OpenLiteSpeed like CyberPanel?
Yes. Each server can run OpenLiteSpeed or nginx, in every plan; OpenLiteSpeed reads .htaccess and works with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
Why does a panel without an admin port matter?
A web panel installed on the server is one more service exposed to the internet that has to be patched. Zefily's agent only connects out, so the server's firewall stays closed except for SSH and your sites.
Can I switch a server from OpenLiteSpeed to nginx later?
Yes. Zefily moves a running server between the two in place, checks every site and switches back by itself if a site stops answering.
Does Zefily scan WordPress sites for malware?
Yes. ClamAV scans on demand, daily or weekly, quarantines what it finds, and can scan every upload the moment it is written.
Is Zefily free?
Yes, for 1 server and 2 sites with no time limit; paid plans start at $8 a month for 3 servers.
Start free with one server: no time limit, and your first site can be live on a free zefily.app address in minutes.