auraPanel vs RunCloud: self-hosted panel or hosted dashboard.

One runs entirely on your server; the other is a hosted control plane with an agent on each server you connect. Compared on model, price, operating systems, stacks, databases, Docker, deployment, backups, security and team features, with RunCloud's column quoted from its own pricing page and documentation.

auraPanel

RunCloud

Model

Self-hosted. The panel is a daemon on your server; nothing runs on ours. One panel per server.

Hosted dashboard at runcloud.io with an agent installed on your server by a generated script; the agent listens on port 34210. Many servers from one dashboard.

Price

$24.95 per server per month, or $249.95 a year, unlimited sites. 30-day free trial, no card.

Monthly billing: Essentials $9 (1 server), Professional $19 (50 servers), Business $49 (100 servers, 10 team seats, API), Enterprise $399 (500 servers). Extra servers from $10/month per 50 on Professional and Business. Free trial; 14-day money-back guarantee.

Operating systems

Debian 12 and 13; Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04 LTS. x86-64 and ARM64.

Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS on x86; Ubuntu 24.04 on aarch64. "RunCloud only supports recent LTS versions of Ubuntu." No Debian.

Minimum server

Designed for 1 core, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk.

1 core, 1 GB RAM (2 GB+ for production), more than 2 GB disk, a public IPv4 address; NAT and OpenVZ not supported.

Web server

nginx.

NGINX (default), OpenLiteSpeed / LiteSpeed Enterprise, or an NGINX + Apache hybrid.

Site types

PHP, Node.js, Python, static, reverse proxy, Docker Compose.

Web applications with a choice of PHP version; Node.js and Python application types not stated in the pages read.

Databases

PostgreSQL and MariaDB; auraDB console built in.

MariaDB/MySQL installed by the agent. PostgreSQL not stated.

Docker

Your own compose file as a site behind nginx with HTTPS.

"RunCloud Docker" containerised servers run each web application's NGINX, PHP, MariaDB and Redis in containers managed by RunCloud; running arbitrary compose stacks is not stated.

Deployment

SFTP, git, File Browser, one-click installers; Node.js dependency install and build from the panel.

Git deployment on all plans; Atomic (zero-downtime) deployment on Business and above; staging environments (1 / 10 / unlimited by plan); clone web applications from Professional.

HTTPS

Built-in ACME client, HTTP-01 or Cloudflare DNS-01, wildcards, renewal every 12 h.

1-click Let's Encrypt with wildcard option; Cloudflare DNS integration and per-subdomain SSL on Business and above.

Backups

Included: per-site DB and file backups with retention, off-site to your own S3, B2, Dropbox, Google Drive, SFTP or Swift; restore wizard; provider snapshots.

Full and incremental backups to RunCloud storage: 2 GB free on Essentials, 10 GB Professional, 30 GB Business, 100 GB Enterprise; 100 GB extra $2/month. External backups to S3/SFTP on Essentials, more providers on higher plans.

Firewall and WAF

Installer enables UFW (22, 80, 443, panel port) and fail2ban; no firewall UI.

"Firewalled by default" (22, 80, 443, 34210) with customisable rules; fail2ban with 10-hour bans; 6G/7G/8G firewall from Professional; ModSecurity + OWASP CRS WAF on Business.

Team

Administrator, site manager, user and custom roles per server; passkeys and TOTP.

Workspaces with 10 seats on Business and 50 on Enterprise; advanced user and role management on those plans. Not available on Essentials or Professional.

API

None public today; apcli on the server.

RunCloud API on Business (10,000 requests/month) and Enterprise (400,000); more purchasable.

Mail, DNS, reseller

None. Cloudflare DNS-01 for certificates only.

DNS Manager through Cloudflare; mail hosting and reseller features not stated.

Where your data goes

Stays on your server. Daily licence check and release checks only.

Your server's agent communicates with RunCloud's hosted control plane; backups to RunCloud storage are stored with them.

Who each is for

RunCloud is for agencies and developers managing many Ubuntu servers from one place, who want git and atomic deployments, staging, team seats, an API and a WAF, and are comfortable with a hosted control plane holding the keys to their fleet and, optionally, their backups.

auraPanel is for people who want the control panel itself on the server they own, on Debian or Ubuntu, with PostgreSQL and MariaDB, Docker Compose sites, backups to their own storage, and no dependency on a third-party dashboard being up. It manages one server per panel.

Where auraPanel is stronger

Everything runs on your server. If auraOne disappeared tomorrow, your panel, sites and backups keep working; only the licence check would enter its grace period.
Debian as well as Ubuntu, and ARM64 on both.
PostgreSQL alongside MariaDB, with auraDB for both.
Docker Compose stacks of your own design as sites.
Backups included, to storage you own, with restore into a new site and provider snapshots; nothing metered per gigabyte.
One flat licence per server with every feature, rather than features gated by plan.

Where RunCloud is stronger

Managing a fleet: 50, 100 or 500 servers from one dashboard, with team workspaces and roles.
Developer workflow: git deployment, atomic zero-downtime deployments, staging environments and application cloning.
A public API, on Business and Enterprise plans.
Security tooling in the panel: firewall rule management, 6G/7G/8G rules and a ModSecurity WAF; fail2ban management.
Web server choice, including OpenLiteSpeed and LiteSpeed Enterprise.
Price for a single small server: Essentials is $9 a month.

Moving from RunCloud

Sites move as files plus a database dump: download or rsync the web application's files, export the database, create the site in auraPanel, upload, and import with apcli db import. Git-deployed applications can be cloned straight into the new site's directory as the site user. Backups held in RunCloud storage should be downloaded before the subscription ends. There is no one-click importer.

Frequently asked

Can auraPanel manage several servers from one dashboard?

No. Each server runs its own panel with its own licence; the customer portal lists your servers and licences but does not operate them. If fleet management from one screen is the requirement, RunCloud is built for it.

Do I pay per site on either?

No. RunCloud plans allow unlimited web applications per server and price by server count; auraPanel licenses the server with unlimited sites.

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