Hestia Control Panel is designed to be installed directly on a server, but it is not a package you should drop onto just any system. The project expects a clean, supported operating system and, just as importantly, the installation must be started with root privileges. If you already have Hestia running and only need configuration details, you can skip the setup steps and go straight to the options that matter to you.
Before you install
Hestia is intended for a fresh operating system installation. That is not a casual recommendation: it helps ensure the control panel and the services it manages can work properly without conflicts from previously installed software or custom server changes. In practice, that means preparing a new Debian or Ubuntu machine rather than trying to layer Hestia on top of an existing production server.
The installer must be launched as root, either from a local terminal session or remotely over SSH. If you run it as a regular user, the setup will stop and will not continue. This is a normal requirement for software that needs to configure services, system settings, and server packages at a deep level.
System requirements
Hestia supports only 64-bit systems, specifically AMD64 / x86_64 and ARM64 / aarch64. It does not support i386 or ARM7-based processors, and it also requires a 64-bit operating system. That hardware support matters because the control panel manages a full hosting stack, including web, mail, database, and security services.
The minimum and recommended resources are fairly modest for a control panel, but they still depend on the features you choose to install:
- CPU: 1 core minimum, 4 cores recommended
- Memory: 1 GB minimum if you do not install SpamAssassin and ClamAV, 4 GB recommended
- Disk: 10 GB HDD minimum, 40 GB SSD recommended
These figures are important because optional components such as mail filtering and antivirus tools increase resource use. If you plan to host multiple sites or run more demanding services, the recommended values are a better baseline than the minimums.
Supported operating systems
At the time of installation, Hestia supports the following releases:
- Debian 12 or 13
- Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, or 26.04
Only supported LTS versions are accepted on Ubuntu. That means versions such as Ubuntu 23.10 are not supported, and if you install Hestia there you should not expect official help from the project. The same general idea applies to Debian: stay with the listed releases if you want a supported installation.
Regular installation
The standard installation path is interactive. It installs the default Hestia software stack and walks you through prompts on screen. This is the simplest method for most administrators because it sets up the control panel with the usual combination of services without requiring you to spell out every detail in advance.
Download the installer
Start by downloading the latest installation script with:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hestiacp/hestiacp/release/install/hst-install.sh
If the download fails because of an SSL validation error, the system is usually missing the certificate bundle needed to verify secure connections. In that case, update your package lists and install the certificates package first:
apt-get update && apt-get install ca-certificates
Run the installer
Once the script is available, launch it and follow the prompts shown on the screen. During the process, you will be asked for information such as the server hostname, admin email address, and login credentials. If a valid email address is provided, Hestia sends a welcome message there after installation. When everything is finished, the installer also displays the next steps needed to reach the control panel and sign in.
Custom installation
Some administrators want more control than the default installation provides. Hestia supports a custom install mode for those cases. This is the right choice if you want to enable or disable specific components, or if you need an unattended deployment that can run without interactive prompts.
To see the full help output and available flags, run:
bash hst-install.sh -h
That help output is useful when you want to build a server that matches a specific workload rather than accepting the default package set.
Installation options
The installer offers a wide range of switches for choosing what gets installed. Some of the main options are:
- Apache via –apache
- PHP-FPM via –phpfpm
- MultiPHP via –multiphp
- VSFTPD or ProFTPD for FTP
- BIND via –named
- MariaDB or MySQL 8 via database options
- PostgreSQL via –postgresql
- Exim and Dovecot for mail
- Sieve for mail filtering rules
- ClamAV and SpamAssassin for spam and malware protection
- iptables and Fail2Ban for firewall and intrusion prevention
- Filesystem quota support
- Web Terminal
- API activation
There are also options for the backend port, language, administrator username and password, hostname, email address, and for forcing the installation if needed. The script can also be pointed at a path containing Hestia Debian packages.
One detail worth noting is that –multiphp accepts more than a simple yes or no. It can also take a comma-separated list of PHP versions, which makes it possible to install exactly the releases you want. For example, –multiphp 8.3,8.4 installs PHP 8.3 and PHP 8.4.
Example custom install
A custom command can disable some services, change the language, and specify the PHP versions to install. One example looks like this:
bash hst-install.sh
–interactive no
–hostname host.domain.tld
–email [email protected]
–password p4ssw0rd
–lang fr
–apache no
–named no
–clamav no
–spamassassin no
–multiphp ‘8.2,8.3,8.4’
This setup installs Hestia in French and uses the following software stack:
- Nginx web server
- PHP-FPM with PHP 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4
- MariaDB database server
- iptables firewall with Fail2Ban
- VSFTPD FTP server
- Exim mail server
- Dovecot POP3/IMAP server
Because Apache is disabled in this example, the panel uses Nginx instead. ClamAV and SpamAssassin are also left out, which can help keep the server lighter if you do not need those mail-security components.
After installation
Once the setup is complete, the server is ready for user accounts. From there, you can create users and allow them to manage their own websites through Hestia. If you are the administrator, this is where the control panel starts to become useful as a hosting platform rather than just an installed package.
To open the interface, point your browser to https://host.domain.tld:8083 or, if you are using the server’s public IP address, http://your.public.ip.address:8083. From that point, you can log in and begin managing the server through the web interface.
In short, Hestia works best when installed on a fresh supported system, with root access and the right architecture. Once the base installation is complete, you can keep the default stack or tailor it to match the services you actually need.
Source: hestiacp.com