Pterodactyl, Pelican or MCSManager: How to Choose a Game Server Panel

A game server panel puts a web interface over the machines that run your servers: a console, a file manager, backups, settings and accounts for the people who use them. Once you have a dozen servers or other people managing them, it stops being a luxury.

The three panels listed on MCRank are all open source. This guide is about how to choose between them, not about which is best, because the right answer depends on your machine, your team and how long you plan to run it.

What each one is

Pterodactyl describes itself as a free, open source game server management panel built with PHP, React and Go, with security in mind, that runs every game server in an isolated Docker container. It consists of a panel and a daemon on each host.

Pelican describes itself as a free, open source game server management panel built on Laravel and Docker, and it is published under the AGPL.

MCSManager describes itself as a quick-to-deploy, distributed, multi-user, modern management panel for Minecraft and Steam game servers, and it is published under the Apache 2.0 licence.

Those are the projects' own descriptions; this guide has not benchmarked them.

The questions that decide it

• What will you run? If you only run Minecraft, any of them works. If you run many games, check which game server types each supports.
• Who will use it? A panel for you alone differs from one that your staff or customers use. Check how each handles users, permissions and per-server access.
• How comfortable are you with the stack? Pterodactyl and Pelican need a web server, PHP and a database on the panel host and Docker on each node. Read each project's installation page before you commit, and note the operating systems it supports.
• Which licence suits you? The AGPL has obligations if you modify the code and offer it as a service. Apache 2.0 is more permissive. Read them if you plan to run a hosting business.
• How active is the project? Look at the repository's recent activity and its release notes, not just its age.
• What extensions do you need? Pterodactyl has an extension framework, Blueprint, which lets you install packaged add-ons. Check whether the add-ons you want exist for the panel you choose and which versions they support.

Security first

A panel is among the most sensitive things on your network, because it can run commands on your machines and holds the credentials servers use. That changes how you run it.

• Put it behind HTTPS and keep that certificate valid.
• Keep it updated and subscribe to the project's announcements. A panel that is months behind is an open door.
• Use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication where the panel supports it.
• Limit who can create servers or edit nodes. Most users only need access to their own server.
• Treat extensions as code you are running with the panel's privileges. Read what they do and install them only from sources you trust.
• Back up the panel's database and its configuration, and test restoring them.
• Restrict network access to the daemons so only the panel can reach them.

Try before you commit

Install your candidate on a spare machine and run a real server through it for a week. Create a user with limited access and see what they can and cannot do. Try the file manager, the console and a backup and restore. You learn more from that week than from any comparison.

Moving later

You can change panels, but it takes work: server data is usually portable, because it is just files and containers, while users, schedules and settings are not. If you may move later, keep your world data in a layout you could mount elsewhere and write down how each server starts.