How to Use 1Panel: The Beginner's Guide (First Install, the Security-Entrance Rule, First Website, First Database, and the Backup Habit)

What Is 1Panel, Exactly?

1Panel is an open-source server control panel you install on your own Linux server. It gives you a visual dashboard for everything you'd otherwise manage over SSH: websites, databases, Docker containers, file storage, scheduled backups, and security settings. Learning how to use 1Panel takes an afternoon: run the one-line installer, save the security credentials it prints, and point your first domain at it.

This 1Panel tutorial covers 1Panel the server panel (by 1Panel-dev, GPL-3.0 licensed, roughly 37,335 GitHub stars as of November 2026) — not "OnePanel," the unrelated machine-learning platform, and not the Python UI library called Panel. If you searched for those, you are on the wrong page; everyone else, keep reading.

1Panel is intentionally Docker-native and modern. There is no license fee, no per-account billing, and nothing phones home to a vendor's cloud — your panel runs entirely on your VPS. The trade-off is that you own the whole stack: updates, backups, and hardening are your job. This 1Panel server panel guide walks you from an empty server to a backed-up, HTTPS-secured 1Panel install. If you have never rented a server before, start with our VPS hosting guide — 1Panel runs on any standard Linux VPS.

Is 1Panel Worth It? The Honest 1Panel vs cPanel Answer

Yes, if you want a visual server panel without cPanel's licensing bill — that is the whole 1Panel vs cPanel decision in one line. cPanel charges a paid license per hosting account; 1Panel is open source (GPL-3.0), free forever, and built on Docker, so your sites, containers, and databases live in one modern dashboard instead of a stack of legacy Perl pages.

Draw one lane line and be done with it: 1Panel is a panel you INSTALL on your own server. SaaS server managers (the Cleavr/RunCloud family) live in someone else's cloud and manage your servers remotely — if you want nothing installed on your own infrastructure, that is a different product category, not a rival to this guide.

Who should not use 1Panel? If you run on shared hosting, or you never want to touch a Linux terminal, a managed host is still the better call. 1Panel is for VPS owners, freelancers managing client sites, homelabbers, and small teams who want control without living in the terminal. The current release is v2.4.2 (verified this week from the project's release feed), and the v2 line has been the stable branch for the self-hosted era.

What Do You Need Before You Install 1Panel?

You need three things: a Linux VPS, root SSH access, and a supported operating system. The installer supports Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Rocky — Debian- or RedHat-based distributions in other words — and the server should have at least 1 GB of RAM, with 2 GB or more recommended for a comfortable panel plus a couple of sites.

Root access is not optional: the one-line installer provisions Docker, the panel service, and the web engine, and it needs full privileges to do that. Also open one SSH session and keep it open during the install — the installer prints credentials you must save, and the panel is unreachable without them (more on that next).

How to Install 1Panel: The One-Line Command

Installing 1Panel is a single command on a fresh server. SSH in as root and run the official quick-start script from the 1Panel v2 documentation:

bash -c "$(curl -sSL https://resource.1panel.pro/v2/quick_start.sh)"

The script downloads the versioned release tarball, verifies its sha256 checksum, and installs the panel plus its dependencies — the whole install takes a few minutes on a typical VPS. I verified this command against the official v2 docs this week, so it reflects the current release line.

One caution before you copy commands from anywhere else: several third-party guides still quote the old v1 install command (resource.1panel.hk/quickstart.sh). That installer is stale and does not install the current v2 panel — always use the resource.1panel.pro/v2 command from the official docs.

The Security-Entrance Rule: Save These Three Things

The moment the install finishes, 1Panel prints a panel URL, a username, and a password — and you must save all three, because the URL contains a random port and a random security-entrance path, and the panel is unreachable without that exact path. There is no fixed default port or login page in v2: no path, no panel, no exceptions.

The URL looks like http://<your-server-ip>:<random-port>/<random-entrance-path>. Bookmark it, but also store the three values in your password manager — bookmarking alone is not enough if you ever need to log in from another machine.

If you ever lose the credentials, you do not need to reinstall. Over SSH, 1pctl user-info prints the panel address, username, and lets you reset the password. This one command is the entire recovery story, and it is worth committing to memory before you need it.

Launch Your First 1Panel Website: One-Click Domain + Free SSL

Your first website is two moves: point your domain at the server, then bind it in the panel. In the 1Panel dashboard, the website section lets you create a site from a runtime (PHP, Node.js, Java, Go, Python, or .NET), a static site, or a one-click app like WordPress or Halo — then bind your domain to it and request a Let's Encrypt certificate from the same screen.

The web engine underneath is OpenResty, an Nginx-based server, so everything you know about Nginx hosting translates directly. For the DNS half of the job, add an A record for your domain pointing at the VPS IP; our Cloudflare DNS guide walks through records, proxies, and TTLs if you have never done it.

The 1Panel SSL setup is genuinely one click: 1Panel requests the Let's Encrypt certificate, installs it, and sets up automatic renewal. If certificates are new to you, read our SSL certificate guide first — it explains in plain English what the browser padlock actually proves. Beginners should host one real site and finish this whole flow before touching anything else in the panel; the website section is the muscle you will use most.

Create Your First Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Redis

1Panel manages MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis from one database section. Creating a database is a form: pick the engine, name the database, set a user and a strong password, and the panel provisions it. Your site or app then connects to it over the local network.

The one setting beginners miss is the remote-access toggle. By default MySQL listens locally, which is correct for sites running on the same server — but if your app runs on another machine, you must explicitly enable remote access, and the panel documents the ChangeMysqlAccess behavior so you are not guessing which flag did it. As a rule, leave remote access off until a real second machine needs it; an exposed database port is the fastest way to turn a new panel into a cautionary tale.

Install Your First App: The One-Click App Store

1Panel ships a curated app store of roughly 180 open-source applications — WordPress, Nextcloud, Gitea, Matomo, and dozens more — and installing one is literally one click with one-click upgrades afterwards. This is the fastest way beginners get value from the panel: pick an app, fill in the domain field, and the panel wires up the container, the website entry, and the database.

Under the hood every app is a Docker container, and the panel also gives you full Docker management: containers, images, networks, volumes, and compose projects, all in the dashboard. If you want to understand the layer beneath the buttons, our Docker beginner guide covers the engine 1Panel is automating. The 1Panel docker lane is the comfortable middle ground: you get Docker's power without writing compose files by hand until you want to.

Set Up Your First Backup: The Habit That Saves You

1Panel does one-click backup and restore for sites, databases, and the panel's own configuration. The built-in scheduler is fine, but a backup is only real when it lives somewhere other than the server it protects — so your first backup task should point at an offsite target.

Offsite targets the panel supports include:

One backup rule to set on day one: schedule a weekly offsite backup of every database and site you care about, then restore one of them to confirm it works. The 1Panel backup lane is only complete when you have tested a restore — an untested backup is a rumor, not a backup.

Lock the Panel Itself: Domain + HTTPS + Hardening

Your panel is your server's front door, so secure it like one. Bind a domain to the panel (not the raw IP), put that domain behind HTTPS, and restrict access by IP if your team is small enough to allow it. The 1Panel documentation and the project's server-hardening checklist walk through the standard moves: strong password, entrance path rotation, firewall rules, and keeping the OS patched.

Also treat the panel's own updates seriously. 1Panel ships one-click panel updates, and the v2.4.2 release I verified this week was a security hotfix — panels are high-value targets, so apply panel updates the same week they ship.

Free vs Pro: What You Actually Get

1Panel's open-source edition is GPL-3.0 and free forever. There is a paid Pro tier and an Enterprise tier on top, so here is the honest breakdown, verified against the official Pro page this week:

For a beginner, the free edition is the complete product — Pro's value shows up when you manage client sites or need the advanced tiers. Also worth one sentence: v2 adds a "Metal-to-Agent" layer (AI portal, Skills Hub, OpenClaw agents, Ollama models) that turns your server into an AI-agent host; the AI gateway itself is an Enterprise feature, so treat it as future reading, not day-one material.

7 Beginner Mistakes That Waste an Afternoon

Every one of these is a real, common, and avoidable way beginners stall on their first day with an open source server control panel:

Sources

The facts in this guide were verified against these sources on November 2, 2026:

• 1Panel v2 official documentation — https://1panel.pro/docs/v2/
• Official v2 install script — https://resource.1panel.pro/v2/quick_start.sh
• 1Panel GitHub releases (v2.4.2, October 30, 2026) — https://api.github.com/repos/1Panel-dev/1Panel/releases/latest
• 1Panel GitHub repository — https://github.com/1Panel-dev/1Panel
• 1Panel Pro edition pricing — https://1panel.pro/pro-edition
• selfhost.directory project listing — https://selfhost.directory/project/1panel
• OpenSourceDrop project page — https://www.opensourcedrop.com/tools/1Panel-dev/1Panel
• hysenlabs 1Panel review — https://hysenlabs.com/projects/1panel-dev-1panel
• unvendored 1Panel listing — https://unvendored.com/1panel
• 1Panel server-hardening checklist — https://www.1panel.art/blog/1panel-server-hardening-checklist
• 1Panel API reference (MySQL access) — https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/1Panel-dev/1Panel/agent/app/api/v2
• toptool.app 1Panel review (stale v1 install command — flagged, not used) — https://www.toptool.app/en/product/1panel
• shyft.ai 1Panel skill page (AI-agent integration, same product) — https://shyft.ai/skills/1panel
• Medium: 1Panel on Alpine Linux install diary — https://dms-r.medium.com/setup-1panel-on-alpine-linux-330bcc2bd03a

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 1Panel really free?

Yes. The open-source edition is GPL-3.0 and free forever — no trial, no feature countdown. Pro ($80/year or $200 one-time) and Enterprise exist for advanced tiers, but the panel you install with the one-line command is the complete free product.

Can I install 1Panel on shared hosting?

No. 1Panel needs root access to a full Linux server — a VPS or dedicated machine running Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, or Rocky. Shared hosting accounts do not give you the access the installer requires.

What do I do if I lose my panel URL or password?

SSH into the server as root and run 1pctl user-info — it prints the panel address, username, and lets you reset the password. That is the entire recovery story; never reinstall for a lost credential.

Is 1Panel safe to expose on the public internet?

It is designed for it, with caveats: use the random entrance path, bind a domain with HTTPS, keep a strong password, and apply panel updates promptly. The project's hardening checklist covers the standard moves, and v2.4.2 itself shipped as a security hotfix.

Does 1Panel work behind Cloudflare?

Yes — point your domain's A record at the VPS and use Cloudflare's proxy as usual for your sites. For the panel itself, bind it to a dedicated subdomain and keep HTTPS enabled end to end, so the panel login is never in the clear.