PanelAlpha Engine is a free, open source tool that makes it easy to self-host any project on your own VPS without sysadmin experience.
Whether you've built an app with an AI coding tool, written it yourself or found an open source project you'd like to use, Engine helps you get it running and keep it maintained. You can connect your favorite AI agent through MCP and manage your projects just by telling it what you need: deploy an app, connect a domain, check an error or restore a backup.
A single command can install Engine and deploy your project. You can run multiple projects on the same server, each isolated in its own Docker container, with built-in tools for SSL, backups, monitoring, firewall and WAF protection. Preview URLs let you test projects before connecting a domain, while staging environments give you room to try changes before putting them live.
Engine supports everything from personal experiments and vibe-coded apps to WordPress sites and custom projects. Use your preferred AI agent, work directly through the CLI or connect the REST API to your own tools and workflows. Everything runs on your own VPS, so you choose your provider and stay in control of your code, data and hosting environment without platform lock-in.
Features
Out of the box, PanelAlpha Engine gives you and your AI agent everything you need to run projects safely on your own VPS:
- Deploy any stack directly from Git or files
- Generate instant preview URLs with optional password protection
- Set up separate live and staging environments with Git workflows
- Create and restore backups automatically
- Monitor projects and track visitor statistics
- Run projects in isolated Docker containers
- Protect your projects with a built-in firewall, WAF, and per-project access rules
- Manage domains, SSL certificates, cron jobs, FTP/SFTP, databases, and logs
- Integrate with Cloudflare for DNS, Tunnels, and caching
Use Cases
- Self-hosting vibe-coded apps: Deploy projects built with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or other AI coding tools on your own VPS.
- Managing hosting with AI: Use your favorite AI agent to handle deployments, domains, backups, and everyday hosting tasks through natural language.
- Building and testing projects: Run side projects, MVPs, and production apps with separate staging environments for testing changes.
- Hosting multiple apps: Run several websites and applications on a single VPS, with each project isolated in its own Docker container.
- Moving away from managed platforms: Move existing projects to your own infrastructure when you want more control and fewer hosting restrictions.
- Managing client projects: Host and maintain websites or applications for clients without setting up a separate hosting platform for each project.
Comments
Hello everyone, Joanna here from the PanelAlpha team. We're actively building Engine to make self-hosting easier for people who want to run their own apps, websites or open source projects without becoming sysadmins. AI has already helped more people build software. We believe it can help them run and maintain it too. With Engine, you can connect your favorite AI agent through MCP and simply ask it to deploy a project, configure a domain or investigate a problem, all on your own VPS. Being able to have that conversation makes self-hosting much more approachable, especially when you're doing it for the first time. Engine is free and open source, and we'd love to learn from people trying it in different ways. If you give it a go, let us know what you hosted and how it went. Anything that felt confusing, took too many steps or worked really well is useful for us to hear. Thanks!
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Comments
Hello everyone, Joanna here from the PanelAlpha team. We're actively building Engine to make self-hosting easier for people who want to run their own apps, websites or open source projects without becoming sysadmins. AI has already helped more people build software. We believe it can help them run and maintain it too. With Engine, you can connect your favorite AI agent through MCP and simply ask it to deploy a project, configure a domain or investigate a problem, all on your own VPS. Being able to have that conversation makes self-hosting much more approachable, especially when you're doing it for the first time. Engine is free and open source, and we'd love to learn from people trying it in different ways. If you give it a go, let us know what you hosted and how it went. Anything that felt confusing, took too many steps or worked really well is useful for us to hear. Thanks!
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