Adding an SSL certificate to your panel

What you'll learn: how to add a free SSL certificate so your panel uses HTTPS, which keeps logins safe.

Why this matters

Without HTTPS, your username and password travel across the internet in plain text. That's not safe. The good news is SSL certificates are free, and adding one takes about a minute.

Before you start

You'll need:

MaxPanel installed on your server (see Installing MaxPanel on your server)
A domain name pointed at your server (for example panel.yourbusiness.com → your server's IP)
SSH access to your server

Step 1 — Log in to your server

ssh root@your-server-ip

Step 2 — Install certbot

Certbot is the free tool we'll use to get the certificate.

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Step 3 — Request your certificate

certbot --nginx -d panel.yourbusiness.com

Replace panel.yourbusiness.com with your actual panel domain.

You'll be asked:

Your email address — for renewal reminders
To agree to terms — type y
Whether to share your email with EFF — your choice
Whether to redirect HTTP to HTTPS — pick redirect (option 2)

After a few seconds, you'll see a success message.

Step 4 — Visit your panel

Open https://panel.yourbusiness.com in a browser. You should see the lock icon in the address bar — that's your panel safely served over HTTPS.

Renewals

Certbot installs a scheduled task that automatically renews your certificate before it expires. You don't need to do anything — it just works.

If something goes wrong

"Could not find a vhost" — your panel domain isn't set up in nginx yet. Make sure MaxPanel finished installing.
"DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up A" — your domain isn't pointing at this server, or the change hasn't spread yet. Wait 10 minutes and try again.
"Too many requests" — Let's Encrypt limits how many certificates you can request per week. If you hit this, wait an hour and try again.

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Need help? Contact support.