1Panel vs Sandstorm
| Tagline | Modern Linux server and web-app management panel with app store deploys | Personal server platform for running self-hosted web apps with strong sandboxing |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Render | Heroku, Render, Netlify |
| GitHub stars | 36k | 7k |
| Language | Go | C++ |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
1Panel
- More of a server/hosting control panel than a git-push PaaS; no native buildpack or git-deploy pipeline.
- No horizontal autoscaling or clustering across nodes.
- Documentation and community are strongest in Chinese; English resources lag.
- No managed cloud option or edge/CDN.
Sandstorm
- App ecosystem is very small; most popular self-hosted apps are not packaged for Sandstorm
- Project has limited active development; community and update cadence have slowed significantly
- No Docker support; apps must be specially packaged in Sandstorm's proprietary SPK format
- No horizontal scaling, load balancing, or modern cloud-native deployment patterns
Bottom line
Choose 1Panel if you want the lower-effort setup; choose 1Panel for the larger community and ecosystem. 1Panel has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Sandstorm
Personal server platform for running self-hosted web apps with strong sandboxing