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To run cPanel and WHMCS on a VPS, start from a fresh AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or Ubuntu server, run cPanel’s official installer as root, activate your cPanel license in WHM, then upload WHMCS to a cPanel account and run its web installer. Both products are commercial and need their own licenses. cPanel/WHM manages websites, email and databases. WHMCS adds billing, support tickets and automatic account creation on top of it. The steps below use a FlashRDP Linux VPS.

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What you need before starting

  • A fresh FlashRDP Linux VPS on an OS that cPanel supports, such as AlmaLinux 9 or Rocky Linux 9. cPanel also supports some Ubuntu LTS releases but not Debian; check the current list in cPanel’s system requirements. SILVER (8 GB RAM) or above leaves room for client sites.
  • A fully qualified hostname for the server, for example server.yourdomain.com, with an A record pointing to the server’s IP.
  • A cPanel license from cPanel and a WHMCS license from WHMCS. Check the vendors’ sites for current prices.
Plan to sell hosting to your own customers from this server? FlashRDP’s Acceptable Use Policy restricts reselling or sub-letting servers without written agreement. If you’re not sure whether your setup is covered, ask the Presale Desk in a ticket before you deploy.

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Step 1: Install cPanel/WHM

Log in via SSH as root and run the official installer. It takes roughly 15 to 60 minutes:
When it finishes, open https://YOUR_SERVER_IP:2087, log in as root, and follow the setup wizard to accept the license terms, set nameservers and activate your license.
cPanel includes a mail server, but outgoing port 25 is blocked by default on FlashRDP servers. To send mail directly, open a ticket with a short business justification and set reverse DNS for your hostname. See Set Up Your Own Mail Server.

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Step 2: Create an account for WHMCS

  1. In WHM, open Create a New Account.
  2. Create an account for the domain WHMCS will use, for example billing.yourdomain.com.
  3. Assign a package that allows at least one MySQL database.
  4. WHMCS needs the ionCube Loader PHP extension and a PHP version it supports. Enable ionCube for that PHP version in WHM (EasyApache 4 or the MultiPHP tools) and check the WHMCS system requirements.

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Step 3: Install WHMCS

  1. Download the latest WHMCS release from your WHMCS client area.
  2. Log in to the new cPanel account at https://YOUR_SERVER_IP:2083.
  3. In File Manager, upload the WHMCS .zip to public_html and extract it.
  4. Rename configuration.php.new to configuration.php.
  5. In MySQL Databases, create a database and a user, add the user to the database with all privileges, and save the password somewhere safe.
  6. Open https://billing.yourdomain.com/install/ in your browser and complete the installer.
  7. When the installer finishes, delete the install folder and set up the WHMCS cron job as the installer instructs.
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Last modified on October 16, 2026