CyberPanel + OpenLiteSpeed: Fast, Free Hosting Control on Ubuntu

If you run a VPS and want a free, web-based control panel for hosting websites — without the licence costs of cPanel or Plesk — CyberPanel is one of the strongest options available. It is built on top of OpenLiteSpeed, a fast, open-source web server, and bundles everything you need to host real sites: websites, databases, SSL, email, DNS, FTP and backups, all from one dashboard.

This guide walks through installing CyberPanel on a clean Ubuntu VPS and getting your first website online. If you would rather skip the server administration entirely, Momo Cloud's managed hosting already exposes these same CyberPanel features inside your client area — more on that at the end.

What CyberPanel and OpenLiteSpeed actually are

It helps to separate the two pieces:

• OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) is the web server — the software that receives HTTP requests and serves your pages. It is the open-source edition of LiteSpeed Web Server, event-driven (rather than process-per-connection like older Apache setups), and generally lighter on RAM and CPU under load.
• CyberPanel is the control panel — the graphical layer that sits on top of OpenLiteSpeed and manages it for you, so you are not hand-editing virtual host config files for every new site.

Why LiteSpeed is fast: LSCache

The headline reason people choose this stack is LSCache — a full-page caching engine built directly into the web server. Instead of bolting a separate reverse-proxy cache (like Varnish) in front of your application, the cache lives inside OpenLiteSpeed itself. For dynamic platforms such as WordPress, the official LiteSpeed Cache plugin talks to LSCache and serves cached pages straight from the server, dramatically cutting response times under traffic. Combined with HTTP/2, HTTP/3 (QUIC) and Brotli compression — all supported out of the box — you get strong performance without much tuning.

Requirements before you start

CyberPanel's installer is opinionated about the environment. Meet these before running it:

Warning: Install only on a fresh VPS. CyberPanel installs and configures its own web server, database and mail stack; running it on a server that already has other web software will cause conflicts. If you are on a Momo Cloud VPS, take a snapshot from your server's panel before you begin, so you can roll back instantly if anything goes wrong.

Step 1: Prepare the server

Open your VPS from the server list in your Momo Cloud client area, reveal the root password with the eye icon, and connect over SSH (replace the IP with your server's address shown on the detail page):

ssh root@SERVER_IP

Update the package index and upgrade existing packages first:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Run the one-line installer

CyberPanel ships a single installer script that handles everything. Run it as root:

sh <(curl https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh || wget -O - https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh)

The installer is interactive. Work through the prompts as follows:

1. Choose option 1 to install CyberPanel.
2. When asked which web server to install, choose OpenLiteSpeed (the free edition) — this is the option this guide assumes.
3. For the optional components (PowerDNS, Postfix/email, Pure-FTPd), accept the defaults (Yes) unless you have a reason not to — you want DNS, mail and FTP available.
4. When prompted for the admin password, choose s to set your own strong password (recommended) rather than using the default.
5. Optionally enable Memcached and Redis if offered — both are useful for caching.

The install takes several minutes. When it finishes, it prints your panel URL, the admin username (admin) and the password you chose. Note these down.

Tip: If you used the default password instead of setting your own, CyberPanel's default admin password is 1234567 — change it immediately after first login.

Step 3: Open the firewall ports

CyberPanel listens on port 8090, and your websites will serve on 80 and 443. Make sure these are open. If you use UFW on the server:

ufw allow 8090/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw reload

Tip: If your provider also has an external firewall, open the same ports there. On a Momo Cloud VPS the ports above (plus 21 and a passive FTP range if you use FTP, and 25/587/993 for mail) need to be reachable for the corresponding features to work.

Step 4: Log in to the panel

In your browser, go to:

https://SERVER_IP:8090

Because CyberPanel uses a self-signed certificate for the panel itself, your browser will warn you on first visit — that is expected; proceed past it. Log in with username admin and the password you set during installation. You will land on the dashboard showing resource usage and quick links.

Step 5: Create your first website

In the left menu open Websites → Create Website and fill in:

• Select Package — leave as Default for now (packages set resource/quota limits).
• Owner — the panel user that owns the site (admin to start with).
• Domain Name — e.g. example.com.
• Email — an admin contact address.
• PHP version — pick a current, supported release (e.g. PHP 8.2/8.3).
• Tick SSL and DKIM Support if you plan to use SSL and email.

Click Create Website. CyberPanel generates the OpenLiteSpeed virtual host and document root automatically. From the site's Manage page you can launch the File Manager, open phpMyAdmin, set up email, and one-click install WordPress.

Step 6: Add a database

From the website's Manage page, scroll to Create Database (or use Databases → Create Database in the main menu). Provide a database name, a username and a strong password, then create it. CyberPanel prefixes names per site to keep things tidy. Use these credentials in your application's configuration (for example, WordPress's wp-config.php).

Step 7: Issue free SSL

CyberPanel integrates Let's Encrypt for free, auto-renewing certificates. Go to SSL → Manage SSL, select your website from the dropdown, and click Issue SSL. For this to succeed, your domain's A record must already point at the server's IP so Let's Encrypt can validate it. Once issued, OpenLiteSpeed serves the site over HTTPS and the certificate renews automatically.

Step 8: Set up email

Open Email → Create Email, choose the domain, and create a mailbox (address and password). You can then access webmail (CyberPanel bundles SnappyMail/Rainloop) or configure a desktop/mobile client using the server hostname for IMAP/SMTP. For reliable delivery, also add correct MX, SPF and DKIM records (CyberPanel can generate the DKIM record for you under the email DKIM manager).

Step 9: Manage DNS

If you enabled PowerDNS during install, CyberPanel can host your zones. Go to DNS → Create Nameserver to define your nameservers, then DNS → Add/Delete Records to create the zone and its A, MX, TXT and CNAME records. Alternatively, keep DNS at your registrar and simply point an A record at the VPS IP.

Tip: If your domain is registered through Momo Cloud, you can instead point it at Momo Cloud's nameservers — ns1.momo.tz and ns2.momo.tz — and manage records there. Allow up to 24 hours for DNS changes to propagate globally.

Do you even need to install it? The managed alternative

Running your own CyberPanel means you also own the maintenance: OS patches, panel upgrades, mail deliverability, backups and security hardening. That is fine if you want full control of a VPS — but it is real ongoing work.

For many sites, the simpler path is Momo Cloud's managed hosting, which exposes the same CyberPanel-style features — websites, databases, DNS, SSL, FTP, email, backups and cron — directly inside your client area at cloud.momo.tz, with the underlying server kept patched and monitored for you. You get the OpenLiteSpeed performance without becoming a part-time sysadmin.

Wrapping up

CyberPanel on OpenLiteSpeed gives you a fast, free, full-featured hosting stack on a single Ubuntu VPS: one installer, then a clean web UI for sites, databases, SSL, email and DNS — with LSCache doing the heavy lifting on performance. Take a snapshot before you install, open the right firewall ports, and you can be hosting in under half an hour.

Ready to try it? Spin up a clean Ubuntu VPS from your Momo Cloud client area and follow the steps above — or, if you would rather skip the setup, open a support ticket and we will help you choose between a self-managed VPS and our managed CyberPanel hosting. Support is available 24/7 in English and Swahili.