Pterodactyl and Pelican are both open source game server management panels. Pelican is the next-generation successor to Pterodactyl, developed by the same lead maintainer.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Pterodactyl | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Maintenance mode | Active development |
| Language | PHP (Laravel) | PHP (Laravel) |
| Node agent | Wings | Wings (compatible) |
| Docker | Required | Required |
| Eggs | Large ecosystem | Compatible with Pterodactyl eggs |
| Themes | Blueprint, custom CSS | Built-in theming |
| API | Full REST API | Full REST API |
| Database | MySQL | MySQL / SQLite |
| Community | Very large | Growing |
| New features | No (maintenance only) | Yes |
Why Pelican Exists
Pterodactyl's lead developer started Pelican as a clean rewrite with modern Laravel practices, improved security, better database support, and a more maintainable codebase. Pterodactyl is in maintenance mode, it receives security patches but no new features.
Two factors accelerated the community's move to Pelican:
Licensing change. Pterodactyl originally used the permissive MIT license, which allowed commercial hosts to customize the source code without releasing their modifications. The switch to AGPLv3 changed that. Under AGPLv3, any modifications to a publicly accessible panel must be open-sourced. Hosting providers that relied on proprietary customizations for billing or branding had a strong incentive to look elsewhere.
Critical security vulnerabilities. A severe unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) flaw was discovered in Pterodactyl's handling of PHP translation files. Translation files were parsed as executable code, which meant attackers could load arbitrary paths and run code directly on the host machine. For providers running thousands of client servers on shared nodes, this was a serious risk. Pelican's rewrite addressed these architectural weaknesses.
Should You Migrate?
New installations: Use Pelican. It has active development and will receive new features.
Existing Pterodactyl: No urgency. Pterodactyl still works and receives security updates. Migrate when Pelican reaches feature parity with any extensions you use.
Migration Path
Pelican provides migration documentation for moving from Pterodactyl:
- Backup your Pterodactyl database
- Install Pelican
- Import the database
- Update Wings configuration
Eggs and server configurations are largely compatible.
Installing Pelican Panel on a VPS
If you are starting fresh or migrating, here is a full walkthrough for deploying Pelican on a Linux VPS behind a Cloudflare Tunnel. This setup keeps your server's origin IP hidden and handles SSL automatically.
Prerequisites
- A fresh Linux VPS running Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04.
- A domain name connected to a free Cloudflare account.
- SSH access to your server.
Step 1: Prepare the Environment
Connect to your VPS via SSH as the root user and update the system:
apt update -y && apt upgrade -y
Install dependencies:
apt install -y curl wget git unzip tar
Step 2: Run the Pelican Installer
Pelican ships an installation script that handles NGINX, PHP, and MariaDB automatically.
bash <(curl -s https://pelican.dev/install.sh)
During installation:
- Select the option to install both the Panel and the Daemon (Wings).
- Set a secure database password when prompted.
- Create your admin account.
- Enter the subdomain you plan to use as the FQDN (for example,
panel.yourdomain.com).
Pelican also supports SQLite, so smaller deployments can skip MariaDB entirely.
Step 3: Set Up a Cloudflare Tunnel
Instead of opening ports and managing SSL certificates with Certbot, route traffic through a Cloudflare Tunnel:
- Open the Cloudflare Zero Trust Dashboard.
- Go to Networks > Tunnels and click Create a Tunnel.
- Select Cloudflared and name the tunnel (for example, "PelicanPanel").
- Cloudflare will provide a connector install command. It looks like this:
cloudflared service install eyJh...[YOUR_TOKEN_HERE]...
Run that command on your VPS.
- Back in the Cloudflare dashboard, configure the Public Hostname: set the subdomain (
panel) and your domain (yourdomain.com). - Set the Service type to
HTTPand the URL tolocalhost:80.
Cloudflare now handles SSL and proxies traffic to your panel without exposing the VPS IP.
Step 4: Configure and Start Wings
Wings is the daemon that talks to Docker and physically creates game server containers. Each container gets its own isolated resources, so one server cannot consume memory or CPU allocated to another.
- Log into your Pelican Panel in a browser.
- Open the Admin Control Panel.
- Go to Locations and create a new location (for example, "Main-Node").
- Go to Nodes and create a node assigned to that location.
- Open the node's Configuration tab, copy the generated config, and paste it into
/etc/pelican/core.jsonon your VPS.
Start the service:
systemctl enable --now pelican-panel
Your panel is now live and managing game servers through Docker.
FAQ
Is Pterodactyl dead? Not dead, but in maintenance mode. Security patches continue. No new features.
Is Pelican better than Pterodactyl? For new installations, yes. Active development, modern codebase, better defaults.
Can I use Pterodactyl eggs in Pelican? Yes. Most Pterodactyl eggs work in Pelican.
Do I need to migrate right now? No. Migrate when convenient.
Related: Pelican panel guide, Pterodactyl themes guide, Pterodactyl VPS setup