What is Pterodactyl? Panel, Wings and VPS installation

Pterodactyl Panel is a free, open source tool for managing game servers (Minecraft, Rust, FiveM and more) from a web interface. It has two parts. The Panel itself (PHP/Laravel) handles the interface, and Wings is a daemon that runs each server in its own isolated Docker container. We mean the software, not the prehistoric reptile.

If you already run a server with a hosting provider, you have probably used a panel like this without realising it. Below, you'll see how it works, what you need to install it, and how to choose between building it yourself and handing the job to someone else.

In brief

• Pterodactyl is made up of a Panel (web interface, API, database) and Wings (a daemon that drives Docker on each machine).
• "Eggs" are the recipes that describe how to install and launch each game.
• The software is free under the MIT licence, but the VPS, the maintenance and the security are your responsibility.
• Wings needs a Linux system that can run Docker: KVM is fine, while OpenVZ and LXC are best avoided.
• For several servers or for reselling, a pre-installed VPS saves time. For one or two servers, a managed game server is enough.

What does the Pterodactyl Panel do, and who is it for?

The Pterodactyl Panel puts all your game servers in one interface, with separate access for each person. There are no more SSH sessions or scattered folders. You create a server in a few clicks, and each admin sees only what concerns them.

Three kinds of user get the most from it:

• a community running a survival Minecraft server, a creative one, a Rust server and a Discord bot, with different moderators on each;
• a reseller or small hosting business renting servers to customers;
• a club or esports team that wants to keep control of its own infrastructure.

The panel includes user accounts and sub-users with permissions, a real-time console, a file manager, SFTP access, a task scheduler (restarts, backups), backups and a database for each server.

It isn't for everyone, though. If you only want one server for a few friends, learning Linux, Docker and SSL is a poor use of your evenings. A turnkey Minecraft server puts you online in under a minute, without a single line of command line.

Panel and Wings: the difference in plain English

The Panel is the brain and Wings is the arm. The first displays the interface and stores the configuration. The second actually runs the servers.

The whole set-up fits on one line: Panel ↔ Wings ↔ Docker containers (one per game server).

Component	Role	Technologies
Panel	Web interface, API, accounts, server configuration	PHP/Laravel, React front end, MariaDB or MySQL database, Redis (cache and queues)
Wings	Daemon installed on each machine (node): starts the containers, exposes SFTP	Go, Docker

A single panel can control several nodes. You can spread your servers across several VPSs or dedicated machines without leaving the one interface. To get started, the Panel and Wings can share the same VPS, as most small communities do.

Wings replaced the old Node.js daemon and is written in Go. The official documentation covers its installation in detail.

Eggs and nests: the recipe for each game

An egg is a JSON file that describes how to run a game: Docker image, install script, start-up command, editable variables (version, RAM, map seed and so on) and start-up detection. Nests group eggs by family: Minecraft, Source Engine, Rust and so on.

Some concrete examples: a Paper egg for Minecraft, a Rust egg with Oxide/uMod, a FiveM egg with txAdmin. Pterodactyl ships a few of them, and the community publishes many more in public repositories.

The classic trap is a poorly maintained community egg. The game updates, and either the install or the start-up breaks. Before importing an egg, check when it was last updated and read the latest user feedback.

Is Pterodactyl free?

Yes. The official Panel repository shows a free, open source project under the MIT licence, with no paid tier. The real costs lie elsewhere:

• the VPS or dedicated server that hosts everything;
• a domain name, useful for SSL (optional but recommended);
• your time: updates, security patches, backups;
• possibly paid themes or add-ons from third-party developers.

Before you commit, bear in mind that the ecosystem is moving. At the time of writing, the stable branch is still 1.x (v1.15.2), while Pterodactyl 2.0 is in beta and not recommended for production. If your panel is already running, the stable 1.x branch remains a reasonable choice.

Which VPS should you use to install Pterodactyl?

Size the VPS for your games, not for the panel. The panel is light. It's the game servers that swallow RAM, CPU and disk space.

Operating system and virtualisation

According to the Wings 1.x documentation, supported systems include Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. Windows is not supported. For the Panel, the version 2 documentation recommends Ubuntu 24.04, which already ships with PHP 8.3.

On virtualisation, the rule is simple: KVM works every time. With OpenVZ, LXC or Virtuozzo, Wings may fail to start unless the provider has enabled Docker support. To check your machine:

systemd-detect-virt

If the output contains neither openvz nor lxc, you're in good shape. You also need root access.

That rules out a Windows VPS for Pterodactyl. It is still useful for Windows-specific needs, such as certain game servers or tools, and that is what a Windows VPS is for.

CPU, RAM and storage for your servers

Allow roughly 1 to 2 GB of RAM for the panel, then add the RAM of each game server. These figures are only a guide, since plugins, mods and player counts all move them.

Use	RAM to plan for (indicative)
Panel only	1 to 2 GB
Minecraft Paper, 10 players	3 to 4 GB
FiveM, depending on resources	4 to 8 GB
Rust, 100 players	8 to 12 GB

Two factors matter more than core count. The first is single-core clock speed: Minecraft and Rust lean heavily on one main thread, and a fast processor makes more difference than a crowd of slow cores. The second is NVMe storage, which speeds up backups and map loading.

As an example, Fly-Serv's Premium range pairs a Ryzen 9 7950X3D with DDR5 and NVMe. That is the profile you want for a Rust server with one-click Oxide or for several Minecraft servers on one machine.

Ports to open for Pterodactyl and Wings

The default ports are well known, but each game port depends on what you define in the node's allocations.

Port	Protocol	Use
80 / 443	TCP	Web panel, HTTPS via Let's Encrypt
8080	TCP	Wings API (configurable)
2022	TCP	Wings SFTP (configurable)
22	TCP	SSH administration, to be restricted to your IPs
25565	TCP (Java)	Minecraft default
28015 / 28016	UDP / TCP	Rust default (game / RCON)
30120	TCP and UDP	FiveM default

Ports 8080 and 2022 also appear in the Docker Compose example in the Wings repository. For game ports, go by the egg you're using, as they differ from one game to the next.

Another mistake comes up often. If your panel runs on HTTPS, Wings must also be reachable over HTTPS, with a valid certificate on its domain name. Without that, the panel shows the node in red and the console stays silent. Be wary of Docker too: the ports it publishes can bypass UFW. Filter through your provider's firewall or the DOCKER-USER chain instead.

Then there is the question of attacks. UDP game ports are the favourite DDoS target on wipe nights and event evenings. Filtering upstream makes all the difference. At Fly-Serv it relies on XDP/eBPF, with 2 Tbit/s of capacity included on VPSs.

Installing Pterodactyl on a VPS: the steps and the pitfalls

Here is the overview, without a full tutorial. Allow a good part of an afternoon for a first attempt if you're comfortable with SSH.

1. Update the operating system.
2. Install PHP, Composer, MariaDB (or MySQL), Redis and a web server (Nginx, Apache or Caddy).
3. Download the panel, configure the .env file, run the database migrations and create the administrator account.
4. Set up SSL with Let's Encrypt.
5. Install Docker, then Wings. In the panel, create the node and its port allocations, then paste the generated configuration onto the machine.
6. Import the eggs and create a first server.

For the 2.0 beta, the docs ask for PHP 8.3 or 8.4, MariaDB 10.11 or 11 (or MySQL 8 or 9), Redis and Composer 2. On 1.x the exact versions differ, so open the installation page for your branch before typing the first command.

The most common pitfalls:

• the wrong PHP version;
• incorrect permissions on the panel folders;
• SSL badly configured between the panel and Wings;
• port 8080 blocked by a firewall;
• no swap on a small VPS;
• forgotten updates, even though the panel is exposed to the internet.

Community install scripts automate all of this. They often work, but you run them as root, so read the code before executing it and test on a throwaway VPS first.

Install it yourself, use a pre-installed VPS or rent a managed server?

It all depends on how many servers you run and how much time you want to spend on administration.

Option	Best for	What you manage
Manual installation	Admins who want full control and want to learn	Everything: installation, updates, security, eggs
Pre-installed Pterodactyl VPS	Several servers, reselling, a structured community	The servers and eggs, not the installation of the panel or Wings
Managed game server via FlyPanel	One or two servers, a player or a small team	Only the game: one-click mods, console, backups

Fly-Serv's Pterodactyl VPS is there for people who would rather not build the stack themselves. The details of the set-up (OS, panel version, bundled eggs) are on the offer page.

On budget, Fly-Serv's VPS and game server pricing comes with no commitment, and discounts of 5% to 20% depending on the term you choose (3, 6 or 12 months). If your hesitation is mostly about panel versus VPS, this guide can help you choose between a game panel and a VPS.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pterodactyl and what is it used for?

Pterodactyl is an open source panel for managing game servers. Its web interface lets you create, start, monitor and back up Minecraft, Rust, FiveM and many other servers, each isolated in a Docker container. It suits communities, resellers and teams running several servers.

What is the difference between the Pterodactyl Panel and Wings?

The panel is the web interface: accounts, API, database, server configuration. Wings is the daemon, written in Go, installed on each machine (node), which drives Docker and exposes SFTP. One panel can control several nodes, and the two can run on the same VPS to get started.

What is a Pterodactyl egg?

An egg is a JSON file that describes how to install and launch a type of server: Docker image, install script, start-up command and editable variables. Eggs are stored in nests, grouped by game family. Before importing a community egg, check when it was last updated.

What VPS specification do you need to install Pterodactyl?

You need a supported Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky or Alma), KVM virtualisation that works with Docker, and root access. Allow 1 to 2 GB of RAM for the panel, plus the RAM of each game server. A high clock speed and NVMe storage matter more than the number of cores.

Which ports should you open for Pterodactyl and Wings?

Open 80 and 443 over TCP for the panel, 8080 for the Wings API and 2022 for SFTP (default values, which can be changed). Add the game ports defined in your allocations, for example 25565 for Minecraft or 30120 for FiveM. Restrict port 22 to your own IP addresses.

Is Pterodactyl free?

Yes, the software is open source under the MIT licence, with no paid version. You pay for the VPS or dedicated server, possibly a domain name and third-party add-ons, and you invest time in maintenance.

Which option should you choose for your next server?

Start by counting the servers you actually manage, then decide how much time you want to spend on Linux, SSL and Docker. If you run several, or resell hosting, the Pterodactyl VPS spares you the tedious part: dependencies, Docker, ports and Wings configuration. You keep hardware built for games (Ryzen 9 7950X3D, DDR5, NVMe), Anti-DDoS included on game ports, no commitment and a support team you can reach on Discord.

And if one server is all you need, a managed game server through FlyPanel does the job with no system administration at all.