[WebDeck 2.0] Free hosting control panel - isolation built in - Love feed back

VM6 · July 13

I run VM6 Networks. Got fed up watching my cPanel bill climb every time I won a customer, then being told I needed CloudLinux on top just to stop tenants reading each other's files. So I built my own panel.

It's called WebDeck. The free tier is a proper panel, not a demo.

Free tier

2 hosting accounts, 4 websites, and every single feature:

Account isolation and resource limits
All 48 one click apps
Free SSL, plus a free hostname with a trusted cert out of the box
DNS, mail, backups
WordPress manager
cPanel importer
Self healing
Updates and security patches

Nothing is crippled or held back. If 2 accounts and 4 sites suits you and no reseller features, keep it free forever and I'm happy.

Pro - £12/mo per server

Unlimited accounts, unlimited websites, resellers, white labelling, WHMCS module.

Flat fee. Host 10 accounts or 10,000, it's still £12.

Free for VM6 clients, licensed by IP, nothing to enter.

What's actually different

Isolation, built in and free. Every account is confined to its own site's files. Can't see other customers, can't hog the box. No CloudLinux licence needed.

I'll be straight though: this isn't CageFS. CloudLinux goes further and has years more hardening. Big host with hostile tenants, they earn their money. But for the tenant separation that matters day to day, WebDeck does it, and it's in the box rather than a second monthly bill.

Pick your own stack. LAMP, LNMP or LOMP. Apache, nginx or OpenLiteSpeed, same panel and same features either way. And you can switch a running server between them without rebuilding it. Most panels decide that for you.

It fixes itself. If a vhost goes missing, a cert's about to expire, a service dies or a config drifts, the panel notices, repairs it, and tells you what it fixed. You don't find out from a customer at 2am.

What's in it

Your choice of stack - LAMP, LNMP or LOMP. Apache, nginx or OpenLiteSpeed, same panel, same features either way. And you can switch a running server between them without rebuilding it. Most panels lock you to whatever they were built around.

Self healing - if a vhost goes missing, a cert's about to expire, a service dies or a config drifts, the panel notices, fixes it, and tells you what it fixed. You don't find out from a customer.

Isolation - every SFTP/SSH account confined to its own site's files. Can't see other customers, can't hog the box. Resource limits per account, optional process cage. No CloudLinux needed.

Websites - unlimited domains, subdomains and parked domains. Per site PHP version. Redirects, directory privacy, custom error pages.

One click apps - 48 of them. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Ghost, phpBB, Flarum, Moodle, Nextcloud, Matomo, Mautic, EspoCRM, PrestaShop, Magento, WHMCS, LimeSurvey and the rest.

WordPress manager - install, update core, plugins and themes, manage users, search and replace. Without touching wp-admin.

Email that lands - Postfix and Dovecot with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up properly, reverse DNS sorted, autodiscover and autoconfig published. Mail relay support if you'd rather send through someone else.

DNS - authoritative PowerDNS with your own nameservers, full record editing. Or point a domain at external DNS if you'd rather.

SSL - Let's Encrypt with auto renewal, and a free hostname with a trusted cert the moment you install. No browser warning on your panel from minute one.

Databases - MariaDB with phpMyAdmin, single sign on.

Backups - local and remote, restic and rclone, scheduled. With a test restore button that actually proves they work.

PHP - multiple versions side by side, 65 modules toggled per site, ionCube, per site FPM pools.

Resellers - four roles, real quotas with overselling protection, and branding that cascades so your reseller's customers see your reseller's brand, not yours.

White label - your name, your logo, your colours, throughout the whole panel. Not a paid extra.

WHMCS module - sell hosting and resellers with automatic provisioning.

Migration - point the cPanel importer at a cpmove archive and it recreates the account properly. Sites, databases, email, DNS, cron.

Logs in the panel - live Apache, MariaDB, PHP, mail, DNS and FTP. No SSH needed.

Security - 2FA, fail2ban, firewall management, API keys, audit log.

Runs on

Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky, AlmaLinux. One command, six step wizard, running in minutes.

What I want from you

2.0 is new. Tested across all four distros and stable on my boxes, but it hasn't got a year of production behind it and I'd rather you knew that than found out.

Give it a go on a spare box and tell me what you think:

Bugs. Anything, however small. I fix fast, usually in the next release.
What's missing. I'd rather build what people actually want.
What's annoying. Six clicks where there should be two, bad wording, anything that made you sigh.
The pricing. Is £12 right? Are the free limits sensible? Tell me if I've got it wrong.

Links

Download: https://www.webdeckpanel.co.uk/downloads
Features: https://www.webdeckpanel.co.uk/features
Docs: https://www.webdeckpanel.co.uk/docs

Ask anything in the thread and I'll answer!

If it's broken I want to know!

Rob
VM6 Networks Ltd (Company No. 16553775)

AnthonySmith · July 13

Pretty cool, well done.

The cPanel importer is a good move.

VM6 · July 13

@AnthonySmith said:
Pretty cool, well done.

The cPanel importer is a good move.

Cheers Anthony, appreciate that.
The importer was the bit I most wanted to get right, because a half-import that leaves you fixing things for a week is worse than not migrating at all. It'll pull straight from the old server too if your rather not faff with cpmove archives.