Built for
Full stack- BeAdmin
- Hosting panel
- Ajenti
- Server admin
Ajenti is a fast, plugin‑based server‑admin panel — terminal, file manager, services, packages and live monitoring, all free and open source. Ajenti does not run sites, mail or databases: its plugins are about the server itself. BeAdmin sits in a different category: a full hosting panel with vhosts, a mail server, DNS, backups and a built‑in VPN. Both are free; the real difference is what each is built to do. We lay it out plainly below.
Free core · 512 MB RAM · Debian & Ubuntu
Built for
Full stackHosting layer
Out of boxBuilt‑in VPN
Only BeAdminMulti‑tenant
For clientsAjenti is a Webmin‑class admin panel — terminal, files, services, firewall, packages. BeAdmin is a hosting panel: sites, mail, DNS and clients out of the box. Different jobs, both done well.
BeAdmin ships sites, a mail server, Roundcube webmail, DNS zones and a backup scheduler ready to use. Ajenti 2’s official plugins have no web server, no mail, no databases and no backups.
Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline, Amnezia and Mimicry are modules in the same UI. Ajenti ships no VPN — that part you would build and run yourself.
BeAdmin manages several servers from one place and is built for hosting clients. Ajenti is made to administer a single machine by hand — a strength for solo DevOps, not for resale.
Values pulled from each project’s public docs; Ajenti’s server requirements are our estimate. Ajenti is a lighter server‑admin panel — strong terminal, file manager, firewall and live monitoring; BeAdmin is a full hosting panel with mail, DNS, backups and a VPN. We mark each row plainly, including the ones Ajenti wins.
If you need to host sites and serve clients, BeAdmin gives you vhosts, a mail server, DNS and backups out of the box. Ajenti is a server‑admin toolkit — it has no plugins for a web server, sites or mail.
Sites, a mature mail server with Roundcube webmail, DNS zone management and a backup scheduler are all part of BeAdmin. Ajenti 2 has no plugins for sites, mail or backups.
Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline, Amnezia, Mimicry — turn any of them on with a single click. Ajenti has no VPN at all; you would build and maintain that part yourself outside the panel.
BeAdmin manages several servers from one place and is built to host clients. Ajenti is designed to administer a single machine by hand, which is exactly what makes it light.
These are two different tools. Ajenti is an excellent lightweight admin UI for a single server; BeAdmin is a full hosting panel. Synthesised from public docs and our own usage — your mileage may vary.
Ajenti and the BeAdmin core are both free and open source. The question is not price but scope: a server‑admin toolkit versus a full hosting panel with modules you switch on.
From 1 €/mo. Enable only what you need, disable any time — no site cap. The VPN family lives here.
open source
no paid tier
Ajenti is entirely free and open source (MIT), with no paid tiers and no commercial support. Ajenti 2 has no hosting features.
Ajenti details from github.com/ajenti/ajenti. BeAdmin module pricing from beadmin.com.
Both panels are light. Ajenti’s docs give only the panel’s own footprint (about 30 MB plus 5 MB per session) and name no server minimum, so the figures here are our estimate. BeAdmin numbers are vendor‑stated minimums and recommendations.
Source: github.com/ajenti/ajenti and docs.ajenti.org (the panel’s own footprint); the server minimum is our estimate. BeAdmin requirements from internal documentation.
If your sites run on a server with Ajenti on Debian or Ubuntu, there is no OS switch. The old panel stays up until you retire it.
If you are on Debian or Ubuntu, no OS change is needed — one apt command brings up the free BeAdmin core. Run it alongside Ajenti and switch over only when ready.
Ajenti does not run sites, mail or databases, so there is nothing to import from it: vhost configs, databases (mysqldump) and mailboxes are moved manually or with your own scripts — an honest manual step.
Flip DNS when you are comfortable. If anything looks off, revert DNS to the old server — the rollback is just one record change.
Both are free, so this is not about price — it is about category. Ajenti is a lightweight server‑admin panel: terminal, files, services, firewall. BeAdmin is a full hosting panel: vhosts, a mail server, DNS, backups, clients and a built‑in VPN. If you administer one server by hand, Ajenti is a great fit. If you host sites, mail and clients, BeAdmin is built for that.
No. Ajenti 2’s official plugins include no web server or vhost management, no mail, and no MySQL or MariaDB. Hosting used to come from Ajenti V, but that is an extension for Ajenti 1 and it is not supported in Ajenti 2. BeAdmin ships the hosting stack — vhosts, a mature mail server, webmail and DNS — ready out of the box.
No. Ajenti ships no VPN, so you would set one up and maintain it yourself outside the panel. BeAdmin includes six protocols — Xray, WireGuard, OpenVPN, Outline, Amnezia and Mimicry — as modules in the same UI, each enabled with a single click.
Ajenti’s built‑in web terminal and live monitoring are a genuine strength, and so is its firewall GUI for managing iptables. BeAdmin focuses on the hosting layer rather than hands‑on server administration, so terminal access there is lighter. If you live in a web terminal, Ajenti shines; if you run hosting, BeAdmin is built for it.
Choose Ajenti if you want a fast, light admin UI to manage a single server by hand — terminal, files, services, firewall — and you do not need the panel to host sites. Choose BeAdmin if you want a hosting panel: sites, mail, DNS, backups, clients and a built‑in VPN, free at the core with modules from 1 €/mo. They are different tools for different jobs.
The panel core is free. Pay only for the modules you connect.