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12 Best RunCloud Alternatives Worth Using in 2024

We’ve reviewed more than ten RunCloud alternatives based on our hours of research and detailed side-by-side comparison, all to help you find the right platform for peace of mind server management services. We also have reviewed a couple of popular server management softwares such as cPanel and Plesk.

As you know, RunCloud offers cloud services through third party providers like DigitalOcean, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud but this guide includes a few companies that provide cloud servers through their own data centers – cutting the middle man, so the overall cost. These hosts deliver not only the highest possible uptime, speed, and scalability but also modern control panels to ensure ultimate user friendliness.

Kamatera and Vultr are some of the companies that offer cloud hosting servers through their own data centers – all of them are best in what they do. We highly recommend both these hosts if you want to cut server costs drastically. On the other hand, CloudWays operates similarly to RunCloud because it relies on different cloud platforms like Linode, AWS, GCP, Vultr, etc.

RunCloud is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that allows managing cloud and VPS servers and sites. It is a popular modern web server manager for PHP servers that run on the cloud. By making use of this service, you can manage virtual servers and install all PHP applications in a single click.

Despite being one of the best control panel services, it is possible that someone might end up disliking RunCloud. No service provider is perfect and it is possible to dislike them for some reason. In such a situation it is always wise to be aware of the alternatives.

We have compiled a list of RunCloud alternatives for you after thorough testing and reviews. All these services can be used to manage your servers. Even if you are someone who is new to server management, this list will help you a great deal in finding the right cloud based control panel for your cloud servers management.

12 Top RunCloud Alternatives 2024

1. Kamatera – Overall Best RunCloud Alternative (Cheaper One Too)

Kamatera is the number one recommendation for users looking for a budget-friendly alternative to RunCloud. The best thing is they own all their data centers instead of utilizing third party cloud providers, unlike RunCloud. Even though it is slightly different than RunCloud but you get all the bells and whistles to manage your SSD cloud servers under one roof.

They have 18 data centers located on 4 continents and thousands of servers all over the world. The company is driven by the goal of making cloud hosting services accessible to users in every corner of the world. Plus, performance enhancement add-ons, compatibility with plenty of operating systems, 100+ OS images, all SSD storage, redundant 40 Gbit internet connectivity, Fastest CPUs, instant scalability, and robust isolation earn it the first spot in our list.

Kamatera offers plenty of cloud services, different cloud plans, and even a self-configuring option to craft your server by picking the required resources. These include Web Hosting Server, Application Server, WordPress Server, Remote Desktop Server, Backup Server, and Email Server, and many other options. These servers are most commonly used and offer high quality performance for all different types of hosting requirements.

Features

• Highly scalable and flexible cloud VMs
• Affordable unmanaged cloud hosting and VPS servers
• You can deploy your cloud virtual machine within a few clicks
• The Control panel is simple and friendly
• Up to 104 CPUs and 512GB RAM per server
• Latest generation Intel CPUs for faster speeds
• Guaranteed resources allocation
• Dozens of use cases, such as email servers, website hosting, ERP solutions, cloud database servers, remote desktop VMs, and more
• Premium support round-the-clock
• API access

Pros

There are many pros of switching to Kamatera. Primarily the affordable pricing plans and a 30-day free trial make it an extremely worthwhile option for all your needs. The cheapest plan starts as low as $4 per month – isn’t it highly competitive? Not just that, you can opt for the short-term payment plan as well as it offers you to pay per hour at a rate of $0.005/hour. Kamatera offers customizable cloud servers to fit individual requirements by providing tailor-made plans.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of Kamatera is its claim to launch a server in less than 60 seconds. In today’s day and age, speed is the most essential requirement for running a website/app successfully. They also offer guaranteed uptime of up to 99.9%.

Scalability is another worthy feature of Kamatera as this concedes instant upgrades to handle humongous amounts of load and traffic. That said, you can start with a small server and later scale up when require more processing power. Apart from that, cloud firewalls and load balancers are already a part of the cloud infrastructure.

Kamatera can deploy more than 40 applications and servers in under a few seconds. These applications include WordPress, MediaWiki, NextCloud, Moodle, Plesk, Joomla, and plenty of other resourceful applications. In addition, many popular databases such as MongoDB, Redis, phpMyAdmin for MySQL and MariaDB are also supported. The best part is that there is no extra fee for deploying these apps; it’s absolutely free of cost. Along with that, one can also cancel these deployed applications at any time.

Dealing with cloud hosting services can be pretty daunting, especially if you are a relatively new user. For this purpose, Kamatera offers 24/7/365 human tech support by phone call, email, and live chat support. This is how all your queries and troubles can be resolved instantly.

Kamatera claims to have the most superior technical hardware and software technology. They also claim to constantly upgrade their system to remain on top of the game. In fact, Kamatera has won a plethora of awards in the previous year for being the best VPS provider. This can be attributed to their high end technical support and system.

So, if you’re looking for a cloud hosting service that offers speed, security, and reliability to replace RunCloud, Kamatera is an excellent choice for well-balanced features and prices. We recommend you must take advantage of their 30-day free trial and experience the real taste of their services on your own.

Cons

Kamatera asks for your billing information such as credit card to take benefits from their trial offer. We reached out to one of their support agents that why it is mandatory and the answer was “to avoid fake accounts and registrations”.

Another con is the cost of managed services; all managed plans are pretty expensive but make sense. However, many users might find them beyond their budget limits.

From a payment gateway side, you can only purchase through credit cards. They don’t support Paypal.

2. CloudWays – Best Managed Cloud RunCloud Alternative

Uzair Gadit, Pere Hospital, and Aaqib Gadit founded Cloudways in 2009, it offers managed cloud solutions with great functionalities at a highly affordable price. Cloudways was created on the European island of Malta. The headquarter is located in the city of Birkirkara in its country of origin. A couple of offices are also located in both Dubai and Spain. CloudWays is our runner-up RunCloud alternative regarding usability, scalability, and transparent billing structure.

The company has helped tens of thousands of users globally from over 43 countries to launch 120,000+ servers and 600k+ web apps. It goes by the mission of providing managed hosting solutions for its clients so that they stop worrying about the server management hassles and focus on their businesses and other vital aspects of functionality. As a managed cloud hosting platform, Cloudways simplifies cloud hosting for designers, developers, web agencies, and e-commerce businesses.

Cloudways supports five cloud providers: Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.

Cloudways brings a great set of features powered by different cloud platforms that make it an incredible choice for users looking for an excellent alternative to RunCloud.

Features

• Fast and secure cloud servers
• Easy to manage with exceptional functionality
• Server cloning and staging
• Around the clock 24/7/365 live support
• Managed security with timely upgrades
• Automated routine backups
• 24/7 Real-time monitoring
• Auto healing servers
• Dedicated firewalls
• Regular security patching
• Interactive and user friendly interface
• One-click deployment for major CMS/Apps
• Support various PHP apps
• An innovative control panel allows unlimited apps deployment
• Supports WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Larvel, Magento, PHP, and other open-source tools
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate

At first glance, the pricing plans of Cloudways seem tricky. However, it gets easier as you pay attention. Cloudways offers several pricing plans. It primarily works on the “pay as you go” model. The several plans are based on the five partners; DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud. These plans and pricing are further divided on the basis of RAM, processor, storage, and bandwidth – it increases according to these four factors.

The pricing with DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr begins at $10-$12/month and is more suitable for beginners. However, as a developer or a user with a heavier spectrum of usage, you may consider the plans with Amazon AWS and Google Cloud starting at $36 and $33 per month, respectively.

The best part is that you only have to pay for the features or server resources you use. The payment can also be made on an hourly and monthly basis depending upon your choice.

Regardless of the cloud service provider and server size you choose, Cloudways offers a set of standard features in all packages. However, you can easily upgrade your plan as your traffic grows, thanks to vertical scaling. The company also refunds if the claim is made within three months.

It is true that subscribing to hosting plans directly from the cloud server providers’ website will be much easier on the pocket but remember that with Cloudways, it is a fully managed platform that you are paying for. Therefore, you won’t have to take care of server maintenance, security updates, and all other technical problems.

Pros

Unlike RunCloud, Cloudways does not require you to pay separately for the server. The server can be bought and managed directly from Cloudways.

Cloudways offers incredible speed and performance through optimized servers. The built-in security feature is quite lucrative. It also provides better cache management as well as multiple application management. You can integrate with elastic search easily as well.

A performance improvement feature Auto-healing also available, it resolves all the technical issues on its own and keeps the site up and running. It inadvertently means that there is a lesser risk of site crashing.

The server monitoring and scaling tools are notably resourceful too. It provides necessary insights regarding upgrading and scaling up the server. The easy to maneuver user interface allows users to control both the applications and the servers with ease.

A free SSL certificate is a pro, but its availability for subdomains is even more excellent.

CloudWays can be an incredible option for the less technical or rather beginner user. The intuitive interface makes it easy for absolute beginners.

The biggest pro of using Cloudways is flexible pricing. It is especially excellent for those users who do not possess an expansive budget. The company offers “pay-as-you-go” payment where you only pay for the services you avail. Along with that, there is also a free trial for 3 days without the need to enter a credit card.

Cons

The free trial is only available with Digital Ocean, Linode, and Vultr. There are no trials for the other two rather expensive packages. It can be a major downside for users looking to explore Amazon AWS and Google Cloud.

Another downside is that since it is a managed service, you do not have root access. It can be irksome if you want to have control over how your server.

The lack of email hosting is also considered a downside by plenty of users.

3. ServerPilot

ServerPilot is one of the most popular platforms that offer cloud server management solutions for hosting WordPress and PHP sites as well as applications. Basically, it works as a middle man by providing a secure control panel optimized for WordPress CMS and PHP projects. Started its journey in 2012 by Justin Samuel and Kevin, the organization is located in the United States of America.

Similar to RunCloud, ServerPilot does not offer any cloud hosting services on its own. It instead provides a visual interface to help you configure servers by a third party provider. ServerPilot works with almost all the best cloud services presently available, which include Amazon AWS, DigitalOcean, Microsoft Azure, and GoogleCloud.

Features

• Free SSL installation with every server
• Real-time analytics
• Slow request stats
• Log viewer and server health
• Server-Level caching
• Server stats (CPU, RAM, etc.)
• Ease of site migration
• Modern rest API
• Support Apache and NGINX
• No open ports
• US based technical support team
• Compatibility with IPv6, Brotli, and HTTP/2
• Application Performance management

ServerPilot presently has three basic pricing plans namely economy, business, and first-class plans.

Under the economy plan, ServerPilot charges $5/server per month with an extra $0.5/application per month. The business plan costs $10/server per month with $1 charged per application. The first-class package, on the other hand, charges $20/server per month along with $2 for each application every month.

ServerPilot has the standard month-to-month expense per server, paying little heed to the type of server, in addition to that, there is an extra charge for each application (for example, per site). In the event that you use ServerPilot, you will likewise have to pay for your own server straightforwardly, for instance, through DigitalOcean. This gives you the opportunity to pick any provider, yet you’ll have to keep on top of charging for the two services. Their basic plan of ServerPilot costs less than the managed hosting plans.

Pros

ServerPilot is one of the most famous and profoundly acclaimed control panel service providers for cloud hosting platforms. It offers a lot of advantages for the client and thus makes it a popular choice among users.

Its speed optimized panel is super quick hence allows you to configure a new server in under two minutes.

ServerPilot allows running multiple PHP versions for a plethora of different applications on the same server. There are also options to control the server and application performance management. Plus, the control panel gives you the liberty to clone servers and applications.

The automated updates, whether related to security or applications, are installed promptly as soon as they are released. Be that as it may, on the off chance that you don’t see the value in this component, you can generally impair this from the control board.

ServerPilot offers full server access without confining the service provider, resulting in extraordinary convenience and execution. The GUI is not difficult to utilize, anyone with basic knowledge can use it easily. It is liberated from clutter due to the clean interface to ensure hassle-free server management.

ServerPilot additionally doesn’t install anything besides the necessary things on the server to reduce resource usage. Not convinced? They have a 14-day free trial in place that lets you try ServerPilot services without paying a single penny or providing credit card details.

Cons

There are a few disadvantages of ServerPilot that makes it rather unpopular among the users.

ServerPilot can be hefty on the pocket, particularly if numerous applications are being run through a similar server. Each application has a separate set of monetary charges. If you are someone who intends to run lots of applications through a single server, beware of the cost.

The absence of a staging feature for applications can be a significant mood killer for some clients, especially WordPress. They also lack a team collaboration feature, a big problem for a group of multiple team members. Furthermore, it gets somewhat expensive with an advanced plan.

4. Vultr – Cheap RunCloud Alternative

 

Are you looking for a high performance cloud hosting provider but at the same time budget conscious? Then, Vultr is the answer you are looking for. Not only that, just like RunCloud, Vultr also has an elegant console panel that offers dead-simple navigation to deploy, manage, and customization of your cloud instance according to your demands.

The past decade has witnessed a whopping growth in the cloud computing sector because it is more powerful and reliable compared to traditional web hosting. Clouds are the futuristic medium of modern internet services. Recently, cloud hosting services have boomed and the search for the one that adequately meets your needs has become more tedious. In 2014, Vultr came in with the mission “to simplify the cloud”, and they are doing very well in this regard as many users appreciate Vultr services.

With 17 data centers and countless servers positioned in different global locations, Vultr markets itself for its high performance and easy scalability. Vultr offers various services, including cloud computing, high-frequency instances, block storage, bare metal servers, and dedicated instances. This means that whether you are looking to keep crucial files safe or you want to host your websites/applications, Vultr is the answer to all your essentials.

Features

• The cheapest cloud server hosting provider with a starting price tag of just $2.50/month
• Vultr is one of the best RunCloud alternatives in terms of price and functionalities
• SSD VPS servers on cloud infrastructure
• 17 worldwide locations to ensure low latency
• Advanced yet easy to use control center
• Under one-minute server launch
• Robust API for jobs automation
• 24/7 customer support + 100% uptime SLA
• Deploy your own ISO or choose between different OSes
• You only pay for the used resources, no bundled plans

Pros

If we compare the control panels of RunCloud and Vultr in terms of functionalities and ease of use, we are sure you won’t face any difficulties with them. Vultr has a modern graphical interface which is way better than many others. The UI is feature rich and flexible. Another significant difference between these two is that they provide cloud services through their own data centers – that means no extra costs.

Vultr accommodates you enough to pick and choose an operating system of your own choice to run your digital assets. Whether you want to pick Windows or Fedora or any operating systems from the list of available operating systems, Vultr supports them all. Besides built-in OS choices, they also let you upload an OS of your own.

Performance is one of the key features while looking for cloud computing services. Nobody wants to deal with website hosting platforms that take eons to load and face frequent downtimes. Now, this is where Vultr comes out swinging. Due to the presence of widely spaced global data centers, the host ensures reduced latency and guarantees 100% uptime SLA. If uptime goes behind the claim, you will get credits.

Plus, one-click installation is included for most popular web applications, including WordPress, Joomla, MediaWiki, and others.

An entry-level server starts at $2.50 per month with 10GB of SSD storage, 1 CPU, 0.5GB Ram, and 0.50TB bandwidth. A high-frequency cloud server costs $6/month for 32GB of NVMe storage, 1 CPU, 1GB Ram, and 1TB bandwidth. They have one of the lowest starting prices for enterprise-grade cloud solutions.

Cons

Despite so many benefits, there are a few downsides as well. The primary con of using Vultr is the absence of managed solutions. This means that you have to manage the servers entirely on your own, which tends to be a setback primarily for the relatively new users. The other one is the no refund policy, which can be daunting if you are not satisfied with the offered services.

Overall, Vultr offers pretty great services at very competitive pricing. Apart from that, Vultr is constantly on the bandwagon of improving their services as well as their physical and digital infrastructure to remain on top of their game.

5. Moss – Free RunCloud Alternative

Moss is a virtual system administrator that aids a great deal in deploying, managing, and monitoring websites and servers effectively. It is a SaaS of its own kind.

Besides being a sysadmin service, Moss also tends to be the virtual teammate for development teams. It helps in application development, launching servers, executing admin tasks through admin tools, and managing the websites and the server.

An Ubuntu server is required to take perks of Moss services, it only works with Ubuntu OS – no support for other operating systems.

Features

• Incredible speed through HTTP/2 and OCSP Stapling
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
• Support Laravel, Symfony, and WordPress
• Unlimited servers/users/sites
• Cron jobs also supported
• One-click server launch
• Zero deploying downtime
• Compatible with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and custom
• Automatic security patching
• A 14-day free trial

Besides all the features, the best part is that Moss is a free alternative to RunCloud, as it offers a free plan that is suitable for 1 integration and 25 Git deployments. Moss.sh has four plans to choose from, of which one is free and three are paid.

The free one includes one integration, 25 Git Deploys, support databases, workers, cron jobs, firewall, and help center support.

The starter plan is priced at $9/month and includes 2 integrations, 50 Git Deploys. Their Professional package costs $19/month, it comes with 3 integrations, 150 Git deploys, and basic support. Finally, the Unlimited package is priced at $49 per month and features infinite integrations, deployments, and priority support services.

The integrations, in this case, refer to the number of cloud service provider accounts that can be linked. All plans are fairly reasonable and pocket-friendly.

The monitoring add-on, for instance, costs $5 per server per month. This feature is great as it sends a notification immediately if something goes wrong on the server end. You can purchase via MasterCard, Visa Cards, and American Express credit cards.

You can start with their fourteen-day free trial without entering your credit card details.

Pros

Moss offers a few advantages compared to its market counterparts.

It is closely similar to RunCloud regarding installation and setup procedures. It is effortless and dead-simple to configure your virtual machine with Moss without dealing with a single line of code. Integrating Moss with your cloud server is simple through SSH/SFTP.

You can connect Slack, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Amazon EC2 for deploying PHP, Node.js, Static, Laravel, or WordPress-based cloud machines with zero downtime in a matter of few minutes.

The server monitoring add-on adequately monitors the resources and notify server issues if anything happens wrong. Each launched server gets the advantages of HTTP/2, Varnish, OCSP Stapling, and Memcache for improved speed.

Furthermore, security is Moss’s top priority; it set up firewalls, user permissions, SSH/SFTP, and security updates to create a secure connection with your server. If you’re someone looking for things organized, then Moss.sh is the place to go.

Cons

Probably the biggest downside is the fact that it does not take backups of your data. The most basic feature, like server monitoring, requires you to pay extra bucks.

It only works with Ubuntu OS – a big downside for those unfamiliar with it or dealing with other operating systems.

Further, dealing with an agentless platform like Moss might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Thus, a lot of freelancers and developers steer clear of Moss.

6. Forge

Forge is another top-of-the-line RunCloud competitor that serves server management console panel developed by the team at Laravel. It was founded in 2011 and is located in the United States of America.

Forge can be integrated with all famous clouds such as DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Hetzner or any provider of your choice. Forge, through its precise services of server management, relieves you of the hassle of managing servers. Currently, they are managing more than 400k+ applications of freelancers, developers, enterprises, and agencies.

Similar to RunCloud, it also helps you launch PHP applications, MySQL database, Postgres, Redis, and other major databases. Team collaboration, SSH key authentication, separate server for each app, database backups, and free SSL certificates are vital features of Forge.

Features

• Powerful API for automation
• Secure user isolation
• Free SSL certificates
• Team collaboration
• Regular security updates
• Updated PHP versions
• Push deployment via GitHub, Bitbucket, or custom repository
• Manage queue workers
• Up-to-date server configuration
• Cron job management
• Sub Domain management
• Automatic Security updates

Forge offers three different pricing plans and goes with the mission of introducing inexpensive services for all developers. The packages are known as Hobby, Growth, and Business.

The Hobby is a low-tier package that has features like single server, unlimited sites, unlimited deployments, and push to deploy for only $12 per month.

The Growth package with a monthly $19 cost offers the same features as Hobby with an additional feature of unlimited servers.

The highest tier Business package costs $39 a month and includes all features of the Growth plan as well as the ability to share servers with teammates, database backups, and server metric monitoring.

Pros

Forge has various benefits which have led to its popularity.

It allows single-click installation of almost all PHP applications. The security measures by Forge are equipped with all the necessary tools to keep the servers secure. Regarding security, firewall protection is out of the box and tends to install security updates automatically. The significantly beneficial and rather interesting feature is the pre-written Bash or shell scripts, popularly referred to as recipes that can be run at any point.

It further enables sharing the management dashboard with coworkers with the Business plan. The load balancing option by Forge helps divert the traffic to different servers in case of a sudden traffic spike and there are no extra or hidden charges for this. How cool is that?

Cons

Forge’s Hobby plan supports only a single server. For $12, the configuration of a single server is way expensive. The lack of cloning and staging features are another downside of Forge. And server/application statistics are nonexistent too.

7. DigitalOcean

If you are a developer looking for a simplistic cloud platform to create, modify, and destroy cloud servers, DigitalOcean is a name you probably love to go with. With a myriad of options to cater to both novices and advanced level users, DigitalOcean is a profoundly technical-oriented cloud platform with a custom control panel similar to RunCloud – but they own all their data centers.

This RunCloud alternative offers cloud servers, managed databases, block storage, Kubernetes, various droplet options, applications, and object storage solutions. Unlike Runcloud, DigitalOcean is a feature-rich cloud company that brings Zeus power under one platform.

You can deploy servers and applications within a few clicks through an intuitive panel. Usability is further enhanced with elegant API access, cloud firewalls, VPC, floating IPs, DNS, load balancers, and dev tools integrations.

Features

• Variety of cloud backed servers such as CPU, Memory, Basic, and General-purpose
• Cloud instance deployment in under 55 seconds
• Highly customizable with modern control panel
• All SSD powered cloud hosting plans
• Global coverage through 8 data centers
• 1-Click installer for popular apps like WordPress
• On-the-go scalability within minutes
• Support various operating systems and distros
• Real-time server monitoring, snapshots, and cloud firewalls
• Elegant API access for making things automated
• 99.99% SLA with 40GbE network connectivity
• Fully managed database support for MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Redis
• DNS, Load Balancers, and Private networking options
• Suitable for websites, applications, big data projects, gaging, agencies, and SaaS solutions

Pros

The primary demand of every cloud service user is maximum uptime with low latency as poorly loading websites tend to drive away clients. It has been statistically proven that DigitalOcean offers a 99.99% SLA uptime and even 100% sometimes.

We have been using DigitalOcean for a couple of past years for hosting a WordPress site – surprisingly, uptime never falls below 99.99%. And in the last seven days, it has been 100%. Our server configurations are 1GB RAM, 20GB space, Ubuntu OS, and located in the US (New York).

With reasonable fees to cater to all individuals, DigitalOcean is really on top of its game. Prices start as low as $5 per month, it is one of the most affordable clouds available in the market.

Losing precious data is probably the biggest dilemma of our age. With DigitalOcean, the risk of losing data is largely eliminated, thanks to the regular backup mechanism. The company allows regular backups which help retain all precious data. Another feature that gives them an edge over others is an added layer of security for end-to-end encryption, it shields against malicious attacks.

Nobody wants to wait longer than the blink of an eye for websites/apps to load. Blazing fast speed is ensured using SSDs, redundant connectivity, multiple data centers, and advanced server optimization techniques. Speed is one of the primary concerns for sites and applications; DigitalOcean renders unmatched apps/page loading.

The custom control panel provides an impressive user experience, thanks to an intelligently designed user interface. It is not only simple in design but executes tasks in seconds.

Cons

The downsides of DigitalOcean are comparatively fewer. One of the main drawbacks is the absence of free SSL certificates and free backups. Instead, you’ll have to pay extra fees for droplet backups. Furthermore, lacking the CDN network could be a major con for many users. Incorporating all these features in your existing plans can cost a few bucks, making your server pricing a very hefty one.

The point of mentioning the shortcomings is not to bring negative light to DigitalOcean. In fact, the customers can make an educated decision based on their awareness of all the positives and negatives.

DigitalOcean is an excellent RunCloud competitor for both developers and beginners, but it requires a little know-how about server management via the command line.

8. Ploi

Ploi is another popular server management platform just like RunCloud. It is a developer-centric service that has been designed for software developers. Their platform is compatible with Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, UpCloud, AWS, and the custom VPS of your choice. The custom console panel consists of DNS management, load balancing feature, 1-click installers, and server notifications through various channels.

Our research found that Ploi is one of the cheapest RunCloud alternatives because you can handle up to 5 servers, deploy unlimited apps, and install scripts in the very basic plan at just ten dollars.

Features

• Infinite server installations
• Site management
• Status pages
• Load balancers
• Laravel optimized
• One-click Let’s Encrypt SSL
• SSH keys
• NGINX, PHP, and Redis installed by default on all new servers
• One-click installation of all popular applications and tools including WordPress, Git, and Laravel

There is a free package that concedes one server, one website, five deployments a month, free SSLs, multiple PHP versions, unlimited databases, and more. Unfortunately, the free plan lacks many essential features.

The Basic, Pro, and Unlimited packages range between €8 ($10), €13 ($16), and €30 ($37) per month. The price varies based on the number of servers involved and some advanced features that are only available in high-tier plans. Regardless of the package you choose, they all share the following standard features: free Let’s Encrypt SSL, server health monitoring, infinite cronjobs, unlimited databases and queues, PHP versions, daemon management, and instant server deployment.

The highest tier (Unlimited) is priced at €30 per month, it includes unlimited servers, sites, and deployment. Aside from lucrative features such as server and site monitoring, it also allows team management, status pages, file explorer, auto database backups, API access, site isolation, etc. More precisely, there is a giant list of features included in the Unlimited plan.

Ploi also offers a 5 day free trial without the hassle of entering your credit card details. It also refunds your money in case you request it within 14 days. The annual pricing is offered at a flat 10% discount.

Pros

Ploi has received a tremendous response from users due to its impeccable features & abundance of benefits. The server monitoring and uptime tools are pretty interesting and in fact, have great usability. They support a variety of different applications, which can be a great deal for developers who want to experiment with plenty of applications.

Developers can isolate websites, create domain aliases, utilize Ploi’s robust API, set up unlimited databases & queues, choose the PHP version of your choice, server health, and build status pages. All these features are available in the high-tier “Unlimited” package – it’s the right choice for large-scale agencies, companies, and freelancers.

The price point of Ploi screams affordability. Particularly if you are a developer who is managing multiple sites and servers at once, the price point is excellent by all means.

The customer support may be inadequate, but there are support forums on Discord that address all the issues different users face.

Cons

Like all its other counterparts, Ploi also has a few hindrances.

Ploi is certainly not meant for beginners. Such individuals suffer a great deal when dealing with Ploi due to the lack of support. It also does not offer 24/7 assistance which can be daunting if you get stuck at any stage of the process. Another downside is the absence of features such as restore backups.

There is also no application level firewall which compromises the security.

9. Cloudron

Cloudron is a server administration platform that allows installing, managing, and securing web applications on your servers with ease. Once installed on a server like DigitalOcean, AWS, Linode, Time4VPS, WindCloud, Vultr, etc., Cloudron automates all tasks and manages applications.

You can also utilize UpCloud, Hetzner, OVH, Scaleway, Google Cloud, Exoscale, Microsoft Azure, and Atlantic.net servers with Cloudron. Even more, migrating your applications from one server to another takes no time, thanks to ultimate portability ensured through an immutable infrastructure.

The custom panel is way easier to use compared to RunCloud, its layout design is minimalistic and easy to navigate. All you have to do is pick the app category and then desired application. For example, right from the app store, there is a list of all apps that Cloudron supports.

Let’s say you want to set up an email server, then you’ll have to select the Email section and preferred email gateway. You can choose from Mailtrain, Mautic, RainLoop, Roundcube, and SOGo. The same goes for other applications. It is easier to use than you can think of. Cloudron provides a complete integrated solution for server and app management.

Features

• 100% app portability across servers
• System monitoring
• Credential management
• Email solutions and event logs
• Allows hosting unlimited websites and applications
• Instantly deploy over 100 ready-to-use apps
• Automatic app updates
• Centralized user management
• Cloning of Apps
• Built-in firewall
• Encrypted backups
• Fully isolated app environment
• 100+ apps can be deployed with a 1-click installer
• Monitors resource usage
• All applications come with a file manager as well as a terminal log

Cloudron has three pricing plans, among which one is free and two are paid. The free plan is popularly known as the basic plan and includes 2 applications and 20 servers. It costs absolutely nothing yet provides automatic updates.

The premium plan is priced at $15/month and includes unlimited apps, unlimited users, a complete mail solution, and many other features. It is the ideal package for personal use and startups.

The business plan is priced at $720/year and includes all the premium features and additional features, including Directory Integration, Advanced ACLs, Extended Branding, and Priority Support. It is suitable for small to medium sized businesses.

Pros

Cloudron has impeccable features and plenty of advantages.

It is extremely easy to use and manages the servers efficiently. The ease is such that even a new user quickly learns and adapts to its use. It also allows limiting RAM and CPU usage per application, which saves data and eventually overall cost in the long run.

Cloudron also allows automatic integration with DNS providers. The pricing plans of Cloudron are pocket-friendly and there is also a free plan available.

The support forum is an incredible help as most of the queries have already been answered. Furthermore, Cloudron offers easy deployment for more than a hundred apps with encrypted backups, cross-domain email aliases, spam filtering, user rules, and SaaS styled updates.

Cons

The main downside is the unavailability of advanced application analytics. This can be a real problem for people looking for detailed insights for applications. There is also a sheer absence of a staging environment.

The support at Cloudron isn’t as reliable and is usually unavailable in times of dire need. The performance and load speed offered are also not that great.

Security is the primary concern in the cyber world. The lack of firewalls with each application is the biggest con of Cloudron.

10. Gridpane

Gridpane, launched in 2018, is a SaaS server management and hosting control panel which can be used as a RunCloud Alternative. It is based in the USA and is particularly popular for its impeccable WordPress hosting features.

The company claims that Gridpane was launched exclusively as a hosting control panel for WordPress and rather serious professionals as well agencies. Thus, Gridpane, as a third party, managed the WP sites more swiftly and efficiently than WordPress itself.

Features

• Fast loading speed due to fully tuned NGINX with FastCGI
• Premium plug-ins and themes
• Up to 10 free sites with staging & SSL
• Built-in Slack notifications
• Secure SSH keyed access by default
• Remote third-party backups
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL
• DNS failover ensures maximum uptime
• Easy installation
• Unlimited server management
• DNS Made Easy

Gridpane has three pricing packages named Developer, Agency, and Enterprise (it’s a custom plan). It is not meant for novices, the pricing is also a clear reflection of that.

The lowest tier plan is the Developer, which costs $200 a month. Next up is the Agency starting at $600 a month and the Enterprise is available at custom rates. Despite the high pricing, some features require an additional payment.

Billing annually has the benefit of two free months per annum. There is also a free trial worth two weeks and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

Gridpane has a handful of benefits, particularly for WordPress users.

Gridpane through the white labeling option enables you to give the control panel access to your client, which can be great. It is a WordPress control panel and works smoothly with all popular VPS/cloud providers.

The staging feature on Gridpane works in an effective manner. Not just that, you can also set up a new website with it in merely a few clicks.

Gridpane can be deployed on OVH, DigitalOcean, Vultr, UpCloud, and Amazon Lightsail to build either an LMS portal, WP sites, or different databases. They support Percona MySQL8, MariaDB, and Redis for object caching without charging a single extra penny.

The server security is hardened through secure SSH keys, malware detection, robust isolation, powerful firewalls, and UFQ/Fail2Ban framework. There are no restrictions on the number of installations on your server too.

Cons

No single server management service is perfect in what they do. Gridpane is no different as they also have some disadvantages.

The absence of an interface for git deployment is the primary shortcoming. There is a limited range of monitoring for applications.

Another con is the lack of email hosting. Gridpane is apparently not very expensive for professionals/agencies, but it tends to get costly when you have to manage more than one server. The support team could also undergo some changes to better suit user requirements.

11. CloudStick

Who doesn’t want an all-in-one administration panel for their hosting servers? If you are on a quest to find an ultimate control panel for your web servers, CloudStick is here to end your search. It provides a feature-rich custom panel that is not only super fast to deploy your cloud server but allows choosing from different hosts such as DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS, Vultr, and GoogleCloud. You can manage dedicated and KVM servers as well.

CloudStick was founded only recently in the year 2020 and is based in the United States of America. So far, the company has 82 servers, 167 databases, 184 supported applications, and 211 domains to its credit which is commendable for the short span of its service.

CloudStick is an integrated and optimized server management panel that has been designed to host servers from all popular companies. It has all the necessary tools for configuration, launching, optimizing, and automation. CloudStick relieves you from the worries of server-related woes and allows you to focus on your business’s creative and strategic aspects. The services offered are hassle free and robust.

Features

• Advanced database management
• PHP extension installer as well as multiple PHP version
• Advanced server firewall
• One-click Installer for NextCloud, WordPress, and Joomla
• Git deployment for web applications
• User quota management
• Team collaboration
• Free SSL certificate
• Advanced statistics for server health
• Disk cleanup facility
• Cron job management
• FTP service and accounts
• Subdomains and PHP CLI
• Git deployment
• 24/7/365 customer support

CloudStick has three plans to choose from; free, basic, and pro.

The free plan includes a single server, one hosting account, free SSL, multiple PHP versions, server firewall, and auto update and database management.

If you are looking for more server options and hosting accounts, the paid plans are better. The Basic one is relatively popular among users and costs $6.67 per month for a yearly contract. In addition to all the free plan features, this one also includes unlimited hosting accounts, one-click SSL, subdomains, easy PHP, Git deployment, etc.

The Pro plan is more suitable for those with extensive businesses. It is priced at $15 per month (yearly contract) and offers unlimited servers/hosting accounts, along with advanced features.

You can subscribe on the basis of monthly or annual. However, paying annually is a wise choice as you get two free months.CloudStick is generous enough to offer a 10-day free trial is to test their services before buying.

Pros

CloudStick removes all the server related hassles from your life. That is its primary benefit. Further exploration leads us to conclude that there are plenty of benefits. Your servers can be managed with a single click to start, stop, restart, enable and disable.

Apart from that, you can constantly monitor the health of your virtual machine and reports can be generated on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It allows assessing the performance of the server and modifying it according to that. The user quota management of web applications allows reselling cloud webhosting.

With the help of 1-click app installers, you can set up WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomla, Node, NextCloud, and phpMyAdmin servers. Each deployed instance comes with a CSF firewall, file system, EasyPHP, file manager, various PHP versions, advanced database management, FTP, and SFTP for secure connections. At just five bucks a month, automatic backups can be enabled too.

Cons

There are a few disadvantages. The primary one is the complexity of configuration. However, plenty of web tutorials are available to overcome this hurdle.

The other disadvantage is lack of flexibility and inability to customize the server due to automated updates.

12. Agius

AgiusCloud is yet another performance optimized web hosting servers administration service. Freelancers, developers, startups, and agencies finding a highly functional web panel to handle servers, apps, and sites, it can be an incredible choice. If you are hosting a VPS/cloud server on Vultr, Linode, or DigitalOcean, Agius is a viable option to look at. However, it doesn’t offer integrations with Azure, AWS, or GCP.

Agius cloud came into being in the year 2017 and is headquartered in Sau Paulo, Brazil. It has a track record of hundreds of installed servers, thousands of optimized sites and configured domains. This is impeccable for a rather new generation management panel.

Currently, it has three cloud partners; Linode, Vultr, and Digital Ocean.

Features

• Resources Management
• Unlimited servers with the Pro plan
• Unlimited applications with all plans
• Redis/MicroCache (Nginx) cache system
• Temporary domain
• SSL certificate in paid plans
• Auto site migration
• Low CPU and memory consumption
• SSH/SFTP support
• Fail2Ban for security
• Terminal SSH WEB
• PHPMyAdmin

There is no one plan that is suitable for all sorts of users. Thus, all hosting sites and management panels offer different packages to cater to the requirements of varying users.

AgiusCloud has two plans, among which one is perpetually free.

The free plan includes one server and unlimited applications deployment for WordPress and WooCommerce. Other mentionable functionalities include a temporary domain, resource monitor, as well as PHPMyAdmin. All this is available for free and not a single penny is charged, making Agius is a free alternative to RunCloud.

The Pro package comes with all features included in the free as well as free SSL certificates, more applications, and preferred support to name a few.

Pros

Agius is a less popular platform yet it offers superior benefits through easy to use custom dashboard. It yields incredible ease of configuration of your servers and sites, especially for WordPress CMS. The resources are also effectively managed with the NGINX webserver to utilize the CPU and memory for maximum throughput. Moreover, consistent updates like RunCloud or any other service are guaranteed.

Zero downtime is also assured by the host during launching or upgrading the server resources. You can choose between Microcache and Redis for cache mechanism to render the best possible speed for your applications (in our case, WordPress).

Cons

Agius supports a very limited number of applications and integrations with third party services. Plus, it only works with three cloud providers; even Amazon, GoogleCloud, and Azure are not available.

The lack of a robust support team is another downside that can be irksome for the vast majority of users.

Final Verdict

If you’re in a quest of finding an all-in-one server management platform that provides an elegant control panel with cloud servers through their own data centers at affordable prices, then Kamatera is the way to go. They have multiple data centers located across the world, built with business-grade hardware, resources redundancy, and top-tier internet connectivity. Plus, Kamatera offers on the go scalability and 24/7 customer support. The runner-up choice for the same features is Vultr, it’s the cheapest cloud services provider.

Our third choice for the best RunCloud alternative would be CloudWays if we had to choose one. It is a managed cloud service that takes care of each and everything of your server related to technical issues, updates, and security. ServerPilot and GridPane are also worth considering options.

When it comes down to selecting server management systems, one ought to feel overwhelmed with the plenty of service providers available. The key is to take a considerable amount of time assessing the features against your requirements and then make a decision after giving it rigorous thought.

Having a clear idea of all the features as well as the pros and cons makes it incredibly easy to reach a conclusion. Ultimately, the best decision can be made when you compare RunCloud alternatives side by side against pricing, features, and control panels usability. These factors play a vital role in coming up with a wise choice.