WHM/cPanel (check out our installation guide here) is a feature-rich, user-friendly interface for managing your server. While it is useful, it's also useful to have free, open-source alternatives that offer similar control.
One such alternative is Webmin + Virtualmin (free version).
It works the same way as the WHM/cPanel combo, where Webmin oversees server and system-wide settings and Virtualmin does websites/domains/mail configs for each user.
It requires:
- OS: Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, etc. (we recommend AlmaLinux 9 from our available VPS templates);
- Root access to your server via SSH using a terminal;
- A fresh install with minimal OS configurations is recommended.
Installing
Installing it can be done easily, and they provide an installation script that goes step-by-step and may ask some questions to allow for various configurations.
The official documentation and guide available here.
Basically, you just need to run one command and follow the script:
sudo sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/virtualmin-install.sh)" -- --bundle LAMP
After installation is complete, log in to Virtualmin using your browser by navigating to
https://your-server-ip:10000
Note: It's worth checking if port 10000 is open on your firewall.
Login and use
The login credentials are the same as your server's root credentials.
If you want to change the password for the Virtualmin root user, you can do so on your VPS with the following command:/usr/libexec/webmin/changepass.pl /etc/webmin root yournewpassword
- replacing
yournewpasswordwith your desired password.
