Quick answer: yes, you can get a VPS with cPanel through us. Order from the Amazon Lightsail line and pick the cPanel & WHM blueprint at checkout. The server arrives with the panel preinstalled on AlmaLinux. The cPanel license itself is separate from the server price, which is standard for cPanel anywhere.
What cPanel and WHM give you
cPanel is the most widely used web hosting control panel. On your own VPS you get both layers of it:
- WHM (WebHost Manager) is the server side: create hosting accounts, manage services, set PHP versions, configure security and backups.
- cPanel is the per-site side: file manager, email accounts, DNS zone editing, databases, SSL certificates, one-click app installers.
The combination is what most people mean by "a hosting account", except that on a VPS you own the whole machine: host as many sites as the hardware handles, resell space to clients, and nobody shares your resources.
How to order it
- Open the Amazon Lightsail line in our store and pick a region.
- In the configuration step, set the Blueprint option to cPanel & WHM for AlmaLinux.
- Choose a bundle. cPanel is heavier than a bare Linux install: pick a bundle with at least 4GB of RAM from the plan list if you plan to host real sites or email. The smallest bundles will boot it, but PHP workers, mail scanning and backups want headroom.
- Deploy. Provisioning is automated and your credentials arrive by email; WHM is then reachable on its standard port over HTTPS.
The licensing part, stated plainly
cPanel is commercial software. The blueprint delivers the panel preinstalled, and cPanel starts new installations on a trial basis; an ongoing license is something you arrange from cPanel directly and is not included in the server price you pay us. Budget for it as a separate monthly cost on top of the bundle. We provide the server and the preinstalled image; we do not manage, resell or discount cPanel licensing.
Plesk as the alternative
The same blueprint list carries Plesk Hosting Stack on Ubuntu, explicitly a bring-your-own-license image. If you prefer Plesk's interface or need its Windows-style admin experience on Linux, the ordering flow is identical: choose the Plesk blueprint instead, and arrange the license with Plesk.
Do you actually need a panel?
Be honest with yourself here, because a panel is a running cost and an attack surface as well as a convenience.
- A panel makes sense when you host many sites, hand access to clients or teammates who expect a familiar interface, or manage email for several domains.
- Skip the panel when you are running one site or app. A plain VPS with nginx does the same job with less RAM and nothing extra to license or patch. Our guide to running WordPress on a VPS walks through exactly that setup in about 30 minutes.
Practical notes
- The blueprint list is shared across every Lightsail region we sell, so region choice does not restrict panel choice.
- Back up independently of the panel. WHM has backup tooling, but keep a copy off the server; provider snapshots are available on the Lightsail line as a checkout option.
- Blueprint versions track what the platform publishes; the order form is always the source of truth for what is available today.
As of August 2026, the cPanel & WHM and Plesk blueprints listed above are both live in the order form. If your use case needs a different panel, open a ticket and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
First steps after the server arrives
Log in to WHM with the credentials from your welcome email and work through the initial setup screen: set the server hostname, add your contact address, and point the resolvers at defaults unless you have reasons not to. Then create your first cPanel account for your first domain; every site lives inside an account. Enable AutoSSL under SSL/TLS so each account picks up free certificates automatically. If you plan to run your own nameservers for client domains, register the glue records at your registrar first, then enter them in WHM's Basic Setup.
The cost math, honestly
A panel setup costs more than a bare server: the bundle price with us, plus the cPanel license from cPanel, plus the RAM headroom the panel itself consumes. For an agency hosting fifteen client sites with email, that overhead replaces real admin hours and pays for itself. For one blog, the same money buys a bigger bare VPS that spends its RAM on your actual site. Decide based on how many people need a login and how much email you host, not on habit.
Keep it patched
A panel is a privileged web application listening on the public internet, so treat updates as non-negotiable. WHM updates itself nightly by default; leave that on. Restrict WHM and cPanel logins to your own IPs in the host firewall if your team's addresses are stable, keep SSH key-only, and review the accounts list occasionally for anything you no longer host. A patched panel on a boring schedule is a safe panel.
