01
It checks before it says done
After every change, the panel asks the server whether the change is there and shows you that answer. You never see a tick over something that quietly failed.
JotPanel · free server control panel
The free control panel that checks its own work.
Sites, mail, databases, DNS, backups and resellers, on your own Linux server. Free under the AGPL, with nothing held back.
Most panels show a green tick once they have sent a command. JotPanel shows one only after the server confirms the change is really there.
Why JotPanel
Five things a hosting panel should have done years ago
02
Resellers are free too
Server admin, reseller and end user all come in the free panel. Packages set what each account may use and nobody can hand out more than they hold.
03
Nothing calls home
No vendor login on your server, no support account, no telemetry and no registration. It installs and runs without ever talking to us.
04
Root stays behind a locked door
The panel itself runs without root. Anything that needs root goes to a separate service that accepts only named jobs from a fixed list and refuses everything else.
05
Your data leaves in one piece
A whole account, with its sites, mail and databases, leaves as one ZIP file whenever you want it to. Staying is a choice, not a trap.
The licence bill
Every other panel is a bill per server, every month
Commercial panels charge for each server and cPanel also charges by the number of accounts. JotPanel costs nothing, however many servers or accounts you run.
| Monthly licence cost | JotPanel | cPanel | DirectAdmin | Plesk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it is priced | Free, all of it | Per server, by accounts | Per server, by accounts | Per server, by domains |
| One server, 100 accounts | $0 | $69.99 | $29 | €31.38 |
| One server, 250 accounts | $0 | $143.49 | $29 | €31.38 |
| Ten servers, 100 accounts each | $0 | $699.90 | $290 | €313.80 |
Published list prices read on 16 September 2026: cPanel Premier ($69.99 with 100 accounts, then $0.49 an account), DirectAdmin Standard and Plesk Web Host Edition as shown in euros on yearly billing. Resellers and data centres often sell these for less.
What it does
Everything a server running websites needs
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| Websites | Each site gets its own system user, its own PHP pool and its own PHP version, with aliases, redirects and password-protected folders. |
| Certificates | Issued, renewed and forced to HTTPS, with expiry watched for you. |
| Mailboxes, forwarders, auto-replies, catch-alls, quotas, spam filtering and the queue. DKIM, SPF and DMARC are set up together, not as three separate chores. | |
| Databases | MariaDB and PostgreSQL, side by side if you want both. Users, permissions, passwords and imports. |
| DNS | Zones and records, on the server itself. |
| Backups | Scheduled or on demand, copied to another server and a restore that lists exactly what came back. An offsite copy only counts once the other end has confirmed it. |
| Accounts | Server admin, reseller and end user, with packages that set limits nobody can raise for themselves. |
| Security | A firewall that puts the old rules back if a change locks you out, fail2ban, SSH keys, passkeys, two-factor codes and recovery codes. |
| Apps | Node, Python, Ruby, Java, Perl, .NET and compiled programs such as Go and Rust. Adminer, phpMyAdmin and WordPress install in one click. |
| Getting back in | A recovery address on its own port answers even when the web server is the thing that broke. |
How a change happens
Nothing changes on your server without a record
1
Proposed
Every change starts as a proposal that says exactly what will happen.
2
Approved
Someone with the right to approve it says yes. Anything destructive makes the owner type the word.
3
Checked
It runs, then the panel reads the server back and reports what is really there. The record keeps who asked, who approved, what ran and what the server said.
Said plainly
What this version does not do yet
Importing a cPanel backup is marked coming soon and copying a mailbox in over IMAP is a preview. Plesk and DirectAdmin backups are not read. Backups go to another server over SFTP; S3, R2 and B2 destinations are listed but switched off until each has been proved. Each server is its own install, with no single screen for many servers. There is no update button, because checking for one would mean calling home.
Proved today
Installed from bare machines
Installed from a blank server and put through its checks on Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04 and Debian 12 and 13. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the supported platform.
Requirements
A 64-bit Linux server with root
The panel itself uses about 150 MB of memory. What fills a small server is what you host on it.
| You are running | Memory | Disk | Processor |
|---|---|---|---|
| The panel only | 1 GB | 10 GB | 1 core |
| Websites, PHP and databases | 2 GB | 25 GB | 1 core, 2 is better |
| Everything, with mail, DNS, spam filtering and backups | 4 GB | 40 GB | 2 cores |
Swap at least the size of memory. The installer creates it when the server has none.
Get it
The first public release is being prepared
JotPanel will be on GitHub under the AGPL, with one line to install it on a fresh server. Email us and we will tell you the day it lands.
The upgrade
Arca: when you would rather the server did the work
Arca is the paid upgrade that sits on top of JotPanel. Its assistant, Echo, turns a plain request into a proposal you approve, through the same approval and checking as every other change, with no extra powers of its own.
Hosting companies will be able to buy Arca for their customers and pass some on to their resellers. JotPanel stays complete without it. Prices are not set yet.