Open-source game server management, honestly reviewed. For anyone who’s tired of paying managed hosting bills for servers they should own.

TL;DR

What it is: Open-source (AGPL-3.0) web-based game server control panel — think managed hosting dashboards like Nitrado or Apex Hosting, except the software runs on your own VPS and costs nothing [README][2].
Who it’s for: Gaming communities, indie game hosters, and technically curious founders who want to run Minecraft, Palworld, ARK, Terraria, and dozens of other games without paying per-server managed hosting fees [1][README].
Cost savings: Managed game hosting runs $5–20+/mo per server. With Pelican on a $10–20/mo VPS, you host as many servers as your hardware can handle — one flat bill [2].
Key strength: Modern fork of Pterodactyl (the most widely used self-hosted game panel) with active development, Docker isolation per server, clean UI, and a large library of pre-built “eggs” for popular games [README][1].
Key weakness: Setup requires two separate components (Panel + Wings), a domain name, SSL, PHP 8.2, MySQL, and Linux command-line comfort — it is not a one-click install. Also, AGPL-3.0 licensing creates legal friction if you want to build a commercial hosting business on top of it [2][README].

What is Pelican Panel

Pelican Panel is a web-based game server management platform. You deploy it on a Linux server, point a domain at it, and get a browser-based dashboard where you can launch, configure, monitor, and manage game servers — each running inside its own Docker container [README].

The origin matters: Pelican is a fork of Pterodactyl, the dominant open-source game panel that powers a large slice of the self-hosted gaming community. When Pterodactyl’s update cadence slowed, a group of contributors forked it and rebranded as Pelican. The docs describe this directly: the team consists of people who “left the constraints of Pterodactyl to forge their own path” [docs]. As of this review, Pelican sits at 1,954 GitHub stars, still young compared to Pterodactyl’s multi-year head start, but with a noticeably more active development team [merged profile].

The architecture is split into two pieces. The Panel is the web interface — it handles user accounts, server creation, configuration, and display. Wings is the daemon that runs on game server machines and actually executes the containers [2][README]. You can have one machine running both, or split the Panel across one server and Wings across many — the latter is how commercial hosting providers scale it.

The game support comes via “eggs” — JSON configuration templates that define how a specific game server starts, what ports it needs, what environment variables it expects, and which Docker image to pull [README]. The egg library covers Minecraft (Paper, Sponge, Bungeecord, Waterfall), SteamCMD games (ARK: Survival, Counter-Strike, 7 Days to Die, DayZ, Enshrouded, Palworld, Project Zomboid, Satisfactory), standalone titles (Factorio, Terraria, Among Us, GTA, Rimworld), voice servers (Mumble, TeamSpeak), Discord bots, and even databases and developer tools [README]. The README notes that community-maintained eggs repositories are separate from the core panel, which keeps the codebase lean but means you’re pulling configs from GitHub repos maintained by volunteers.

Why people choose it over managed hosting and Pterodactyl

The argument against managed hosting is simple math. Paying Apex Hosting, BisectHosting, or Nitrado $8–15/mo per game server adds up the moment you’re running more than one or two. A gaming community with four active servers — Minecraft, Palworld, a voice server, and a modded ARK instance — is looking at $40–60+/mo in managed fees, forever, with prices that only go up [1].

Pelican turns that into a one-time Linux learning curve and a flat VPS bill. The Hetzner Community tutorial demonstrates exactly this: a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 server, one-time setup, and you’re running whatever you want without per-server recurring charges [2].

Versus Pterodactyl. This is the most relevant comparison because they share a codebase. The reason Pelican exists is that Pterodactyl’s update pace became unreliable, leaving bugs unpatched and features stagnant. The TechTide Solutions roundup [1] specifically calls Pelican “a forked panel approach that continues receiving updates” — not as a dig, but as the defining reason to prefer it over the original. If you’re starting fresh today, the recommendation from the community has shifted toward Pelican as the active project.

Versus CubeCoders AMP. AMP is the most feature-rich alternative and the most direct commercial competitor to Pelican. The CubeCoders comparison page [3] is worth reading because it’s honest about the trade-offs, even if written by the AMP vendor. AMP’s strongest argument: full application state tracking. Pelican can tell you whether a game server process is running and how much CPU/RAM it’s using. AMP can tell you how many players are on the server, who they are, what they’re doing, and fire automation rules based on player events — like posting to Discord when a new player connects [3]. Pelican has none of this. If you want “send a Discord notification when the first player joins tonight,” AMP does it natively; Pelican requires external scripting or is simply not capable without custom work [3].

AMP also handles Windows and Linux, handles cross-platform in a single install, and advertises one-command installation and automatic firewall management — things Pelican’s 10-step install process explicitly doesn’t offer [2][3]. The trade-off: AMP requires a license purchase after the free trial. Pelican is free forever, AGPL-3.0 [3][merged profile].

Versus PufferPanel. Listed on AlternativeTo as an alternative, PufferPanel is Apache-2.0 licensed (more permissive than AGPL-3.0) and lighter than Pterodactyl-based panels [4]. Less community support and a smaller egg library. For pure personal use, it’s viable. For anything beyond a single server, Pelican’s broader ecosystem wins.

Features

Based on the README and installation documentation:

Server management:

Docker container isolation per game server — hardware failure or runaway process in one container doesn’t affect others [README][2]
Real-time resource monitoring (CPU, RAM) per server [README]
Web-based file manager, console access, and startup parameter configuration [README]
Server creation via egg templates — one-click deploy of supported games [README]
REST API for programmatic server management and external integrations [merged profile]

Supported games (via eggs):

Minecraft ecosystem: Paper, Sponge, Bungeecord, Waterfall [README]
SteamCMD: 7 Days to Die, ARK: Survival, Arma 3, Counter-Strike, DayZ, Enshrouded, Left 4 Dead, Palworld, Project Zomboid, Satisfactory, Sons of the Forest, Starbound [README]
Standalone: Among Us, Factorio, FTL, GTA, Kerbal Space, Mindustry, Rimworld, Terraria [README]
Voice: Mumble, TeamSpeak, Lavalink [README]
Discord bots, databases, monitoring tools [README]

Security:

SSL support (via Certbot in the standard install) [2]
2FA [website]
AES-256 encryption [website]
Per-server isolation via Docker [README]

What it does not have:

Application state tracking (no player list, no in-game events) [3]
Windows support [3]
Automatic firewall configuration [3]
Built-in Wings — you install and manage it separately [2]
One-command install or auto-updates [3]

Pricing: managed hosting vs self-hosted math

Pelican Panel:

Software license: $0 (AGPL-3.0) [README]
VPS to run it: $5–20/mo depending on player count and game count
Domain + SSL: $10–15/year for domain, SSL via Let’s Certbot is free [2]
Your time: see Deployment section below

Managed game hosting (for comparison):

Most providers charge $5–15/mo per game server [1]
Costs scale directly with server count — 4 servers = 4× the bill
No control over software versions, no root access, no custom mods on some platforms

Self-hosted math for a small gaming community:

Running 4 servers (Minecraft, Palworld, voice, one modded game). Managed hosting at $8/mo each = $32/mo or $384/year. Pelican on a $15/mo Hetzner VPS (CAX21: 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM) = $15/mo or $180/year for all four simultaneously. That’s $204/year saved — assuming the hardware is sufficient and you handle setup yourself.

The math gets better as you add servers. The managed hosting bill scales linearly; the VPS bill doesn’t move until you need more hardware. A large community running 10 servers on managed hosting at $8 each pays $960/year. On a $20–25/mo VPS, it’s $240–300/year.

Caveat: AGPL-3.0 means if you’re building a commercial hosting platform on top of Pelican and offering it as a service, you are legally required to publish your modifications. For a commercial hosting business, this is a real constraint. For a gaming community hosting for friends, it’s irrelevant [merged profile].

Deployment reality check

The Hetzner tutorial [2] is the most detailed public install guide available, and it’s 10 discrete steps. This is not a “download and double-click” experience.

What you need before you start:

Ubuntu 24.04 server (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, OVHcloud — your choice) [2]
A registered domain name pointing to the server’s IP [2]
Basic Linux command-line familiarity — enough to run apt install, edit config files, set file permissions [2]
Root or sudo access [2]

What the install involves:

PHP 8.2 + 10+ extensions (mbstring, xml, bcmath, curl, gd, intl, and others) [2]
NGINX as the web server [2]
MySQL database setup with a dedicated user and database [2]
Docker Engine installation and service configuration [2]
Composer (PHP dependency manager) [2]
Certbot for SSL via Let’s Encrypt [2]
Separate Wings installation on each machine that will run actual game servers [2]

The tutorial notes something important upfront: “This tutorial only installs the web interface of Pelican Panel. To provision and manage actual game servers, you must also install Wings on your target machines.” [2] This is a common point of confusion — Pelican Panel alone does nothing except show you a dashboard. Wings is the piece that actually starts and stops Docker containers. If you skip it, you have a panel with no servers.

Realistic time estimates:

Technical user who has deployed Laravel apps before: 60–90 minutes for a clean working install, Panel + Wings on one machine [2]
Technical user who knows Docker and Linux but hasn’t deployed PHP apps: 2–3 hours including reading the docs and debugging the inevitable NGINX config mistake [2]
Non-technical person following the tutorial line by line: 4–6 hours — and there will be moments of confusion around permissions, MySQL setup, and Certbot domain verification. This is honest, not discouraging. It’s a one-time investment.
Non-technical person with no Linux background: consider having someone do the initial deploy. The ongoing management is browser-based once it’s running.

Pros and Cons

Pros

100% free, forever. No tiers, no “community vs enterprise” split, no usage-based billing. AGPL-3.0 — you get everything [README][merged profile].
Docker isolation per server. Each game runs in its own container. A memory leak in one doesn’t crash others. You can update one game without touching the rest [README].
Large egg library. Dozens of popular games are pre-configured. You pull an egg, fill in a few fields, and deploy. No manual server binary hunting [README].
Active fork of the most widely-used self-hosted game panel. Pterodactyl’s community knowledge, tutorials, and community eggs largely transfer. If you run into a problem, someone has probably solved it [1][docs].
REST API included. Programmatic server management is possible — useful for automation, Discord bot integrations, or scheduling server start/stop [merged profile].
Multi-node support. One Panel can manage Wings across many machines. You can start on a single VPS and grow to a dedicated machine per game type as your community grows [README].
Security taken seriously. SSL, 2FA, AES-256, Docker isolation are built-in, not afterthoughts [website].

Cons

No application state tracking. Pelican knows if your server process is running. It does not know who is playing, how many players are online, or what is happening in-game [3]. For simple hosting, this is fine. For community automation, it’s a real gap.
Two-component install. Panel and Wings are separate installations. This is architecturally correct (separation of concerns) but practically confusing for first-timers who expect a single install to give them everything [2].
PHP/Laravel stack complexity. The install requires NGINX, MySQL, PHP 8.2 with 10+ extensions, Composer, Docker, and Certbot. Every additional dependency is another potential failure point [2].
AGPL-3.0 limits commercial use. If you want to build a paying game hosting service using Pelican, the license requires you to publish your source modifications. For personal/community use, irrelevant. For a startup, this needs a lawyer’s opinion [merged profile].
No Windows support. Wings runs on Linux only. If your game server hardware runs Windows, Pelican won’t work — CubeCoders AMP is the alternative [3].
Young GitHub presence. 1,954 stars is modest. The project is real and active, but it doesn’t have the community depth and answer coverage that a 10K+ star project would [merged profile].
No automatic updates or package manager install. AMP installs via a single command with automatic updates [3]. Pelican updates are manual — you pull new releases and re-run migrations.

Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Pelican Panel if:

You’re running a gaming community with 2+ game servers and paying $20–50/mo in managed hosting fees you’d rather eliminate.
You have someone in the group who is comfortable with Linux and can handle the initial setup. Ongoing management is browser-based.
You want a proven, active project with broad game support via the egg ecosystem.
Cost is the primary constraint and you don’t need per-player analytics or advanced in-game event automation.

Skip it (consider CubeCoders AMP) if:

You want to see who’s playing on your server, automate actions based on player events, or need a mobile-friendly management experience [3].
You’re running Windows machines as game server hardware [3].
You want a one-command install with automatic updates and don’t want to manage PHP environments [3].
The AMP license cost ($10–20/server/year, pricing not confirmed — check cubecoders.com directly) is acceptable for the feature gain.

Skip it (stay on managed hosting) if:

You’re running one server and the managed hosting fee is $5–8/mo — the math doesn’t justify the setup effort.
No one in your group is comfortable with a Linux terminal. The initial install will be a bad experience.
You need game-specific managed features like automatic mod update sync, DDoS protection at the network level, or 24/7 managed support.

Skip it (use Pterodactyl) if:

You already have a working Pterodactyl install. Migration isn’t worth it unless you’re hitting specific Pterodactyl bugs that Pelican has already fixed.

Alternatives worth considering

From the AlternativeTo listing and the broader panel ecosystem [4]:

Pterodactyl — the project Pelican forked from. Same architecture, slightly larger existing community, slower update pace. If you find a working Pterodactyl guide for a specific game, it will mostly apply to Pelican [1][4].
CubeCoders AMP — commercial (licensed, not free after trial), Windows and Linux, full application state tracking, one-command install, automatic updates. The right pick if you want deeper in-game monitoring and don’t mind paying [3].
PufferPanel — Apache-2.0 licensed (more permissive than Pelican’s AGPL-3.0), simpler architecture, smaller game support library. Worth considering if the licensing matters for a commercial context [4].
Crafty Controller — Minecraft-focused wrapper, not a general game panel. Right tool if you only care about Minecraft and want something simpler [4].
FeatherPanel — listed on AlternativeTo as claiming to be “204× lighter and 22× faster” than competitors [4]. Young project, not enough reviews to evaluate.
Managed hosting (Apex, BisectHosting, Nitrado) — for anyone unwilling to touch a Linux terminal. You pay the premium, they handle the infra. No judgment — it’s the correct choice if setup time costs more than the hosting fee.

Bottom line

Pelican Panel is the right answer to a specific question: “I’m running multiple game servers for a community, my managed hosting bill is climbing, and I have someone who can handle a Linux install.” If that describes your situation, Pelican is the most actively maintained free option available, with broad game support and a Docker-based architecture that keeps servers isolated and manageable. The setup is real work — not impossible, but not quick either. The ongoing management is browser-based and accessible to non-technical users once the initial install is done.

What Pelican is not: a Nitrado replacement for someone who wants to click a button and have Minecraft working in five minutes, or an AMP replacement for someone who wants real-time player counts and Discord automations. Know the gap before you commit the afternoon.

If the Linux setup is the blocker, that’s exactly the kind of one-time infrastructure work that upready.dev deploys for clients. You own the server, you own the data, and the recurring bill drops to whatever your VPS costs.

Sources

TechTide Solutions — “Top 30 Best Cloud Server for Game Hosting Providers in 2026”. https://techtidesolutions.com/blog/best-cloud-server-for-game-hosting/
Philipp Bornträger, Hetzner Community — “Installing Pelican Panel on Ubuntu” (June 12, 2025). https://community.hetzner.com/tutorials/game-panel-pelican/
CubeCoders — “AMP v.s. Pelican — Feature Comparison”. https://www.cubecoders.com/compare/pelican
AlternativeTo — “Pelican Panel (Series) Alternatives” (updated Apr 1, 2026). https://alternativeto.net/software/pelican-panel/