How to Launch CyberPanel on Hostinger (VPS Setup Guide)

Running CyberPanel on Hostinger means buying a VPS. There is no shared-hosting route, because CyberPanel installs system packages, manages OpenLiteSpeed as a service and binds its own ports, and all of that needs root. Hostinger’s shared plans give you hPanel and a restricted shell, so a KVM VPS is the only option that works.

CyberPanel is a free control panel built around LiteSpeed rather than Apache. You get website and DNS management, email, one-click WordPress, Let’s Encrypt automation and backups, without cPanel’s per-account licensing. The trade-off is that you are now the sysadmin: patching, firewall rules and backup verification are yours. If that sounds like more than you want, a managed platform is the better answer, and our walkthrough of installing CakePHP on Cloudways shows what the managed alternative looks like in practice.

Why CyberPanel can’t run on shared hosting

People search for this expecting a Softaculous-style one-click install. It doesn’t exist, and it can’t. A control panel is not an application that lives in public_html. CyberPanel replaces your web server, writes to /usr/local/lsws, installs MariaDB and PowerDNS, creates system users for each website and manages firewalld or ufw. On a shared server you have none of those privileges, and Hostinger already runs its own stack there.

Step 1: Choose a VPS plan and an operating system

CyberPanel’s own documentation lists a floor of 1 GB RAM and 10 GB of disk. Every Hostinger KVM plan clears that comfortably, so the real question is how many sites you plan to host. At the time of writing Hostinger’s CyberPanel VPS page lists KVM 1 (1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe) at $6.49/mo on a long promotional term, renewing at $11.99/mo, up to KVM 8 (8 vCPU, 32 GB, 400 GB) at $25.99/mo renewing at $49.99/mo. Promotional pricing shifts constantly, so treat those as a shape rather than a quote and check the plan page before you buy.

KVM 1 is fine for a handful of brochure sites and a staging box. If you intend to run WooCommerce, mail and a database that people actually hammer, start at KVM 2 with 8 GB. CyberPanel plus MariaDB plus PHP workers plus Redis will eat 2 GB before a single visitor arrives.

On the OS side, CyberPanel’s GitHub README is more current than the older knowledge-base page. Supported targets now include Ubuntu 24.04, 22.04 and 20.04, AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, Rocky Linux 8 and 9, RHEL 8 and 9, CloudLinux 8 and CentOS 9 Stream. Debian is not officially supported.

Step 2: Install CyberPanel, one of two ways

The one-click OS template

Hostinger ships CyberPanel as an “OS with panel” template on AlmaLinux 9. In hPanel go to VPS → Manage for the server, then OS & Panel → Operating System, switch to the OS with Panel tab and pick CyberPanel. You can also choose it during first-time VPS setup. Hostinger asks you to set the panel password during provisioning, then reinstalls the server, which wipes everything already on it.

This is the route I’d take for a fresh server. It saves twenty minutes and you skip the class of failures where a package repository times out halfway through a compile.

The manual install

If you want Ubuntu instead of AlmaLinux, deploy a plain OS template, connect over SSH, and run the installer as root. Hostinger gives you root SSH credentials for the VPS in hPanel under the server’s SSH access section.

ssh root@your-vps-ip

# Ubuntu
apt update && apt -y upgrade

# The official installer
sh <(curl https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh || wget -O - https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh)

The wizard asks whether to install CyberPanel with OpenLiteSpeed or LiteSpeed Enterprise, whether to include Postfix, PowerDNS, Redis and Memcached, and what admin password to set. Choose option 1 for OpenLiteSpeed unless you have already bought a LiteSpeed licence. Set a real password here instead of accepting the documented default of 1234567, which is a well-known string that bots try within hours. Expect ten to twenty minutes of output. When it finishes, the installer prints your panel URL and credentials.

Step 3: Open ports 8090 and 7080

CyberPanel’s own interface listens on TCP 8090. The OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin console, which you’ll want eventually for tuning workers and rewrite rules, listens on TCP 7080. Neither is reachable until the firewall allows it, and Hostinger’s managed firewall is a separate layer from firewalld or ufw inside the VPS.

In hPanel, open the VPS section, pick your server, then Security → Firewall. Click Add Firewall, name the group, then use the ellipsis menu and Edit to add rules. Each rule takes an action (accept, drop, reject), a protocol, a port or range written as 8090:8090, and a traffic source. The firewall is not active until you toggle it on for that VPS.

1. Accept TCP 22 (SSH), ideally restricted to your own IP.
2. Accept TCP 80 and 443 for websites and for Let’s Encrypt validation.
3. Accept TCP 8090 for the CyberPanel interface.
4. Accept TCP 7080 only when you actually need WebAdmin, and lock it to your IP.
5. Add TCP 25, 465, 587, 993 and UDP 53 only if you use CyberPanel’s mail and DNS.

Inside the server, CyberPanel also exposes a Security → Firewall screen that drives firewalld directly. If a port looks open in hPanel but still refuses connections, check that second layer.

Step 4: First login and locking down the admin account

Browse to https://your-vps-ip:8090. Your browser will warn about an untrusted certificate because the panel is answering on a bare IP with a self-signed cert. That’s expected. Log in with the username admin and the password you set.

Change it immediately under Users → Edit Profile, or from the CLI if you’re already in SSH. Once your first domain resolves to the VPS, use SSL → Hostname SSL to put a real Let’s Encrypt certificate on the panel itself so you stop clicking through warnings.

# Reset the CyberPanel admin password from SSH
adminPass 'your-new-strong-password'

# Set the separate OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin password
/usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh

Step 5: Point a domain at the VPS

At your registrar, create an A record for the root domain pointing to the VPS IPv4 address, plus an A record for www. If you want CyberPanel’s bundled PowerDNS to be authoritative instead, set your registrar’s nameservers to ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com, register those as glue records at the registrar, and create the matching zone under DNS → Create Nameserver. For most people the plain A record approach, or leaving DNS at Cloudflare, is simpler and less fragile.

Do not skip ahead to SSL until the domain actually resolves. Let’s Encrypt validates over HTTP on port 80, and it will fail if DNS still points elsewhere.

Step 6: Create a website and issue SSL

Go to Websites → Create Website. Pick a package (the default is fine), the owner (admin), the domain, an admin email, and the PHP version. Two checkboxes matter: SSL requests a Let’s Encrypt certificate during creation, and DKIM Support is worth enabling if you will send mail from the domain.

If SSL failed during creation because DNS hadn’t propagated, go to SSL → Manage SSL, select the domain and click Issue SSL. When that errors, the panel log at /home/cyberpanel/logs (also viewable at Server Status → CyberPanel Main Log File) prints the exact acme.sh command that failed, which you can rerun by hand to see the real error.

OpenLiteSpeed or LiteSpeed Enterprise?

OpenLiteSpeed is the free, open-source server. It handles unlimited domains, does HTTP/3, and works with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress. Its main limitation is that configuration changes usually require a graceful restart, and there is no .htaccess support, so Apache rewrite rules must be translated into OpenLiteSpeed rewrite syntax.

LiteSpeed Enterprise reads .htaccess natively, applies most config changes without a restart, and is a drop-in replacement for Apache. It is licensed per server, free for one domain, and paid beyond that. Pick it when you’re migrating a pile of legacy Apache sites whose rewrite rules you don’t want to rewrite. Otherwise start with OpenLiteSpeed. You can switch later, but it is a reinstall, not a toggle.

CyberPanel vs hPanel vs cPanel

One practical note: CyberPanel is not cPanel, and muscle memory does not transfer. Tasks you’d normally do through cPanel’s File Manager, like disabling a broken WordPress plugin from cPanel, live in different menus here, though the underlying trick of renaming a plugin folder over SFTP works the same.

Step 7: Set up backups you can actually restore

CyberPanel’s Backup menu has four things worth knowing. Create Backup makes a one-off archive of a website into /home/<domain>/backup. Add/Delete Destination registers an SFTP target on another machine. Schedule Backup runs daily or weekly jobs to local storage or that SFTP destination. There is also Google Drive support and an incremental option built on restic and rclone.

Troubleshooting

You can’t reach port 8090

Work outward. From SSH, run systemctl status lscpd to confirm the panel daemon is running, and ss -tlnp | grep 8090 to confirm something is listening. If both look healthy, the block is a firewall. Check the hPanel firewall group is toggled active and has an accept rule for 8090, then check firewalld inside the server with firewall-cmd --list-ports. Also confirm you typed https://, not http://.

Root SSH login is refused after using the template

On Hostinger’s CyberPanel template, root SSH login can be disabled and key-only authentication enforced. Log into the panel and go to Security → Secure SSH, enable Permit Root Login, add your public key, verify port 22 is allowed in the firewall, then restart. Keep key-only authentication if you can live with it.

You forgot the admin password

SSH in as root and run adminPass 'newpassword'. That resets the admin user only. The OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin password on 7080 is separate and is reset with /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh.

The install dies on a low-RAM server

CyberPanel’s stated minimum is 1 GB, but the installer compiles and unpacks a lot, and 1 GB with no swap will get processes killed by the OOM reaper. Add swap before installing:

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
free -h

Skip Postfix, PowerDNS and Memcached at the prompts if you don’t need them. Each one is memory you don’t get back.

Websites 502 or PHP pages download instead of rendering

That usually means the PHP handler for the site is wrong or the lsphp process for that version isn’t installed. Check Websites → List Websites → Manage → Change PHP Version, pick a version that’s actually present, and restart OpenLiteSpeed from Server Status → LiteSpeed Status.

Frequently asked questions

Can I install CyberPanel on Hostinger shared hosting?

No. CyberPanel requires root to install system services and manage the web server, and Hostinger’s shared plans do not grant root. The cheapest legitimate route is the KVM 1 VPS. Any guide claiming otherwise is describing something that will fail at the first line of the installer.

Does Hostinger have a one-click CyberPanel install?

Yes. CyberPanel is one of Hostinger’s “OS with panel” templates, currently built on AlmaLinux 9. Select it under VPS → Manage → OS & Panel → Operating System → OS with Panel, or during initial VPS setup. Switching templates reinstalls the server and erases existing data.

Is CyberPanel really free?

The OpenLiteSpeed edition is free and open source with no domain limit. The edition bundling LiteSpeed Enterprise is free for a single domain and paid beyond that, licensed by LiteSpeed Technologies. There is also an optional paid CyberPanel Cloud backup service. The panel itself costs nothing.

What ports does CyberPanel need open?

TCP 8090 for the panel and 7080 for OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin, plus 80 and 443 for websites and SSL validation, and 22 for SSH. Add 25, 465, 587 and 993 for mail, and UDP 53 if you run PowerDNS. Restrict 7080 and 22 to your own IP where possible.

Can I run CyberPanel and Grafana on the same VPS?

Yes, if you have the memory. Grafana is a Go binary listening on port 3000 and doesn’t conflict with LiteSpeed. Budget at least 8 GB total so neither starves. Our guide to installing Grafana on a Hostinger VPS covers the reverse-proxy setup you’d want in front of it.

Wrapping up

The short version: get a KVM VPS, use the AlmaLinux 9 CyberPanel template unless you specifically want Ubuntu, open 8090 in the hPanel firewall, change the admin password before you do anything else, and configure an off-server backup destination on day one. That sequence takes under an hour and gets you a panel that does most of what cPanel does for none of the licence cost.

Be honest with yourself about the maintenance, though. Choosing CyberPanel means you own kernel updates, TLS renewals that silently fail, and the 2 a.m. disk-full incident. If you’d rather not, Hostinger’s managed plans with hPanel or a platform like Cloudways handle that for you, and pieces like installing Elasticsearch on Cloudways or running CakePHP on cloud hosting show how the same jobs look without root. Verify the current install matrix in the CyberPanel installation docs and the template list in Hostinger’s VPS operating systems article before you provision, since both change often.