{"id":447,"date":"2026-06-17T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedwebhostingserver.com\/blog\/?p=447"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:10:09","slug":"dedicated-server-monitoring-keeping-game-server-online-24-7-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedwebhostingserver.com\/blog\/dedicated-server-monitoring-keeping-game-server-online-24-7-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Server Control Panels on Dedicated Hardware: Pterodactyl vs AMP vs Pelican"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Running three game servers by hand means three systemd units, three update scripts, three ways to forget to restart a crashed process, and three separate permission headaches. A control panel collapses all of that into a web UI with per-instance consoles, scheduled tasks, and one-click restarts. On dedicated hardware there are three realistic options: Pterodactyl (free and open source), its community fork Pelican, and AMP from CubeCoders (paid). This article covers what each one actually costs you in resources and effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resource question matters on a dedicated box because a panel is not free \u2014 it consumes RAM, CPU, and disk that could otherwise host another instance. Before you commit, compare dedicated server plans side by side<\/a> and make sure the machine has headroom above your game instances for the panel daemon and its overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What each panel costs you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pterodactyl and Pelican share the same architecture: a web panel plus a Wings daemon that runs each game server inside its own Docker container. That isolation is great for security and for letting players manage their own instances, but each container carries roughly 100\u2013200 MB of RAM overhead plus a small CPU tax for the container runtime. AMP takes the opposite approach: it runs game servers as native processes with no Docker layer, which is leaner per instance, but its base daemon is heavier at 400\u2013600 MB and it requires a paid license per instance tier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Pterodactyl<\/th>Pelican<\/th>AMP<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
License cost<\/td>Free (MIT)<\/td>Free (MIT)<\/td>Paid, per-instance tiers<\/td><\/tr>
Isolation model<\/td>Docker containers<\/td>Docker containers<\/td>Native processes<\/td><\/tr>
Base daemon RAM<\/td>~100\u2013200 MB<\/td>~100\u2013200 MB<\/td>~400\u2013600 MB<\/td><\/tr>
Per-instance overhead<\/td>~100 MB + image disk<\/td>~100 MB + image disk<\/td>~50\u2013100 MB<\/td><\/tr>
Game templates (“eggs”)<\/td>Very large library<\/td>Growing fast<\/td>Built-in + workshop<\/td><\/tr>
Built-in backups<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>
Web console + file manager<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pterodactyl and Pelican: the free path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pterodactyl is the default choice for community hosts because the egg system covers hundreds of games out of the box, and the Docker isolation means a misbehaving modded server cannot take down your other instances. The trade-offs are real: Docker images consume several GB of disk per game type, updates require maintaining the panel and Wings separately, and the web panel itself (PHP) wants a database and a bit of babysitting. Pelican is the actively developed fork with a faster release cadence and a cleaner API; it is the better bet for new deployments in 2026, though its egg library is younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMP: pay for simplicity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AMP trades money for operational simplicity. One installer, one daemon, native processes, and a polished UI that handles updates, backups, and scheduled restarts without touching a terminal. Its per-instance license model gets expensive fast if you run dozens of servers \u2014 roughly $2\u201310 per instance per month depending on tier \u2014 but for a small network of two to six instances it is often the cheapest way to buy back admin time. If you want players to self-manage their own servers, AMP’s user portal does this more cleanly than Pterodactyl’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardening whichever panel you choose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All three panels expose a web interface, which means all three are attack surface. Put them behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS, enforce strong admin passwords or key-based auth, and restrict the panel port to your admin VPN if you can. Pterodactyl and Pelican both support two-factor authentication for panel logins; AMP has per-user permissions granular enough to give players restart rights without shell access. A panel that is reachable on the default port with a default admin password is a botnet invitation, and game servers are popular targets precisely because they sit on fat pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When to skip the panel entirely<\/h2>\n\n\n\n