Long time no see. After several delays, AcePanel 3.0 finally completed development in early 2026. After about 3 weeks of internal testing, it is finally time to release it.
Upgraded to the New Brand Name AcePanel
AcePanel was formerly known as Haozi Panel, a server operation and maintenance management panel developed by me at the end of 2022.
The most common feedback we received was that the name Haozi Panel was not pleasant, so we have now changed to a more upscale and elegant name - AcePanel. You can also call it Ace Panel / Aisi Panel.
New official website: https://acepanel.net (still under revision, currently provides basic documentation)
Below this point, AcePanel refers to AcePanel 3.0 in this article.
Supported Runtime Environments & Project Management
The biggest update in AcePanel this time is the addition of runtime environment functions, supporting one-click installation and management of runtime environments such as Go, Java, Node.js, PHP, and Python, with support for multiple versions to coexist simultaneously.
Meanwhile, AcePanel has completely developed a new project management function based on the powerful capabilities of Linux systemd, supporting one-click creation and management of various Web projects and resident programs using the installed runtime environments, which can serve as a direct replacement for tools such as PM2 and Supervisor.
Reconstructed Website Management
AcePanel has also reconstructed the website management function, reorganizing the website directory structure, supporting three types of websites: reverse proxy, pure static, and PHP, and adding multiple commonly used configurations and custom functions.
The new website directory structure allows flexible addition of various custom configurations with low risk of conflicts.
Optimized App Center
AcePanel has officially launched the long-awaited container orchestration template function, supporting one-click deployment of common programs such as WordPress, Nextcloud, and GitLab.
(Need a program that is not listed? Welcome to submit a PR to the AcePanel template library, details at the end of the article)
AcePanel has added Nginx, MySQL, and MariaDB to the original OpenResty and Percona, while optimizing the installation process of many applications to improve installation speed. Specifically, pre-built installation packages are provided for commonly used Percona/MySQL/MariaDB systems to greatly improve installation speed and success rate.
(Testing shows that MySQL can usually be installed in under 2 minutes)
Optimized Backup Feature
AcePanel has optimized the backup function, adding backup storage settings, supporting adding common remote storage such as S3 and SFTP.
(You may ask why there is no OSS or COS? This is because OSS, COS, etc. all provide S3-compatible interfaces and can be directly configured using S3, so there is no need to introduce additional dependencies or develop separate support for them.)
Brand New Panel Assistant
AcePanel has rewritten the original shell script-based installer using the Go language. The new panel assistant fully supports interactive installation and multi-language, providing a better, more modern user experience.
Usage Optimizations
AcePanel has fully optimized the file management function, restoring the operating experience similar to Windows File Explorer (supports shortcut key operations).
A brand new file editor developed based on Monaco, which can be used both as an editor and an online IDE (also supports shortcut key operations).
The Toolbox has been comprehensively upgraded: process management supports right-click operations, and SSH service management, disk management, log cleaning, and Webhooks have been added.
The scheduled task cycle selector has been rewritten to provide a more user-friendly interactive experience.
Other Optimizations
- Support for applying for Let’s Encrypt IP certificates using ACME
- Customizable entry error pages
- Automatic CAPTCHA enablement on login
- Long-term saving support for custom Logo and hidden menu settings
- Added operation log recording and viewing functions
- Added ACME ARI support for certificate management
- Full localization of icons, no longer dependent on external CDN
- Added Stream (four-layer proxy) support for Nginx/OpenResty
- Added support for PHP 8.5
- Added basic support for Apache Web Server
- Added support for LiteSSL certificates
- Real-time progress display for container and orchestration creation and startup
- One-click terminal access for containers
- Resource monitoring supports custom time ranges and network interface or disk selection
- Drag-and-drop sorting for homepage applications
- File management supports chunked upload of large files
- Double-click extraction of compressed packages in file management
- Applications, runtime environments, and container templates support category filtering
- Private key login support for SSH terminals
- System Toolbox - DNS adapted to modern network management methods
- Visually modify basic Docker settings
- One-click terminal access for database server lists
- Added 5-second countdown confirmation for certain deletion operations
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the issue where the panel automatically logged out after 120 minutes of login inactivity
- Fixed the issue where panel container functions could not be used with Docker 29+ versions
- Fixed the occasional ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error on the panel
- Fixed resource leakage issues in panel Websocket sessions
- Fixed the issue where firewall port allowances did not take effect in some cases
- Fixed the issue where setting the default CLI version for PHP did not work
- Fixed incorrect newline character writing for rsync secrets
- Fixed fail2ban IPv6 address display and unban issues
- Fixed other known issues
Compatibility Changes
Given that new generation trusted IT innovation operating systems such as openEuler, Alibaba Cloud Linux 4, and Anolis 23 have completely overhauled their software sources, making adaptation extremely difficult, AcePanel 3.0 has decided to discontinue support for these three distributions. It is recommended to switch to AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux. If you must use a trusted IT innovation operating system, consider OpenCloudOS 9 or TencentOS Server 4.
Starting from AcePanel 3.0, support for RHEL 8-based systems with 4.x kernels (AlmaLinux 8/Rocky Linux 8) will no longer be provided. Please upgrade to 9.x/10.x versions for use.
Additionally, to support pre-built installation packages and solve the widely criticized slow MySQL compilation issue, AcePanel has changed the default installation directory to /opt/ace and no longer allows customization (the impact is expected to be minimal; you can still mount data disks before installation).
About Old Version Upgrade & Maintenance
We plan to launch a script to upgrade legacy Haozi Panel 2.x to AcePanel 3.0 after AcePanel 3.0 stabilizes. Given the significant changes, a seamless upgrade is not expected. Please stay tuned for updates.
Legacy Haozi Panel 2.x will continue to receive security updates for a period of time (expected until the end of 2026). You can arrange an upgrade time during this period.
Open Source License Change
The new version of AcePanel will use the more permissive BSD-3 open source license, hoping that more developers will participate in the future to build a better server management panel together.
The current projects you can contribute to are as follows:
- AcePanel Main Program (please star)
- AcePanel Installer
- AcePanel Container Template Library
- AcePanel Documentation
- AcePanel Translation
Don’t know how to code? That’s okay! You are welcome to publish articles about building various services with AcePanel and exploring different use cases to help promote AcePanel.
Closing Remarks
I wrote this article at 4 a.m. This project just celebrated its 3rd anniversary last month. When I wrote the first line of code, I knew nothing about Go, but now I am referred to as an expert by some people.
AcePanel is my youth, and I hope to perfect it without any regrets, which is why I have refactored it several times. I apologize if this has affected your usage. Now I am getting older, and busy with work and daily chores, so I may not have the energy to tinker with further refactoring in the future.
AI in 2026 is already very powerful. A large amount of complex interactive logic in the new version of AcePanel was developed with the assistance of Claude Opus 4.5. I admit that with my current level, it is difficult to write such polished interactions. Maybe in the future, we will no longer need panels, but just tell AI directly: “Help me install Nginx; Help me create xxx project”. Who knows?
Finally, thank you to the sponsors Weixiaoduo and Lin Fengyun, as well as all internal testing users who participated in AcePanel testing. AcePanel would not have been released on time without your help.
Here is the installation command for the new version of AcePanel. Welcome to test and experience it:
bash <(curl -sSLm 10 https://dl.acepanel.net/helper.sh)
