I Built Mini Panel: A Lightweight Go Control Panel for VPSs with 1 GB of RAM

I built Mini Panel for people who manage one or a few small VPS instances. I wanted a web interface for the tasks I kept doing over SSH: setting up websites, issuing TLS certificates, checking logs, and managing backups.

Mini Panel is written in Go and ships as a single executable. You can install it on a VPS with at least 1 GB of RAM, and the panel itself runs without Docker, PHP, or a dedicated MySQL instance. You install the services your sites need separately.

What Mini Panel can do

• Manage websites. Deploy PHP, Node.js, and Python apps, host static sites, or configure a reverse proxy. Each site has a file manager, SSH/SFTP access, a browser terminal, cron jobs, logs, and editable Nginx configuration.
• Set up WordPress and PHP applications. Install WordPress or start a project with Laravel, CodeIgniter 4, CakePHP, or Yii 2. For WordPress sites installed through Mini Panel, you can also manage plugins, themes, and updates from the panel.
• Manage databases. Create MariaDB or MySQL databases with separate credentials and open phpMyAdmin from the interface.
• Host email for your domains. Create mailboxes and forwarding aliases, read and send mail through webmail, and add the required email DNS records through Cloudflare if you use it.
• Enable HTTPS and back up sites. Issue and automatically renew Let’s Encrypt certificates or install your own. Nightly backups keep the seven most recent copies, with restore controls and optional Google Drive sync.
• Monitor and secure the server. Track CPU, memory, disk usage, network traffic, and service status. Mini Panel also supports an nftables firewall, ModSecurity with OWASP CRS, fail2ban, and two-factor authentication for the admin account.

Try it out

• Website: "mpanel.biz" (https://mpanel.biz/)
• GitHub: "marixdev/mini-panel" (https://github.com/marixdev/mini-panel)
• Documentation: "Introduction to Mini Panel" (https://mpanel.biz/intro/)

If you have a spare VPS or self-host WordPress, Laravel, or a personal app, I’d love to hear how the setup goes. From installing the panel to getting your first site online over HTTPS, where did you get stuck or have to look something up?

If you run into a bug, please include your Linux distribution, its version, and the step you were on so I can reproduce it. Thanks for giving it a try!