KA Panel

What it is

KA Panel is a single Go binary that runs as a service on your server and configures the software already in Debian — nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB, PowerDNS, Postfix, Dovecot, rspamd — from its own database. There is no runtime to install, no container to babysit and no agent phoning home. Updating it is replacing one file and restarting one service.

It is meant for the person who rents a VPS and wants to host a handful of sites, and for the small host who wants to give customers a panel without paying per server.

Requirements

Operating system	Debian 13 (trixie), clean install
Architecture	x86_64 or arm64
Memory	2 GB for websites; 4 GB if you turn email on
Disk	20 GB or more
Ports	80, 443, 2083 — plus 25, 465, 587, 993, 995 and 2096 with email

It refuses to install next to another control panel rather than fighting it over nginx and PHP.

Installing

As root on a clean Debian 13 server:

curl -fsSL https://update.karizanta.uk/kapanel/install.sh | bash

The installer checks the OS, downloads the release manifest and verifies its signature against a key built into the installer, checks the binary's SHA-256 against that signed manifest, then installs the service and waits until the panel answers its own health check. If a signature does not verify, nothing is installed.

Then open https://your-server-ip:2083 and create the administrator account. That setup page closes for good once the first account exists.

The first certificate warning

Until the panel has a hostname it serves a certificate it signed itself, so the browser warns once. Point an A record such as panel.example.com at the server, enter it under Settings → Panel address, and the panel proves it controls the name, gets a Let's Encrypt certificate and switches to it.

Your first site

1. Point the domain's A record at the server.
2. Domains → Add domain. Enter it without www; a checkbox serves the www alias too. Leave the document root empty.
3. Pick a PHP version, or turn PHP off for a static site.
4. Press Get a certificate. The panel checks the domain really reaches this server first, so a wrong DNS record gives you a clear message instead of a rate-limit ban from Let's Encrypt.
5. Upload your files in the File Manager, or extract a zip in place.

Your own nginx directives go in a separate include per site, which panel updates never touch.

Databases

MariaDB is installed on first use. Databases and users are created with the account's own prefix, as on cPanel, and a generated password is shown exactly once. Applications connect to localhost.

Email

An administrator turns email on once; it installs Postfix, Dovecot and rspamd and configures them. After that each domain gets mailboxes, forwarders and an optional catch-all.

Mail is stored inside the owning account's home directory and delivered with that account's uid — so it counts towards their disk use, lands in their backups, and is unreadable to other customers.

The panel checks the four DNS records that decide whether your mail arrives — MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC — against public DNS and shows you which are missing. If it hosts the domain's DNS, one button adds them. Two things it cannot do for you: the PTR record of your IP, which only your provider can set, and outbound port 25, which many providers block by default.

Webmail is Roundcube on port 2096, with the panel's certificate.

Mail sent by a website through PHP's mail() is deliberately not DKIM-signed — otherwise any account on the server could send as another customer's domain and have the server sign it. Configure applications to send over SMTP with a mailbox's own credentials, and their mail is signed.

DNS hosting

Optional. It installs PowerDNS as an authoritative-only server — never a resolver, because an open resolver on a hosting box is someone else's DDoS amplifier — creates a zone for every site and shows you the name servers to set at your registrar.

Backups

Files and databases, on demand or on a daily schedule, with a retention count and a restore that puts files back and replaces databases. They are written to the same server, which covers a mistaken delete or a bad upgrade but not a dead disk: download the ones that matter.

Customers

Add a user with the role Customer and they get a hosting account with its own system user immediately, a password shown once, and a forced change at first login. They see only their own sites, files, databases, mail and cron jobs. Suspending them takes their sites offline, stops their cron jobs and blocks mailbox logins while mail still arrives.

Moving in from cPanel

The panel imports a cPanel account backup: files, databases and their users, the certificate (with its chain completed), and cron jobs, which arrive paused so you can read them before they run. Paths inside configuration files are rewritten to the new home directory.

Updates

Every six hours the panel asks the update server whether there is a newer release. Each release is signed with an Ed25519 key compiled into the panel; a build that key did not sign is refused, whatever server it came from. The previous binary and a copy of the database are kept, and a version that fails to start three times is rolled back automatically.

What it does not do

Being honest about this is more useful than a feature list:

• Disk quotas are not enforced yet. The panel stores the number but nothing stops an account filling the disk, so do not sell fixed-size plans on it as it stands.
• No two-factor authentication on the panel yet.
• No firewall management; if your provider puts one in front of the server, open the ports yourself.
• Backups stay on the same disk — no S3 or FTP destination yet.
• Debian 13 only. Not Ubuntu, not AlmaLinux.

Licence and support

Free to install and use on as many servers as you like, ours or anyone else's. It may not be sold, rebranded or redistributed as a modified build, and the source is not public at this time.

It comes with no support contract and no warranty — it is young software, and you should read the limits above before you put someone else's data on it. Questions and bug reports reach the people who wrote it through our contact page, and customers with a server from us get them answered as part of that service.

Included with your Karizanta server

KA Panel is made for the people who run servers with us. Take a VPS in Coventry, the Netherlands or Stockholm — or a dedicated server — pick Debian 13 at checkout, and this panel is one command away from being your hosting control panel. Our data centres carry the network behind it, and domains you register with us point at it in a couple of clicks.

If your server is somewhere else, it still runs — we would rather you use it than not.

Questions

Is it really free?

Yes. There is no licence key, no per-server fee and no paid tier. You need a server to run it on — that is the only cost. It comes with every Karizanta server, and it works just as well on someone else's.

Does it phone home?

It asks the update server for the current version number and downloads releases from it. Nothing about your sites, customers or traffic leaves the machine. Point it at your own update server, or turn automatic updates off, if you would rather it did not.

Can I install it on a server I bought elsewhere?

Yes. It has no idea who runs the machine — a clean Debian 13 install with root access is all it wants. On a server from us you also get the people who wrote it when something goes wrong.

What happens if an update breaks it?

The previous binary is kept and restored automatically if the new one fails to start three times, and the failed version is remembered so it is not installed again. You can also roll back from the Updates page at any time.

Can I host customers on it?

Technically yes — customer logins, per-account isolation and suspension all work. Read the two limits above first: no enforced disk quotas and no two-factor authentication.

Does the panel work in Persian and Arabic?

Yes, with a proper right-to-left layout rather than a mirrored English theme. German, French and Dutch are included as well, and adding a language means adding one translation file.